Electrical/ Led trailer problems

[Cutty Sark]

Ok here's the deal my trailer which is about a year and a half old is having some major electrical issues, It a EZ loader, with LED lights. Almost all the lights have burned out or been shorted out. I had to drive home from everett late last night(10:30-11;00) and had no brake lights at all, not fun. Then I noticed my plug where you hook the boat to the trailer was hot, and almost melted together. All of them except one or two lights went at once. Could I have a short or a faulty ground? Is there a way I can test the wiring. I have the Nigel Calder book on electrical and stuff but it doesn't have a section on trailers and is heavy reading, I need to get my trailer up and running quick before the area 9/10 king fishery closes. Any ideas on what to look for or should I just get a new wiring harness and start over? Help

Sark

[RJD Wannabe]

I have always had a U-Haul set as a back up. Has magnetic bases on each light, but is easily duct taped into place. I have used it way too many times over the years. Has bailed my butt out alot. Takes 2 minutes to hook up. I won't trailer without it. Don't want to waste good fishing time. Cheap insurance, way less than a traffic ticket. Once I was pulled over, when I pulled this out and put it on, the cop let me go ticketless

[sailor-d]

That was one of the many reasons I got rid a new, year old EZLoader trailer. Both the LED tail lights filled with water - were replaced by the dealer though at not cost but it was an inconvenience. I found the whole unit generally shoddy. I bought a RoadRunner and I love it.

[Cutty Sark]

Yeah, I'd hate to have to buy a whole new trailer at this point though. The Lights and the Coupler both I think are low qualitly, everything else has worked great and given no problems. My coupler is an absolute piece of junk though, I had problems with the same coupler on my last EZloader, but they gave me a new one at no charge, I thought I just got a fluke. But this one has the exact same problems after some use. So that going to be replaced too, a PITA for sure, but way cheaper than a new trailer, and I will buy a good one. The lights have me stumped especially with the connector heating up, I don't know if its from corrosion( resistance) a bad ground or a short somewhere, or just a crappy setup. I do use my trailer alot and a couple of the launches are marginal so I have to bury the trailer in the water, probably getting all the components in the tounge wet. So maybe it's just the saltwater taking it's toll. Either way It's got to be fixed as it's the middle of some great fishing.

Sark

[thataway]

Go ahead and re-wire the trailer. Many are not well wired. All wire connections should be with solid crimps, with heat shrink tubing, so that the connection will be water tight. Often the wire size on the trailers is marginal. Get the correct wire. Put a ground wire to each fitting, do not rely on the trailer frame for the ground.

I have a PVC light bar which I use on the boats. It is 2" PVC pipe, caps on the ends, with the tripple light in the center, and LED lights on both sides. This is straped to the transom or the outboards Permatrims. This gives a complete back up--plus it is higher and more visiable, Plus unplugged when backing the trailer into the water.

[drjohn71a]

Hey there...

Prob easier just to make your own new wiring yoke. I made a backup light bar out of 4X4 PVC fence post with slots that slide over the Permatrims. (Photos in Tom-a-Hawk album) The wiring to the sides and front is tied on with those red elastic/ball tarp ties. So far have not needed to use it as the wiring to the lights seems OK. The brake wiring goes on and off since the wiring box gets submerged on the ramp. I'll be moving that box upward soon.

John

[iggy]

I would agree with several of the previous replies. The trailer issues are a PITA, but given the time restraints, don't fixate on getting the trailer fixed. Fixate on getting a good, safe, legal set of lights on the back end, and get your fishing in. You can worry about the deeper issues with the trailer later.

With a good connector at your vehicle, you can fabricate a new light bar in a few hours. Use PVC (or a 2x4 with C-clamps), buy some basic lights at the nearest auto parts store, and run the wires down the outside of the trailer frame. Secure the wires with redundant wire ties, and hit the road.

And once the trailer is repaired, take the light bar with you anyway.

iggy

[drjohn71a]

You can buy good wiring kits for $30 to $50 at most discount/hardware outlets. You can save problems by making the lights removable so they don't get dunked.

John

[oldgrowth]

[gljjr]

Sark,

Joe's in Issaquah is having a tent sale and they had some trailer lights. I didn't look at the price but I would bet it isn't much.

I just got done rewiring the trailer on my sled. Instead of using crimps I used a soldering iron to join the wires with a good tight heat shrink to seal out the water. Hopefully that will do for a while. I also completely grounded each light and made doubly sure the ground at the front of the trailer was in good shape. It took me about 5 hours to redo the whole trailer plus rewire the truck (the bed was replaced and all the trailer wiring was goofed up when they put the bed back on).

It really isn't a hard job, just tedious!

[Cutty Sark]

Well it took a day or so but I have everything working again. I rewired my truck and it's 5 way connector, and put a new 5 way on the trailer side. The back two LEDs (stop, turn) were 1/4 full of water, and my left side had apparently shorted, the wiring was fried on the back side, obviously not good . I would hate to have an electrical fire right below my boat. Once I got that out of there and checked all the grounds, everything was working. Most of the grounds were in pretty bad shape, with oxidation between the contacts and trailer itself. It took awhile but I cleaned them all up with steel wool, and some light sandpaper. And checked them with a test light to make sure they were completing the circuit. I now see the disadvantages of using the trailer itself as the ground and will run ground wire's to all the lights sometime soon( when fishing has died down). I was surprised to have that kind of problem with a trailer barely a year and a half old, but I will check on those area's more frequently now. And if you have an EZ loader be advised that the water in the tail lights is very common on the LED's. I went to the local EZ loader dealer, and they showed me a couple they had gotten back from other customers, and said they do that alot from being overtightened at the factory. At least they will replace them for free.

Sark

[Sea Wolf]

Dang, the eternal stop/ tail-light deliemma!

Sometimes it seems nothing works! (at least for very long).

Here are some things to think about that can help your system work, although just as sure as I, or anyone, makes a specific recommendation, someone else will find that the named approach didn't work for them!

Grounds- One of the biggest problems with trailer lights is poor grounding. It's just as important to the circuit as the hot wire. Most trailers are wired so that the frame is grounded, and all lights depend on a good ground to the frame to work. Problem is that the ground wire from the light to the frame as well as the main ground wire up front where the harness is first grounded can corrode and break up the circuit.

First thing here is to

1) solder wires as good as possible, using
liquid electrical tape to cover the joint, or

2) use quality solderless connenectors with shrink plastic sealant tubing included or placed over them, or

3) some combination of the above that you prefer to keep the water/salt away from the metal wires and fittings.

I actually "double ground" everything: all grounds are made to the frame as normal, PLUS I ground every light back to the front harness with wires. In this way, the filament can find ground back through the frame OR the ground wire. Yes, it's a lot of extra trouble to run a second return circuit, but weak, intermittent grounds through the trailer frame (especially a bolted, not welded one, are a real problem.

Weak grounds can result in the light filaments grounding back through the lamp base and then through another filament and the subsequent wiring to find ground, which then lights up the other filament and produces a nonsense light pattern that seems to defie analysis.

If the double grounds seem redundant, that's good, because redundancy is one way to fight circuit loss, which is a easy victum to any interruption when no alternate paths are available in a series circuit.

Another trick in this area, is to cross-link the tail light filaments from right, left and center fixtures as well as bring two hot wires back from the front harness tail light source to the rear of the trailer. Lose one wire, and the lights still work.

Ok, so I'm paranoid about open circuits, but my lights generally do stay on.

When we raced small sailboats, we made a "light bar" that fit across the stern/transom of the boat and contained the lights as well as held the mast when trailering. A similar light bar on a C-Dory would allow the removal of the light system before launching to entirely eliminate the submersion issue.

LED's will undoubtably be the way to go, sooner or later. The first class truck-style components originally cost about $65 each, but less expensive alternatives in the $30 range are appearing. I don't know whether their quality is up to par, though.

Another way to eliminate common problems is to build a junction box up on the front of the trailer tongue to organize and make more solid the junctions between the incoming light harness from the tow vehicle and the outgoing lines to the trailer marker lights and stop/tail lights.

The stop/turn signal lights usually only have one junction to make, but the tail light incoming wire can be split into several wires for the marker lights and various tail lights, and that connection can be a funny one without some forethought. So can a ground junction in the "double ground" system. To solve this problem, I like to crimp ring connectors on each wire to be connected, bolt them together with a machine screw and nut, and then coat the entire connection with liquid electrical tape, and then tape wrap it. Enclosed in a sealed metal box, this connection seems bulletproof.

Using heavy, well insulated wires for the run back to the lights is also a plus.

I used 10 gague, 3-conductor heavy duty black rubber covered extension cord wire on my last re-wire. You have to figure out a way to keep from trapping water in the space between the wires and the cover, but the cover eliminates wire chafe and the resultant shorts. The cheap, flat 4-conductor wire usually supplied with new trailers is a ready made problem for chafe in the world of sharp-cornered trailer tubing and channel.

In another vein, WestBar, I believe, makes the sealed clear plastic bubble units that have three bulbs inside that really avoids the corroded bulb base/socket issues. These replaceable units fit in the special made red lens and base fittings made for them. I use only these or LED's.

No end to this subject! Nor no absolute bulletproof system!

But, just like the mousetrap, everyones trying to get a better one invented!

Joe.



JUNCTION BOX FOR PROTECTING CONNECTIONS. NOTE WIRING SIZE AND COVERING/INSULATION.

[thataway]

Another excellent post by Joe. I would add that every boater needs to own a rachet type of crimping tool, (at bit more expensive than the cheapies, but works far better), and to re-emphasize the water tight connections.

The other "Tool" which needs to be in the kit is the digital volt meter, you can check for even small amounts of voltage drop--the small voltage drop is often a sign of under sized wiring, poor crips, or corrosion in the connections.

I am using LED's in the light bars, because of the problems which some of the LED trailer lights have been showing when under water--and sticking with regular bulbs the "bubble" dome light fixtures on the trailer frame.
The LED's are brighter and more visiable--but many have leaked or shown detiorration on the trailer after being immersed. I am sure that they are improving all of the time.

[Cutty Sark]

Well everything is good to go now, I will rewire the ground's later this year, after the best fishing is over. And I will make a temporary Light bar, that I will leave in the back of my truck for emergencies. Performance Marine swapped out my LEDs for new ones at no charge, they are an ez loader dealer in everett. I was impressed with the guys in there. I went in just asking to buy a new set and after talking to them they said just bring them in and they would give me a new set . And They specialize in suzuki motors, which is great because I've been looking for someone to do my service, that is a little closer than Fife. They are right next to the everett launch which is actaully quite conveinant.

Sark

[chromer]

I've had my tail lights replaced once already under warranty. They are all starting to go again (fill with water, etc). Called EZ Loader in Woodinville, he is sending me out a complete set - said they have changed manufacturers of their lights. We will see.