Hi All,
I recently bought a trailer that will hold two ATV's, but I'm having problems with the lights. When the trailer is connected to my GMC Sierra 6 pin connector, the right trailer light blinks and does everything its suppose too, but the left trailer light doesn't blink or does light up when brake is pressed, (but it does light up when you turn the lights on), except when pressing brakes and blinker, "like I mentioned above."
I checked all my truck's fuses and their all okay. I checked my truck's lights and they all work fine. The trailer lights all work fine, because I had them connected to a tester box and both lights
blinked on this tester box, so it has to be my truck that has the problem. Any Solutions?

The common problem is corrosion on the electrical contacts in one or other part of the connector - attack them with sandpaper or emerycloth.

Your first problem is that the trailer does not carry a catamaran sailboat!

Seriously though, an atypical rear trailer light bulb has two elements in it for two different signals; illumination (i.e. parking lights) and brake/turn signal. If you are getting neither a brake light or turn signal, it could be that the bulb is bad, the bulb is making a poor connection on one of it's contact points, the trailer connector is making a poor connection to the vehicle harness, or you have a bad wire somewhere.

someone, an endeavouring engineer perhaps, should design a better trailer light that:

A) is truely waterproof
B) is indestructible (exception granted for idiots like me who back them into curbs)
C) YOU CAN SEE THEM DURING THE DAY
D) You don't have to destroy to take them off the thing (you know the ones I'm talking about, that have the mounting bolt nut recessed into the plastic housing, if you try to take it off on a hot day, then the plastic just gets chewed up and the bolt spins around)
E) Won't corrode after being in a light sprinkle.

Jake is right, put a go fast catamaran on there and the lights will work fine. I chimed in because I'm considering LED lights for my trailer. Any thoughts or experiences?

Actually Maugan they do build some good lights.

The problems with trailer lights always seem to come from exposed and corroded connection. So simply seal everything up and have no splices in your wires.

The best ones I have found simply say "Davis". I have no idea who really makes them. The lights are double o-ring and grease sealed. The bulbs use screw type holders, no springs. There are no splices in the wires. One end is sealed to the light and the other end goes to a terminal block at the front of the trailer.

I bought them from a place that makes expensive aluminum trailers for power boats. When I called looking for more, I found they no longer use them, they have something better, sealed LED's.

The lights are sealed assemblies. With a 100, 000 hr bulb life it is unlikely that you will ever need to replace one. They epoxy pot the wires to the lights and lead them to a terminal block.


Two notes

LED's either die in the first couple of hours or go forever. You might want to power the lights overnight before you spend any real effort on them.

Use the best wire you can find

I put on on LED lights the last time my catamaran trailer lights were giving me problems. Well worth the extra cost. LED's are sealed, they should last nearly forever, and the bolts for mounting the kind I got were stainless steel. I don't know the brand off the top of my head.

I just bought a brand new trailer for my power boat. Its supposedly (standard bulb) "sealed" lights were full of water after the first time I launched the boat. I will be converting them to LED's when they stop working.

carl,

I know they make good lights. I'm just complaining over the pennance I have to pay for buying the el-cheapo $30-pair lights.

I'm going to put on the LEDs before I head out to the coast I think.

I don't complain about about trailer lights I hate trailer lights.

After the third time I cut my finger working on trailer lights I want whoever designed and sold that cheap butt system as sealed and suitable for saltwater to be executed and their descendents neutered.

One of my best moments was when I built a removable system of lights that strapped to the boat. One of my worst moments was when I got a ticket for no lights on my trailer (Flowery Branch Georgia, you have lights on your boat, not on your trailer)

you're kidding!? I was considering that same modification because my boat stern ends up so far behind my trailer lights...oh well.

Hi Jake,
Years ago my Nacra 5.2 was on a very short trailer too.
The trailer lights were completely hidden.
I put an extra set of lights on a bar that strapped to the top of my N 5.2 sterns for that very same reason.
I got home from a regatta once and the left light was smashed.
I think I took out somebody's mirror.
I finally got a longer trailer.

I have the Murrays mast support on my current trailer.
I am planning to put a bracket on the support to hold trailer lights.
Since the support is bolted to and a part of the trailer, it should be legal.

Are you coming to Charleston?

I should be more clear about the ticket for putting lights on the boat. Flowery Branch Ga, is a tiny town on the Lake where the Atlanta Cats launch. Their police were not known for being the most intelligent. Ultimatly my ticket was thrown out and "they" had a talk with the person who issued it.

Anouther Cat was ticketed for not having fenders, even though a giant catbox/platform served the same purpose.

These were all stupid tickets, written to collect money from people who did not vote in the area.

thats somewhat ironic.

This weekend my friend and I were installing my new LED trailer lights (inspired from this thread) and he asked why my lights were in such a crummy position, and that I should make a bracket to mount to th crossbar. I told him that some dude told me about getting a ticket for having "lights on the boat, not on the trailer." lol

My LED lights are on and the whole trailer is rewired with all soldered connections and shrink tubing. No crimp connectors, nutz, or easy splices here! I then found that my light converter unit had failed on my truck (likely due to all the previous shorts) and replaced it too. Them thar' LED lights is fancy like!

Glad to hear of these new designs that are worthy of the waterproof claims. Many non-L.E.D. designs' weak points were the need to disipate the heat generated my an incandescent bulb. LED's solve this.

Thanks to you all, I am nearly motivated to add trailer lights and dispense with my funky, strap on light bar.

I'd like to mention that there is an upper-end type of shrink tube that has glue inside it so that it not only shrinks, but creates a seal also. (that is the product's claim, I have not tried the stuff yet)

I'll bet those who own glue guns could do some great things with them to aid in waterproofing.

GARY

Trailer lights if installed correctly and not messed up by mistakes have a good life. I have had 6 or 7 cat trailers over the past 20 years and once I get the lights the way I like them I never have a problem. Though I sail in salt water I never dip my cat trailers in the water. A well designed cat trailer has mounts for lights that protect them from being broken. Spray lubricate in the vehicle connection and if necessary grease the light bulb contact points.

Who can describe the number of LEDs to use in trailer lights? Bright white LEDs are like 32 cents each. But
commercial 1157-type bulbs now can be found online with like 24 LEDs per "bulb" and are $7 each, with 16 LEDs are $4. But they would have to be soldered into the regular red-lensed cheap trailer light fixture. Also they have just one filament. This ain't too bad.
More practical suggestions?

I even went the extra 10 miles and smeared 3m 3500 under all the heat shrink tubing before I shrunk it. Did I mention how sick I was of having to work on trailer lights before every $%#( trip!?

Of note: I once had a short on this trailer that took out the fuse for my running lights on my RV. At the same moment, the short destroyed my anti-lock brake CPU and I suspect it initiated the slow death roll (gradually increasing heat sensitivity/failure) of my Engine Management Computer in the same RV. $300 worth of electronics and about 30 hours of my time and I have a new anti-lock brake unit (ebay!), EMC(Autozone $$), and an ISOLATED trailer lighting system on it's own fuse. Now we're ready to roll!

this afternoon I had the pleasure of rewiring my entire tail light setup in my truck because the converter box for independent turn signals went whacky and did something. So new wireage all around, that was NOT fun.

(but now my pigtail works again)

Just give the cop your best surprised look and say "Really? They were working when I left." Maybe that only works in
Canada.