Ok, long story made short. I bought a new trailer for my jet ski. The trailer is much nicer than our current one. The only problem I am having is that the lights will not come on when I turn the headlights on. All other lights, stop and turn signals, work fine. All lights work on the old trailer.

Any ideas where I should start to look?

 

Pull a bulb and check the contacts with a multi-meter to see if there's voltage there. If so, you have a bulb problem. Could be incorrect bulbs in it, too. If there's no voltage there, you have a wiring problem and get to start tracing the wiring back to the plug... Fun stuff!!

If you want, PM me and I'll send you my phone number -- much easier to help out over the phone than posts on a forum....

 

Alright, Joe. So, I turn the headlights on, pull a bulb and then check the contacts, right?

I will start there. Will also PM you. That phone call could come in handy.

It just started pouring here so I might not be working on it today....damn.

 

Yep -- that's it. Ground the black lead to the trailer somewhere, then touch the red lead to one of the hot contacts in the socket. You should have battery V there somewhere if the socket/wiring is good. You could put the 4-ways on to verify the other contact if you have nothing in there. Since the blinkers are working at least one contact is good.

 

I generally use a battery charger to put power to the trailer with a test light. If the brake lights are coming on then it is the brown wire going to each light for the running lights. The bulbs should be 1157, whith 2 elements. I hook the batter charger positive to the test light then stick the point on the pins of the trailer plug to have 12v to test the lights. Good luck.

 

Hey thanks a lot, both of you.

Susan has a degree of some sort in electricity.....but I don't wanna ask her. This is man stuff, ya know what I mean?

Ha ha!

 

Is the ground wire on the trailer plug hooked to the frame, or is it cut off relying on a ground through the hitch & ball? This type of issue is common with a poor ground connection. If you drive it around the block a few times and the running lights start to work, then you've got a ground problem.

 

clean the ball of real good. It's probably what Chris just said, bad ground. If not, I think the truck is beyond repair. I will take it off your hands for $1000.00. I will even drive out there with a trailer and pick it up for free....

 

I will try that Chris. The guy that I bought it from mentioned something like that also.

Here's the trailer in case anyone is interested:





I have to show this to Susan.

 

Nice king ranch there in the back ground since everything seems to be taken care of .

 

Yeah, the guy that owns the trailer store is a PSD owner. Nice guy with some really nice trailers for sale.

If any of you in the Houston area are looking for a toy hauler, car trailer, gooseneck, custom boat or PWC trailer, this is the guy to see. He gave me a really good deal and was a nice guy to talk to.

Trailer Connection
18123 Kuykendahl
Houston
281.320.1225

 

If the old trailer lights up then the connections from the truck are good. Check the ground first as the others stated then check for voltage at the sockets. I ran into this only once the plug from the factory was bad, the connection was not made inside of the molded connector.

 

His brake lights & blinkers are working -- is it normal for those to be fine, but the running lights not to with a bad ground? Just curious....

 

That's the spirit. This neighborly, friends always willing to help friends is why this place is the best. And that's no small trip for Jason either.

 

I did run into that on a trailer before. All I did was reground it and it was good. I can't fiqure out why though.