This Old Trailer: Repairing a Trailer Light Wiring Problem- Video

Today on This Old Trailer, we are going to fix some lighting problems. Now what is happening on this trailer is that one side of the taillights is not working at all and the passenger side sometimes works and sometimes does not. So the first thing we need to do is go ahead and check to make sure we have power going all of the way back. That means we will start from the front and check our way on to the back. The first thing we need to do is go ahead and apply power. We are going to start checking our power from the plug on back. What we are going to do is actually take out the screw that holds the connector together. We are going to push it inside then we are going to pull it apart. Then we can see the contacts on the inside. We are going to turn on the running lights and we are going to hit the brakes for the taillights themselves. So, we should have three wires hot. We will go ahead and check that. It looks like we have power for a second here and it went away. We will try the other two. It looks like the same thing. So it looks like we are dealing with some multiple shorts. So we know it is something definitely on the trailer at this point. So we will go ahead and go back to the taillight and start doing a visual inspection. 0:57 more

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3/7/2011 6:59:25 AM

This Old Trailer: Wiring Trailer Tail Lights- Video

In this edition of “This Old Trailer” we are going to wire up the lights on this trailer. Previously we had hooked up electric brakes and you can see, right now we have the junction box installed on there and we have wires ran for electric brakes. We have nothing for the actual tail lights themselves. That is what we are going to start on today. :30 more

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2/22/2010 3:46:36 PM

This Old Trailer: Troubleshooting the Full Ground Wire- Video

We have demonstrated all of these fixes checking the ground on the trailer. The trailer itself is actually used as a ground obviously. Now there is some cases where you boat trailer guys and some small utility trailers out there, the ground is actually carried in a separate wire that lowers the trailer frame completely. The same tricks apply to check and make sure your light is working. Again the connection to the light could be bad or it could be actually a smashed wire underneath the frame of the trailer or also up front where you have got a little bit of road rash dragging the ground. We will go ahead and show you next an example of that type of wiring on a different trailer. 01:04 more

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11/23/2009 3:23:18 AM

This Old Trailer: Troubleshooting the Ground Wire- Video

The first thing you want to do when you first start working on electrical problems is you want to divide and conquer. You have two parts here, the truck and the trailer. You want to verify which one actually has the problem. Chances are it is going to be on the trailer, but then again you still want to check the truck too. So use a separate light tester, hook a ground not to the frame but to the 4-pull ground itself because this is what is going to carry the ground to the trailer. :52 more

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10/29/2009 9:01:04 AM

Wiring Trailer Lights Review- Video

Today were going to talk about a problem that comes up in our e-mails sometimes, how to wire these lights up. A lot of people wonder how to the wires into this light fixture. Some people think there is a plug missing when actually there is not and well show you how to work that. As you can see here the back of the light is labeled for what wire goes to what you have green for the right turn signal and brown for the running lights, on the other side it would be yellow for the left turn. However since were using this one light we do not have to worry about that. Just take you wire and strip it back to anywhere from 3/8 to 1/2 an inch, it does not take much. Give it a good twist because that makes the wire stronger as it goes in. Now the brown wire to about a half inch or so, not that much. Then what well do is you simply just take it and it does not matter which hole you use as long as the green wire stays on this side of the bar. more

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8/7/2008 7:20:58 AM

Trailer Wiring and Light Replacement Demonstration- Video

Today were going to be replacing the wiring on this trailer. We will be replacing a 4 pole flat, as you can tell this one is pretty beat up and worn, so it has to be replaced. We are going to cut this wire off and we are going to replace this brown wire also. We are going to cut this loose and pull the rest of our wire through, on this trailer here it is pretty open so we can reach the wiring. Just in case though, if your wiring was run in conduit and you are replacing it, do not pull all of this out yet. We will actually tie on the new wires and use these wires to pull them through. We are going to cut off all of this old wire here, and we are going to take off this old light too. I would like to point something out on this 4 pole flat, you will notice there are actually 5 wires coming out of it. What is happening is on the inside of this pin, which is for the running lights, has two wires coming out. more

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7/22/2008 10:59:26 PM

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