I bought a trailer to haul the Hijet and for other jobs. It came without any lights although there are mounting brackets. I bought a universal wiring kit and have installed it. But in testing the lights I discovered that when the brake on my truck is applied (using a piece of wood pressed against the pedal), the trailer lights go out. I can get the tails lights to be on when the truck lights are on, and I can get the turn signals and emergency flashers to work properly, but no brake lights. There are four wires coming from the wiring harness that attaches to the truck, two wires for the left, and two for the right. The wire recepticals at the back of the lights are marked tail on one side and stop/turn on the other. But there are four recepticals on each light, divided into two pairs. So I have two wires coming from the truck on each side but four recepticals on the light. I have tried a number of the various combinations but I cannot get the brake light function to work. I considered running a splice wire from each makin wire so that all four recepticals are used, but there is nothing in the directions about this and really no room for two wires in one of the little holes. I admit that I know nothing about installing a trailer light kit, but the directions which came in the package seem incomplete. Any suggestions? Thanks, Sam
when you say you have two wires for the right and two wires for the left you may be mistaken. typically there is one wire for the tail lights, it will go to both light fixtures at the back. you have one wire for you left turn signal / brake light, one wire for your right turn signal / brake light and the last will be your ground. sometimes if you haven't got a good ground lights will go out. i may be wrong it's been a while since i've wired up a trailer. but as i remember you have to make sure one of the 4 wires on your connector is ground on the truck and that same wire is grounded on the trailer that gives a better ground than just the ball hitch. i would ring the wires out with a test light to make sure. was your trailer wiring on the truck or did you install it? when i wired up a trailer harness on my tundra i had to buy and adapter to get it from a 3 lite system to a 2 lite system.
LGC, I am installing a trailer light kit. Two wires go to each lamp. One wire on each side is to light up the lamps, the other is for the stop/turn signal. I ran the ground wire to a bolt on the trailer tongue. Maybe that is the problem, although all functions of the lights work except the stop. Thanks, Sam
ok, make sure the ground wire that goes to the trailer is grounded to a bare piece of metal. whether you have to scrape the paint off or whatever then screw it in so it has good contact. next make sure your light fixtures are grounded well. typically they groudn to the mount through one of the mounting holes. make sure where the light fixtres mount are mounting to bare metal too. again, scrape paint if necessary. typically when a light goes out or goes dim when it should light up means that you are grounding throught the other element in the bulb rather than to the frame.
LGC, The lamps are mounted to painted metal. I have done nothing to ground them. I will try scraping the paint around the nuts that hold the lamps in place. Thanks, Sam
5 wires from the plug? That does not sound right. You should have 4 wires at the plug. Left turn/stop - yellow Right turn/Stop - green Running Lights - Brown Ground - White If you have a 5th wire, (Red or black) it should NOT be hooked up for a lights only system. That wire is for trailer brakes or charging aux batteries. But yes, is can be a ground problem. Especially if you are using the black wire for ground.... Also, like LGC said, your parks and signals may be grounding through the brake light circuit. Once power is applied, there is no more ground. If you have the park or flashers on, does it all go out when you step on the brake? If it all goes out, definately ground http://www.etrailer.com/faq_wiring.aspx http://www.accessconnect.com/trailer_wiring_diagram.htm Enjoy.
The running light current comes from a brown wire going to each lamp. A yellow wire is for the driver's side stop/turn. A green wire is for the passenger side stop/turn. There is a white wire coming from the plug for the ground. When I depress the truck's brakes using a piece of wood, the trailer tail lamps go dead. Other than the brake function, the tail lamps work OK. I will work on the ground problem I have the white ground wire going to a nut and bolt on the trailer tongue, but the trailer itself is painted black. The lamps are mounted on metal brackets, but these are also painted black. I will scrape paint and re-attach. Thanks, Sam
I scraped and sanded paint away from where the nuts attach the lamps to the trailer, removed more insulation from the ground wire, scraped paint from underneath the bolts/nuts holding the coupler to the trailer tongue, and made sure that the ground wire was held tight by the nut and washer. Now the brake lights, running lights, and turn signals all work fine. Although I had attached the ground wire, I had not done this properly, it seems. Thanks to all for the help. Sam
This little experience makes me think that the cause of my Hijet electrical problems (two gauges and three warning lights not working) may very well be improper grounding. Sam
Now that I have wired the new trailer, I am going to rewire my old trailer. The wires have been chewed up and destroyed by wear and tear and maybe squirrels. These trailer wiring kits, wiring diagrams, and wire colors seem to be quite uniform. Sam
