Clearance lights (12v)?

[Bluebamboo]

Hello,

I have almost all my clearance lights replaced with LED's on my 86' Bigfoot and I'm wondering if its possible to have them on when not attached to then tow vehicle (running off 12v)? Is this possible? We have never used them, as I hadn't got around to replacing the old ones until now.

Thanks

[John in Santa Cruz]

by clearance lights you mean the side lights, yellow on the front corners, and red on the rear corners? those are wired to the 'parking light' pin of the 7-blade tow vehicle connector, nowhere else. they should come on with the tug's running lights

I suppose you could take a 7-blade RV socket, and wire a switch from the parking light position to the 12V power pin, and plug this socket into the trailers pigtail, then that switch would turn on those side marker lights as well as the tail lights.

that would be a connector like this,
https://www.amazon.com/CURT-58150-Ve.../dp/B001EP0G72
the switch would connect pin 4 (power) to pin 3 (tail/running lights).

[Bluebamboo]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

by clearance lights you mean the side lights, yellow on the front corners, and red on the rear corners? those are wired to the 'parking light' pin of the 7-blade tow vehicle connector, nowhere else. they should come on with the tug's running lights

I suppose you could take a 7-blade RV socket, and wire a switch from the parking light position to the 12V power pin, and plug this socket into the trailers pigtail, then that switch would turn on those side marker lights as well as the tail lights.

that would be a connector like this,
https://www.amazon.com/CURT-58150-Ve.../dp/B001EP0G72
the switch would connect pin 4 (power) to pin 3 (tail/running lights).

Thanks, John. That answers my question perfectly. Appreciated.

[gordon2]

Yes you can do that, powering the trailer's running lights from the trailer (house) battery.. its a simple matter of making a connection between the hot pin and trailer's running lights on the 7 pin plug. Many people do this.

But at a shared campground when its time for dark, doing that is rude and annoying as all heck.

The ONLY reason I think is valid and reasonable for doing this is in cases where the trailer needs to be left without the tow vehicle in a spot where it might suffer a collision, such as the side of a highway. Other than that situation, the light pollution is nothing I want to see. Yet I do see it.. more often than I would like.

[AC0GV]

Originally Posted by gordon2

The ONLY reason I think is valid and reasonable for doing this is in cases where the trailer needs to be left without the tow vehicle in a spot where it might suffer a collision, such as the side of a highway. Other than that situation, the light pollution is nothing I want to see. Yet I do see it.. more often than I would like.

Could be great for emergencies I guess, but I have used it so that late arrivals could find my camp site also. Standard car flasher will plug in and connect pins 4 and 3. That's how the dealers make the lights flash at the shows.

[gordon2]

Originally Posted by AC0GV

Could be great for emergencies I guess, but I have used it so that late arrivals could find my camp site also. Standard car flasher will plug in and connect pins 4 and 3. That's how the dealers make the lights flash at the shows.

Well if you are in a sparsely populated campground or location it wont bother the neighbors.. but I would think it would also be easy to find you in that case. If you are in the typical campground with neighbors then the lights on late at night are annoying.. the flasher would make it even more so.

So while there might be times when it's handy to have the lights on (or even flashing if stopped on the breakdown lane on the highway), my experience has been at what should be quiet and peaceful campgrounds where people want to have colored lights on most, or all of the night, sometimes along with outside televisions, etc..

BTW, I put blackout curtains in my camper.. not because I ever wanted to block out the morning sun, but because of the other RVs with lights on at night.