- Location
- Grantsville, Utah
I vote with Carl, again.
"Wingin' it" 4x6-ish Trailer Thread
- Thread starter nnnnnate
- Start date
Carl-fab hooked me up with some brackets and zip tie tabs that I was able to get installed last night. I've gotta say that the zip tie tabs were pretty darn slick and worked perfect to tie the wires up high to try and protect them. It took me a few minutes to figure out why the lights weren't working after I wired them up (they had worked when I tested them before starting the install) but I found that if I bundled the white wire with the brown on each side they worked. Brakes and flashers both work so I guess that is good enough.
While I was working on this I kept thinking back to growing up and how it seemed like my dad had to spend at least an hour before every trip working on the camp trailer/boat/whatever tow lights. Sometimes it took much longer and he'd re-wire the car or whatever it was that we were towing. I hope my install was good enough that it'll work for a while.
Anyway, the trailer is ready for Cruise Moab next week and hopefully another great camping season.
While I was working on this I kept thinking back to growing up and how it seemed like my dad had to spend at least an hour before every trip working on the camp trailer/boat/whatever tow lights. Sometimes it took much longer and he'd re-wire the car or whatever it was that we were towing. I hope my install was good enough that it'll work for a while.
Anyway, the trailer is ready for Cruise Moab next week and hopefully another great camping season.
I'm a little confused on what you have going on with the wiring. What exactly do you mean by "bundle the white with brown"? Are you connecting those two together?
The usual color scheme for a 4-wire setup has white as the ground wire, brown as the dim/low/marker light wire, and yellow/green as the high power/bright/brake input for left and right.
The usual color scheme for a 4-wire setup has white as the ground wire, brown as the dim/low/marker light wire, and yellow/green as the high power/bright/brake input for left and right.
So the lights had a white, brown, and either yellow or green wire depending on side. The main wire run from the front plug to the lights only had a white wire that was 2' long and the rest of the wires were split by side (brown/yellow and brown/green.)
When I first wired the lights up to test I had just the brown/brown and yellow/yellow connected from the harness to the light and the lights didn't illuminate. I had the white wire wrapped around the mounting bolt on the light. When I added the white wire from the light to the brown/brown wirenut the lights illuminated.
My magnet mounted lights had a white wire running all the way from the plug back to the lights so I wasn't exactly sure how to connect things and the lights I bought didn't have any documentation.
When I first wired the lights up to test I had just the brown/brown and yellow/yellow connected from the harness to the light and the lights didn't illuminate. I had the white wire wrapped around the mounting bolt on the light. When I added the white wire from the light to the brown/brown wirenut the lights illuminated.
My magnet mounted lights had a white wire running all the way from the plug back to the lights so I wasn't exactly sure how to connect things and the lights I bought didn't have any documentation.
The white wire coming from the plug would need to be connected to your trailer up front somewhere, then the white wire at each light could be connected to the trailer and it should all work. You'd be grounding everything through the trailer itself. The fact that they're working at all with the white/brown connected means you're somehow completing the circuit through the brown wires.
Do your marker lights work, or just the brake/turn lights?
Do your marker lights work, or just the brake/turn lights?
- Location
- West Jordan
My personal choice would be to run a ground wire for each side - extend the white wire all the way back to each light. Not quite as easy as using the trailer chassis as a ground, but less likely (if properly connected and sealed) to cause issues in the future.
I'm certain that the intent of the original 2' white wire from the front plug is to just be grounded/connected to the trailer chassis, and then you ground each light fixture via the light mount on the trailer chassis. If you do things this way, you need to make sure you have good clean (paint free) ground points.
From your description of how it is wired now, I'm not even sure how you got it to work at all...?
I'm certain that the intent of the original 2' white wire from the front plug is to just be grounded/connected to the trailer chassis, and then you ground each light fixture via the light mount on the trailer chassis. If you do things this way, you need to make sure you have good clean (paint free) ground points.
From your description of how it is wired now, I'm not even sure how you got it to work at all...?
I guess that makes sense. I'm not sure if the white wire extends from the plug far enough to get to a good mount point on the tongue but I can extend it. So since I painted those light brackets I'll need to scrape some of that off so the bolt can get a good connection with the frame. I didn't notice whether the marker lights were working assuming you're talking about the ones on the rear lights. The kit came with separate amber markers but I didn't install them.
Edit: thanks for confirming some of my thoughts Bryson. The ground to frame is going to have to work for this next trip since I don't have a ton of time and the wiring is all bundled up nice and tight but I do want to solder the wires together in place of the wire nuts and can look at running a constant ground all the way to the back lights then.
Edit: thanks for confirming some of my thoughts Bryson. The ground to frame is going to have to work for this next trip since I don't have a ton of time and the wiring is all bundled up nice and tight but I do want to solder the wires together in place of the wire nuts and can look at running a constant ground all the way to the back lights then.
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I guess I should have said "tail lights" rather than "marker". I'm talking about the low-beam side.
- Location
- West Jordan
If you want, just get this sucker down to the Swell on Tuesday and I'll help you sort it out. Shouldn't take long at all.
I should be able to get it frame grounded, I just don't think I have the time to run a wire from the front to back and bundle it up in the split loom like I have things now. Its so pretty.