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I was walking my route at work on Tuesday, when I saw what looked like a montauk 17' being towed down to the water, the car was approaching a red light, when another car on a side street pulled out unexpectedly in front of him, not too big a problem, as the driver slowed to a stop, I noticed that the break lights on his trailer were not working, I kind of jogged up to "Whaler" to grab a look at the boat, and in horror, I watched as a "tractor trailer" came skidding to a stop right behind the "Whaler" (TOO CLOSE FOR ME), the guy towing the boat had eyes the size of hub caps in the rear view mirror. This got me thinking about MY trailer lights that don't work, I only use the trailer twice a year. I tried hooking up my trailer lights ( I traced everything carefully but, they just did everything opposite of what they are supposed to do). I found out that the newer cars ('96 and newer I think), have the new tail light signal (yellow, not red anymore) seperate from the red tail light (that used to be used as a turn signal), I used to pull the boat with a Chevy "Celebrity" that used part of the red lens assembly as the turn signal too, I bought a conversion plug, that adapts the new light system to the old light trailer system (used red lens as the turn signal), I have my test light, etc.... My question is: I can re-wire a boat but, I have never done trailer lights, is there anything I should know ? Should I attempt this or get it professionally done ? Thanks for any input !
mw

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MW,

I read this and smile...:p This is probably the most ignored item on my boating list, maybe for others too. If you can do the boating wires then no prob with the trailer. I have not done one in long time but about to on my existing trailer as well. Right now I have black tape and wire nuts piecing it together.. The biggest challenge will be routing the wires in the channels. I will use the old wire to pull them through. Use the old wiring as a guide and have every thing you will need before you start. Draw out the wiring on a scratch pad. The new wire will probably come as one piece ribbon, you will need to separate the strands for the length of the trailer. If I recall I started from the front worked backwards.

Will take a little time but in the long run I would actually save time because every season when I am ready to launch first time, or go on a trip, last check... are lights working? Of course they are NOT F&%$ing working... and I will spend 20 minute or more figuring where the break in the wires is or what is corroded. Happens every year and part of the ritual :D

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Lights are important, and like Jon my lights are last on the list if that. I've never had working lights and for that matter I've never had a registered trailer... oooops. Still running around with a VT plate from 1989, I live in ME.

I always notice when following someone with a trailer if their lights function or not, if they dont I always have a few choice words for them (in my head) as they slow for a turn or a stop sign - guess this makes me a hypocrite.

Seems its time to spend the $25 on lights, but registrations another thing....

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Pick up a decent trailer light kit and replace all the wiring and connectors and you'll be good to go for a number of years! They're short money and beat messing with the old harness to find shorts or open connections. Using the old harness to pull the new one as Jon suggests is key and really speeds up the job. The thing to pay attention to is the grounding at both lights and the front hitch as the trailer frame is used as the return circuit (not sure why as it's the weak link and running one more wire in the harness would solve, but I'm sure it's a bean counter thing). Here I recommend picking up the Ancor crimp/heat shrink connectors as you know the lights and connectors are going to get wet. A little time and effort now will give you worry free lignting for years to come!

Dave

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T/Y for the help, actually the trailer wiring is in good shape, it's where I have to wire into the car's harness wiring, to the trailer harness, then hook up. I did notice a ground wire from the hitch to the trailer broken off but, I thought the ground was in the harness (thanx "D"), I also bought one of those test plugs to check the system once I wire into the car, and the qwik connect splicers, my previous method was to have mrs "MW" follow me in another car (scary too) to prevent any rear end collisions for the few miles to the splash point for the season. Thanks again.
mw

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Aaah, I see your point now... I did one of the separate amber blinker cars a few years back. I had to buy a little rectangular box that converted the separate brake and blinker signals from the car into one output for the trailer. Is that what you meant by conversion plug? It's not that difficult and as Jon says, if you can wire a boat, you can do this easily. If you have a test light or meter, hook one side to a good ground in the car, and hook the other end to a sewing needle or pin, turn on the directional (or whatever you're wiring at the time) and use the needle to pierce the insulation into the wire you think it is to make sure you have the correct one before making the connection.

Another neat trick is to use a car battery charger (if you have one) to test the trailer wiring and make sure the lights all work. You can use a small piece of solid copper wire bent in a check mark shape to slide into the female on the trailer connector and hook it to the negative on the charger, and then connect the positive from the charger to one male prong at a time, one lights the right brake, one the left, and the third lights the parking lights on the trailer. Any decent 12 v automotive battery charger will have enough power to light the lights. Done it many times, works great.

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At age 13, my first trip to Matagorda Island to duck hunt was delayed for 5 hours while my mentor piddled with the trailer lights. Since then, I have owned 8 boats over the years and the first thing I did to every one of them was rewire the trailer with all new wiring/lights. If you have problems adapting it to your tow vehicle, save yourself a LOT of headaches and take it to your local trusted trailer mfg/dealer and have them adapt the harness to your vehicle. Just pay the money, smile and get on the water. It will save you hours of grief. I can also highly recommend LED lights. Don't ever change another bulb or wire brush the receptacle. I just bought a complete harness, lights and shrink wrap last week for $45. The regular lights cost about $20 less. Use solderless connectors (there are only 4 of them), shrink wrap the connection and apply liquid electrical tape. It will last for years. Go with the LED's !!

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I have a battery charger, I think I'll make an attempt to try it myself, you guy's gave me enough "Confidence" to try it, If I start screwing up, I'll bail out and have it professionally done, thanks for the "TIP'S", as always, valuable free information right here on "W/C", Thank's again !

mw

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Thanks for everyones help, the trailer lights are working (For the most part), I have brake & Turn signals on both, the trailer "tailights" (headlights "ON") only work on one side "left", I don't plan on trailering at night but, I so wanted to conquer this, it was mentally exhausting, not easy (The problem was determening in this rubber "OOZE" that the car manufacturer used to hold the modular plugs together, what was the harness coming in ? and which one was the splitter/jumper lines to the other light on the car ? I pretty much straightened everything out with the test light). I now have a "check engine" light on, I tried clearing the memory in the computer by removing the NEG. side of the battery for a few minutes, N/G.. the battery died 2x on me while working. it may have been cause I had the ignition on for too long, and the day time running lights were "ON". I have the car running o.k., so i'll just go to my friend's shop to have the "check engine light" cleared. I also had Ground problems with trailer, I repaired the eye that bolts to the trailer ground (white), it was particularly annoying to get the empty trailer to ground on the hitch, I bought the "test plug" for the trailer and everything checks out o.k. on the "L.E.D" display on the test plug ""Tail", "RT." "LFT." so everything is good up to there, Then I hooked up, I checked the trailer lights and all checked out, then the car would'nt start, battery dead...jumped it..seems o.k. everything works but, the right "Tail light" when the day light driving lights are on (I pulled the hand brake to disable the day time driving lights "one click up") ALL works, I put the headlights on and the Rt. "Tail light" for headlights did not work, "Headlights on" but, the same light works with "Brakes" and "turn signals" with the headlights on, it just does not register the "Tail light" for "headlights on" or "Tail Light" for daytime running lights on, all trailer lights work normally with the head lights, and day time running lights "OFF" ????? I can live with this but, I don't want to give up ! I just may have to though, I spent all day on this. i was thinking since everything checks out O.K on the "L.E.D." test plug, I should just get a set of those $20.00 tail light kits from Wal-Mart, and just put them on a 2"x4" and hang it off the transome when trailering, It brings the brake lights up higher, so they are easier to see, just a thought.
mw

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Congrat's on getting the car wiring done successfully! For the trailer lights, keep in mind that there are 2 filaments in each brake bulb. One filament lights up for both the brake AND directional functions (that's the brighter one), and the other filament lights for ONLY the tail light function (that's the dimmer one). So from what you describe, it sounds like it may just be a bad bulb (working bright filament, bad dim filament) as you get no tail light on the right side under any conditions? You're almost there, great tenacity!