Possessed Fish House Lights

[hoggs222]

I have a wheelhouse where the lights are possessed. 4 flat plug, brand new wiring straight back to the lights, new bulbs, new ground, etc.

Lights don't work....I removed the ground behind the lights then running lights work, blinkers work, except brakelights. When you hit the brake, lights turn off.

Any ideas?

[Eric Wettschreck]

Do all your truck lights work?

I ask cuz I had a similar problem, not identical but similar, and it turned out I had a tail light out on my truck.

[Shack]

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I removed the ground behind the lights

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Where is this ground?

What year truck and model?

[storm_rider_1]

this happened to my buddys boat trailer lights, and it was a bad ground on the truck side.

[hoggs222]

Tried on 2 different trucks. 2001 Jeep Gr. Cherokee Laredo and my buddys F-150. Snowmobile trailer works fine with both.

The ground is behind each of the lights on the siding of the fishhouse. Also there is a ground on the tongue (white wire for the 4 flat plug).

Everything worked just fine when I dropped it off for storage last spring.

[Surface Tension]

I think its the ground also.

Hook it up to your truck. Take a jumper cable and hook it onto the frame of the truck then on the trailer frame. Make sure you have good contact to bare rust free metal.

Do the lights work now? If so clean the trailers ground connection. Check for an open between the ground connection and plug.

If that wasn't the problem, check the ground at BOTH taillights for a good clean connection. Also, unplug from the truck and clean the light bulbs socket. The two + contacts and the - wall of the socket.

[sparcebag]

Good info here If it yet gives problems when grounds are cleaned.try reverse wireing hook a batt. with pigtails to each light,then go back to plug and check with 12V tester each wire & ground,if ya cant get juice there you'll know which wire to trouble shoot,you'll also know which wire controls which fixtures.If your checkin lites with switches make sure there ON position.

[Shack]

Yes, what sparce said is called back probing. Basically you are running a positive current threw the ground wires and grounding at the other end with a test light, to see which wire/ground point will not let current travel threw. You can run negative current instead of positive current threw ground wires, but with cars, I have found running the positive threw the suspect wire, helps shows a weak/corroded point much better than sending negative threw suspect wire. IMO

But, it sounds like the ground wire is the trailer frame its self. Now what I would do then is take a Vex. Battery or car battery and place next to trailer tong, connect with test lead (wire with alligator clips on both ends) from positive post on battery to the ground prong on trailer flat 4 plug in. Then (easier said than done), run another test lead from negative post on battery to rear trailer lights. On the other end of this test lead, clip test light and probe ground points inside or on the housing of trail lights (not the contact point to trailer). If the test light lights up, that ground connection is good, if it does not light up, you have found which light is not getting a good ground/current traveling to that point. Before you go to the rear trailer lights (and if trailer grounds it self at tong/frame), probe the trailer frame at tong to see if ground is getting from trailer 4 prong plug to frame. If test light does not light up, then your ground issue is between the 4 prong plug and the point it first connects to trailer at tong. This would be a great time saver, if you have ground wires on each side running the length of trailer. At least gives you an idea of where to start.

This sounds hard, but could be done in a half hour if you have wires for test leads.

I would how ever check tightness and clean all grounds. There should be three ground points (at least) for tail/signals/brake. Two at each side of lights in rear of trailer and one from 4 prong plug wiring harness by trailer jacking area.

Good luck!

[The_Duckslayer]

Quote:

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The ground is behind each of the lights on the siding of the fishhouse. Also there is a ground on the tongue (white wire for the 4 flat plug).

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Try grounding the siding to the frame of the trailer, or the lights to the frame of the trailer. My choice would be to ground the lights to the trailer rather than the siding as that is where the ground from the plug is. Have a good one! Take care and N Joy the Hunt././Jimbo

[deadeye]

Ya, I would have to second grounding it to the frame. Most siding that I have seen is aluminum and won't really help much with electricity. Go to the frame and I bet your problems are over.

[hoggs222]

I grounded one of the lights to the frame and that did the trick. Hmmmm. Thanks for all the help!

Now if I could just get the wheelhouse on the ice!