Troubleshooting a Weak Ground Issue on a Tent Trailer  

Hello, I have an older tent trailer. I have used it for a number of years, but seem to have an issue at the start of each year with the lights, and to be honest I couldnt even recall what fixed them as things just seem funny. By the end of my messing around trying to get it to work last year, I plugged the connector into my truck and found that the left signal and brake lights on trailer worked fine but the right ones were extremely faint. I ended up taking a wire with alligator clips on each end and connecting the white ground from the right lights to the trailer frame. It did work, but never as bright as the right side and I really had to work the ground connection to get success. This year I pulled the trailer from storage and plugged it into the van which I did not use last year but I have used before. I was very surprised that the right side trailer lights worked OK but the left not at all I had no trouble with the left side whatsoever last year. after trouble-shooting the bulbs, etc. I decided to try it with the truck and what I did the left side worked perfect and the right side not at all! When I scraped hard with the ground connector on the right I could get it to work but never more than very faintly. To recap: have general weak ground issues on right side of trailer when plugged into truck, left light on trailer works perfectly, right side generally not at all but can get faint signal if work the ground hard. When plugged into trailer, right side works quite well subject to grounding but left side not at all. One more thing - a few years ago my neighbour and I were trouble-shooting and had funny things going on that led us to believe the truck wasnt wired right but in the end it was and something on the trailer was the problem. My point is that I have seen weird things and am reluctant to think the wiring on either vehicle except perhaps a grounding problem are to blame. Any help would be appreciated. Want to take the family to one of the most beautiful places in the world Jasper, AB in a few days, and would like to have the trailer working!

asked by: Ryan