Ground wire help

[Thinh]

Here is my analysis for your problems-I could be wrong though-...
1/ White wire is usually for ground or frame contact-with bolt tightened and ..grease it-
2/ Check your 7-pin connector wirings from your towing vehicle-WITHOUT TRAILER HOOKED UP-
3/ Check your 7-pin connector wirings from your trailer ONLY-without hooked up with towing vehicle.
4/ Use an external power source 12VDC for testing your trailer lights/brake
5/ Use volmeter or a simple 12VDC light bulb to test your 7-pin connector of your vehilce(without trailer hooked up).
Conclusion: You will surely find out what's wrong with your problems-GUARANTEED- My guess here is you have WRONG CONNECTION. Hopefully it helps....

[Filbert V.]

Thanks everyone. I'll see how we make out on Saturday when we play with the lights before I take the truck/trailer combo to the local RV shop to wave the white flag and give the VISA card a work out. Still kicking myself for not paying more attention to my dad and uncle who could fix anything anywhere, and with whatever supplies they had on hand. Too bad we can't use the old hand signals while towing. At least they never break!

[Jared J]

The best thing to do when trouble shooting is to split a system in half, in this case, this would be the trailer and tow vehicle. That allows you to quickly narrow the problem down.

The easiest thing to do will be to go buy a $20 trailer light tester that plugs into your vehicle. They make ones that work for both 7 pin rv and 4 flat connections. You can use an ohmmeter also, but the tester is cheap and easy.

If that works, hook a 12 v battery to your ground and the left or right flasher pin of your trailer harness. If both lights still light up, you have a wiring problem. They won't flash, that is done by your vehicle, they will just be on steady. You could also pull the bulbs out and then use an ohmmeter on the left and right pins at the trailer connector. There should be no continuity.

If both sides test good, then you probably need the converter box (without knowing anything about the trailer and tow vehicle).

The other possibility is that the wrong bulb is installed in your taillights, and your turn signals and brake lights are back feeding each other. I've seen it before, it does very interesting things if you put a one contact bulb in a two contact socket.

[Darwin Maring]

Filbert:
In times of past the bulb for the brake light, turn signal and running light was one bulb with 2 filaments in it. It was easy to see the filaments and to also identify the bulb because it has 2 round lead connections on the bottom. One filament is the running light and the brighter one is the Stop/Turn. The other smaller filament is the running light, it is on when you turn on your headlights.

When you applied the brakes, both the left and right bulb bright filament would light. If you applied the brakes and the turn signal at the same time, one bulb would remain lit and the other would blink. If you applied the turn signal only, then only that bulb would lite.

If you have your headlights on then the smaller filament is lit and the larger, brighter filament will be the brake/turn light.

NOTE: This is how USA Camping and utility trailers are wired.
Is there an exception? You can bet that someone will tell us that they saw a trailer wired different.

You can check your trailer to see if the tail lights look like this:

1 dual element bulb behind the Red lens and 1 single element bulb behind a clear lens if it has backup lights and 1 small bulb or a clear lens under the left side red lens that will cast a white light on the license plate.
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Foreign Cars: The foreign cars that have a RED stop and running lights and a Yellow turn signal require a special solid state device to be installed on the tow vehicle to properly change and operate the trailer lights to the US specifications.
This device changes the foreign configuration to the US specifications. You can find plug compatible devices and cables at the following places:

e-Hitch.com | Taillight Converters
etrailer.com - Products t connector

My 2007 Chevy Silverado Classic has a separate bulb for the turn signal and a separate bulb with 2 elements in it for the running lights and brake light. In other words, it is wired like the foreign cars. It came with the tow package so somewhere in the vehicle they installed a converter so trailer lights would be at US specifications.
If yours is wired like mine then there is a possibility that you can get a plug in T-Connector that will straighten everything out.

I suggest you contact the above web sites, tell them what your tow vehicle is and they should be able to tell you what you need.

If it is a T Connector then just lay on your back under the rear bumper and install it in less than 10 minutes.

Check aznative post of the wiring diagram

[Filbert V.]

Thanks everyone for your advice/help. We finally got under the trailer, ground off some rust in one spot, drilled a hole, and attached the ground wire to the frame with a metal screw, and ALL OF THE LIGHTS WORK!!!! My father had two sets of wires, and 4 tail lights, but only two were actually attached, and these are the two that work now. We'll keep the original lights attached, but they'll serve as dummies for now. Now that we have lights, I have also made my first campground reservation for a local test run next month. I am truly a happy camper now and thanks to all of you for replying to my original post.

[Francesca Knowles]

Originally Posted by Filbert V.

We finally got under the trailer, ground off some rust in one spot, drilled a hole, and attached the ground wire to the frame with a metal screw, and ALL OF THE LIGHTS WORK!!!!

No kidding...

Just about the very first thing I learned about trailer lights is is that nine problems out of ten are caused by insufficient/bad ground.

Happy Campin' !