Rob and I have 2004 Superior Trailer for our rigs. About 2 months ago we replaced all the bulbs on it and they all worked just fine.
Last weekend taking it to the Charity run - a couple were not working ---mostly on the passeger side of the trailer (marker and right tail light). I took a couple of those bulbs out, cleaned off the backs of them and put them back in. Some worked again for a while and some never went back on. What could this issue be and how should we rectify this situation? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Check the grounds... I find they usually ground through the mounting hardware and that will rust, causing intermittent connections.
If you clean up the mounting hit it with some spray paint or liquid electrical tape to keep it from rusting... Also, upgrading to LED fixtures seems to help since there are less places to corrode / lose contact.
I would start at the tow vehicle ! A continuity tester is all thats needed. Make sure you have power at the vehicle plug. Plug in the trailer and have the light covers off. Use the tester to check for power at the sockets. Make sure the tester has a good ground . The white wire in the harness is the ground wire to the trailer and vehicle. Sometimes they dont hook up the ground wire as they feel the trailer is connected to the vehicle by the ball. This might work when new but is a crappy way to make a ground. A good ground is very important to operation. The last thing I would try is to have a power source (spare battery) and try to light up the lights and that should show either a bad wire harness or a bad socket. When you have this kind of trouble on one side of the trailer its usually a bad ground or the harness is bad on that side . It should be a simple fix if you do this in sequence . Lets us know. Good luck FjR68
You guys rock! Thank you! I bought a tester at Harbor Freight a few weeks ago for about $4 as well and looking for things to use it for - now I have it. We also have a tube of that grease. I let you know what happens when we go through the steps above and if they get resolved. Hopefully they will!
Two months ago all lights worked perfectly, however, it sat in our driveway for that amount of time and we've had a lot of wet weather this summer so something was bound to happen. Yes it IS odd that one side has the issues and not the other. Again -- appreciate the input!!!
Josh, unfortunately it was me that hooked up the lights to the truck - in fact I did this several times when I noticed all the lights were not working. Do you think I'd trust Rob to do that?? LOL!
If some of the running/marker lights are OK and others are out then the problem is in the trailer and not the vehicle wiring.
Things I'd recommend looking at on the individual lights that are out are:
- Wiring to the individual lights. Possible poor or corroded connection to them. Many times manufacturers use "scotch locks" to slap the wiring together when trailers are wired. They corrode easily causing flakey lights.
- Individual lights are usually grounded to the trailer steel with their mounting screws. The mounting hardware may be loose or corroded. Clean up the connections.
- Wire connections inside the light. Some lights use a cheesy method to connect the light power wires to the light bulb socket. Check to see if the power wire connection inside the light assembly is clean and tight.
- Bulb sockets in the lights may corroded. Clean them up as needed..
- Bulb sockets in the lights may be distorted/bent. The springs and tabs in the sockets sometimes fail to properly hold the bulb in place whick is needed to provide a good connection to the bulb contacts. The tabs or spring may need to be bent a bit so it contacts the bulb properly.
The magic dielectric grease mentioned above will help prevent future corrosion but won't fix problems.
Just a few thoughts of things for you to look into to get them working.
Hi Kurt and thank you. Question - when you say "clean up" do you mean perhaps hitting those sockets with a small wire brush to clean them up? I bought a 6 pack of those at Harbor Freight as well. Thanks!
Ma Deuce wrote:Hi Kurt and thank you. Question - when you say "clean up" do you mean perhaps hitting those sockets with a small wire brush to clean them up? I bought a 6 pack of those at Harbor Freight as well. Thanks!
Exactly
meaning remove corrostion and rust so that they make better metal to metal contact.
Then you can apply some dielectric grease for protection.
