Why Would Trailer Lighting Work on One Vehicle But Not Another

Question:

I had a hitch and the wiring professionally installed last summer on my 2012 Ford Escape. Towed a few things, everything was A-Okay. Just last weekend, I bought a used utility trailer. When picking it up, after hooking to my Escape, none of the trailer lights worked. To double check things, the seller backed up his pickup truck and hooked that up, and the trailer lit up like Hong Kong when plugged into his vehicle. So the issues seemed to be with just my vehicle wiring, right? Anyway we plugged it into my Escape, drove it home, with no lights working on the trailer. I noticed about half-way home in my mirror that the left trailer light had come on at some point. Hope! Curious I turned on my left blinker, thinking this could just kick everything into gear. Nope. The left trailer light turned off abruptly. No trailer lights have come on since. Im really a newbie, have limited experience and tools with electronics and wiring. I googled some stuff but dont know where to start. Any advice on what I can check on my vehicle? The only thing I can think of that happened to my vehicle is I had a new battery put in before a long road trip over the winter. This was done professionally by a Valvoline instant oil change. I included a stock picture of the type of harness I have. I can take some specific pictures if that would help. Everything looks normal to me when plugged in. Thanks in advance!

asked by: Scott

Expert Reply:

Sounds like your trailer draws more amperage than your tow vehicle is able to supply the trailer with based on you stating that the trailer lit up "like Hong Kong," and the fact the lighting worked until you applied a circuit that draws a bit more amperage.

Typically for this situation the best solution is to replace as many of the trailer's lights with LED style lights since they draw considerably less amperage.

I attached a link to a page that has all of the LED trailer lights we offer as well.

expert reply by: Jameson C