[oldguy]

OK, I'm pretty good at fixing things that break. But, I gotta problem that I can't find without completely redoing the whole shibang. I could pull out all the wires and redo new but too lazy to do that right now.

On my 15 year old driftboat trailer all the lights work but when I step on my brakes the lights go off on the trailer. Ground? Bare wire? What?

oldguy

 

[DBAppraiser]

I would check all the grounds. Dirty grounds are usually the culprit.

 

[TRAUT]

I would check all the grounds. Dirty grounds are usually the culprit.

That would be my first guess too. The brake lamp elements are brighter, drawing more current than the running lights, and would be more susceptable to bad grounding.

 

[FDB]

those darn grounds, boats are like baseball diamonds the need ground keepers!

 

[Slabby20]

Had the same exact problem more than once. Each time it was corrosion in the plug. I took a small piece of sandpaper and cleaned up both the male and female connections and it fixed the problem. Good uck, it can really be frustrating.

 

[oldguy]

Finally got around to seeing what was wrong with the trailer lights.

Cleaned up some frays on wires! Nope.

Replaced tailer plug! Nope.

Cleaned all the plug-ins! Nope.

Kicked it real hard! Nope.

Replaced the 7 wire round to 4 flat adaptor! Yup!!!!!!!! When I tested it with the tester all seemed to be working so that couldn't be it, HA!!!! Put a new one in and BINGO.

WaaHoo, ready to go out one of these days and can even run in the dark now!

Thanks to all that offered help,

oldguy

 

[SalmonMan]

There is a good chance that you have a "wire to frame" issue somewhere. It could be a spot where the wire is pinched in the frame, it could be a spot where the insulation has worn away allowing contact, etc.

This has been my experience anyways.

 

[MYSTICAL LEGENDS]

What the heck ya need lights for over there Fred?

 

[gljjr]

I've gone through at least 4 of those converters over the years due to non working lights. Now it is one of the first things I check!

 

[oldguy]

What the heck ya need lights for over there Fred?

Helps me back into trees better in the dark.

Gottem fixed by replacing the adaptor from 7 round to 4 flat. Easy fix but was hard to figure out for sure. 10 bucks later I'm ready to go.

oldguy