New LED lights

[Bobbie Mayer]

A Fiberglass RV and Corgi friend, Ron, came to help me (or I should say I helped him) with rewiring my trailer lights to get away from all the problems I've had with them. As I don't use the 12V lights wired into the trailer (and the 12 V wasn't used for anything else) we left that out and just ran four wires from plug back to the lights. At the same time, since I had the permanent bed out, I pulled out the water tank, which I also never use, as that will now allow me to push things back under the seat on both sides for storage.

We used these lights: http://www.pmlights.com/assets/products/sm581717480.jpg

I did have to drill new holes for them and will have to fill the old holes, which all show, as these are smaller than the original light fixtures.

One weird thing- with the trailer plugged in, and everything in the car turned off, a slight light, one LED maybe, glows on the trailer light. Not sure why- it should be completely dead. It would not be enough to turn on an incandescent bulb but apparently can power up an LED. Not sure why any power is going to the trailer with everything off in the car (key not even in the ignition.) I didn't wire the car, the hitch place did that, any idea why it still has voltage? It shouldn't be a big problem as even an overnight drain would be next to nothing for the battery and I rarely leave it plugged in when not towing, but it's weird and I'd like to fix it if I can figure it out.

[Raz]

Originally Posted by Bobbie Mayer

One weird thing- with the trailer plugged in, and everything in the car turned off, a slight light, one LED maybe, glows on the trailer light. Not sure why- it should be completely dead. It would not be enough to turn on an incandescent bulb but apparently can power up an LED. Not sure why any power is going to the trailer with everything off in the car (key not even in the ignition.) I didn't wire the car, the hitch place did that, any idea why it still has voltage? It shouldn't be a big problem as even an overnight drain would be next to nothing for the battery and I rarely leave it plugged in when not towing, but it's weird and I'd like to fix it if I can figure it out.

If I'm not mistaken you have a Forester. While the Forester is prewired for lights, the brake controller wiring is not plug and play. I'm guessing you are getting voltage from the controller. Unplug the controller and see if the light goes out. Raz

[Bobbie Mayer]

I don't have brakes. It's a 4-way flat plug.

[Raz]

Originally Posted by Bobbie Mayer

I don't have brakes. It's a 4-way flat plug.

No brakes, shame on you . The only other thing I can think of is the light converter that plugs into the trailer wiring and combines the stop light/turn signals. That may be powered even when the key is off. Raz

[Carol H]

Bobbie, your not the first to have this issue. There is an old thread called LED tail light Blues that may help.

[Bobbie Mayer]

Could be. It has to be a very small drain on power so I think even if I forgot to unplug on an overnight stop it would be fine... weird, though.

The other thing that is a little odd is that we did get the clear lights on the back (below the red lights) to light up (once, not sure they still work) but I can't figure out what they are for. If they were backing lights it would make sense except there is no wire for backing lights. I wonder if there would have been originally?

[Bobbie Mayer]

Originally Posted by Carol H

Bobbie, your not the first to have this issue. There is an old thread called LED tail light Blues that may help.

Interesting! I'm on the "won't worry about it" wagon. If nothing else, it will remind me to unplug from the car (at least if it is dark enough to see the light.) As someone said, it's one LED out of the ten that normally go on with the running lights.

My wiring was done by the independent shop that did my hitch.

[Carol H]

Bobbie, I forgot to mention that in the old thread people suggest that it may be the module unit that goes between the factory 4 plug that your car came with that is buried in the back & the wiring harness. The one on mine started doing strange things after a couple of years - replaced it and all was well. You might want to have a hitch shop take a look at that if it turns out the problem isnt a ground wire issue at the connection points in the trailer - loose or poor connection that didnt bother the old lights but does the LED's?

[Bobbie Mayer]

All new wiring- I don't think it is a ground wire issue (and to glow there still has to be power from the car which shouldn't be there if everything is turned off, no matter what the trailer is doing.)

I may give the hitch shop a call and see what they think- they could have run into this problem before.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Bobbie Mayer

All new wiring- I don't think it is a ground wire issue (and to glow there still has to be power from the car which shouldn't be there if everything is turned off, no matter what the trailer is doing.)

.

Well actually the car will continue to feed power to what ever requests it when shut off if the installer didnt put in a component needed to stop it from doing so. As many have discovered a lot of hitch shops dont - so if they leave the trailer plugged into the car when turned off the trailer will continue to pull from the car battery & drain it.