[BanditFlyer]

I just recently bought a trailer kit. It's one of those that you have to assemble yourself. I got it mostly assembled and got the lights hooked up. That's when the problem surfaced. I tested the lights by hooking them up to a truck that I had towed other trailers with before. Everything worked fine until I turned on the headlights. When I turned on the blinkers, brakes, and hazard lights, the lights lit up just fine, but then when I turned on the headlights, the lights stopped working. They turned off. No more blinking for turn signals, hazard lights or brakes. But then when I turned off the headlights again, the turn signals, hazard lights, and brake lights worked on the trailer.

Any ideas? Has anyone seen something similar before?

I'm not exactly an electrician, so make sure you enunciate and spell everything out really, really slowly.

[Guyzer]

You have a wire crossed somewhere and me not being there ain't gunna help. It shouldn't be a tough one to resolve because the wires are all color coded. If I'm correct you should have a yellow, green, brown and white wire. I can't remember what colors are coming out of the fixtures. Fill me in. Also, make sure you have a good ground as that's very important.

[Guyzer]

I just googled and found this........ scroll down to the bottom and you will see a nice color diagram of a 4 way set-up. Follow that and you'll have it whipped.
http://www.easternmarine.com/em_store/lighting/

[BanditFlyer]

Originally Posted by Guyzer

I just googled and found this........ scroll down to the bottom and you will see a nice color diagram of a 4 way set-up. Follow that and you'll have it whipped.
http://www.easternmarine.com/em_store/lighting/

Very cool!

I'm taking a look at it now. My connector seems to have five cables coming out of it - two brown, one yellow, one green and the white ground wire.

From that diagram, it looks like the side marker lights up front should be connected to the brown cables. I don't think my instruction manual had it set up like that - I think mine had me connect the side markers to the yellow and green ones. Which is probably why they worked like turn signals.

Hopefully, connecting the side markers to the brown wires will fix it.

[Guyzer]

Originally Posted by BanditFlyer

Very cool!

I'm taking a look at it now. My connector seems to have five cables coming out of it - two brown, one yellow, one green and the white ground wire.

From that diagram, it looks like the side marker lights up front should be connected to the brown cables. I don't think my instruction manual had it set up like that - I think mine had me connect the side markers to the yellow and green ones. Which is probably why they worked like turn signals.

Hopefully, connecting the side markers to the brown wires will fix it.

The brown wires are for all marker / tail / license plate lights. The green ( right ) and yellow ( left ) are for your stop & turn signals. The white is always the ground. What I do for the ground on the trailer is get a sheet metal screw, drill a hole in the frame and attach the wire around the screw, then tighten into frame. I usually use a electrical connector and solder the wire into the connector, then insert the screw. That stops the wire from breaking off... remember the ground is one of the most neglected connections that can cause no end of grief if done in a half hazard manner. Also ensure no wires are able to rub against a sharp edge of the frame. The road vibration will cut through it like a hot knife in butter.

Click the link... I usually use one like the second from the top on the left. The sheet metal screw would be about 5/32" in diam.... whatever that gauge would be.
http://happyterminals.com/index.php?...jr20tpbfkf2da4

TIP... once you get it all working correctly I suggest you solder all connections and seal with heat shrink tubing. It takes more time but will be worth the effort in the long run. There's nothing worse that having problems on the road.

Let me know how you make out.

[BanditFlyer]

Originally Posted by Guyzer

Let me know how you make out.

Will do.

[JohnWill]

If you have a trailer with combined brake/turn lamps and a truck with separate ones, or the other way around, there's a little module to do the conversion. Basically, it's a bunch of diodes, but it's easier to just buy one. That may be the issue here.

[BanditFlyer]

Originally Posted by JohnWill

If you have a trailer with combined brake/turn lamps and a truck with separate ones, or the other way around, there's a little module to do the conversion. Basically, it's a bunch of diodes, but it's easier to just buy one. That may be the issue here.

I'll be taking a closer look later on today, hopefully, and post back with more info. Hopefully, just connecting the brown wires to the side-marker lights will be enough to solve the problem(right now, I think I have the yellow and green wires connected there, as per the instructions).

Out of curiosity, anyone have any info on the topic in general? Like a good website to go to for electronics, or electrician-type stuff or whatever larger category this would fall into?

[Guyzer]

Um....... stupid question but what more do you need to know other than what the diagram shows?

[BanditFlyer]

I don't (or at least, shouldn't) need to know any more than that to get the job done. I'm only interested out of curiosity, since I've never done stuff like this(wiring and such) before. I don't even know what broader category the topic falls into - electronics? Electrician-stuff? I don't even know the right name for it. So, naturally, I'm curious to learn more.

[Guyzer]

Got it. You might find more if you Google trailer wiring. That's where I got my link from. It's fairly basic stuff though, unless you get into the 7 way stuff which is a bit more in-depth. Then there's the issue Johnwill raised.

[JohnWill]

http://www.accessconnect.com/trailer_wiring_diagram.htm

http://www.easternmarine.com/em_stor...ight_tech.html

And here's a whole site on all sorts of different wiring configurations.

http://rides.webshots.com/album/428683237MDvYEN

[BanditFlyer]

Here's an update on what I did today:

I connected the yellow and green wires to the front marker lights, and scraped some paint off the spot where the ground wire screws into a "self-tapping screw". The way I had it before was the way the instructions wanted me to set it up, but that didn't work, so I changed it. The way the instructions had me do it was to connect the front two lights to the brown wires. That didn't work yesterday so today, I connected the front two lights to the yellow and green wires.

Here's what happened. The front lights no longer worked as turn signals, but all the lights still stopped working when I turned the vehicle headlights on.

[wacor]

Bandit,

If I missed it I apologize but what is the year, make and model of the vehicle you are wiring up to?

If this is a newer vehicle I am wondering if you need to get a specific wiring harness that connects into the a plug at one of the rear light connections?

[BanditFlyer]

Originally Posted by wacor

Bandit,

If I missed it I apologize but what is the year, make and model of the vehicle you are wiring up to?

If this is a newer vehicle I am wondering if you need to get a specific wiring harness that connects into the a plug at one of the rear light connections?

2003 Nissan Frontier pickup. I got the plug that connects to a connector before the rear lights, and I have hooked up the car to other trailers and it works no problem. That's why I was thinking there's something wrong with the trailer wiring(or maybe one or more of the trailer lights).