NOW THE LIGHTS DONT WORK!!!

[bigwalleyeguy]

I have a ice castle fishouse. Been having a few problems with it since i bought it in 06. Its an 8x16 and now the lights on the fishouse dont work when I plug it in to the truck. I got as far to figure out its not the truck. When I plug it in to the truck, I have one tailight and when I hit the right blinker every light on the house blinks? Do you think I might have a short somewhere? Bad ground maybe? Has anyone else had any trouble with there lighting on their ice caslte. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Dave]

Sounds like a bad ground.

[PerchPounder]

If there was a short you would be blowing fuses. I would start by checking either the trailer ground or by grouding each light to the frame.

[Caleb S]

I just about pulled my hair out this year working on the lights for my boat trailer. Ended up being a bad ground.

[bigwalleyeguy]

Yeah I think you guys are right. Thank You. Man I love this forum

[bturck]

One thing that I've noticed on my trailer ball, especially if I leave it on the truck without a trailer attached is that it will pick up road grime. This can cause the faulty ground. I always carry some sand paper or steel wool to clean it off. Hope you find the problem, that is probably the most frustrating thing to find. Bill

[fishon68]

You have a bad ground, the lights will do things you could never imagine, good luck

[sparkydm]

I agree, check for ground. Usually manufactureers will ground the lights to the frame. Salt and moisture WILL corrode those connections. I always run a separate ground wire with the main harness back to the trailer connector to eliminate those problems.

[The_Duckslayer]

I never rely on the ball to be the ground. Make sure that the ground wire on the truck and the trailer connectors are both connected to a good ground. Even if they look good take them off, sand that location a bit to get raw metal, then put the screw back in. An easy way to test ground is a wire with clips at each end. Connect one to the truck and one the the unit being pulled and see if that makes a difference. Again the clips have to be on metal and not some paint some where. Hope that helps! Take care and N Joy the Hunt././Jimbo

[marine_man]

I never rely on the ball to be the ground.

I agree! A large % of ground issues are caused by grounding the trailer to the tow vehicle through the trailer ball. The best way to eliminate that is to make sure the white wire on the tow vehicle and white wire on the trailer are connected / screwed / attached to a good ground on the respective object.

marine_man

[jesse larson]

the other possibility besides a bad ground could be a light hat the filement broke and is now touching the other filement of the bulb but most likely a bad ground

Jesse

[minnbowhunter]

You have a bad ground, the lights will do things you could never imagine, good luck

I agree anytime the lights start to act wonky it's always a bad ground.

[hoggs222]

I had this same thing last year. I re-wired the whole thing and figured out that the ground on one of the lights came loose. Could have been a quick fix but took some time in the cold to figure it out!

Pop off the cover and add a ground wire to both light ground spots and hold it to the frame and have a buddy hit the signals, brake lights etc.