I have a ARE truck cap with a light on the interior that quit working. Then my snowmobile trailer interior lights quite working. All bulbs are good and interior lights in trailer work when hooked to wifes explorer. The trailer uses the round plug not 4pin. I believe the problem must be related somehow. I pulled all the small fuses today for a visual and found none blown. Any ideas?

 

Check the tow relay in the under hood fuse box to see if it went bad.

 

Will do. I forgot to mention running lights etc work on the trailer

 

Fuses can appear to be OK when they are not. The can crack or burn where you can't see them. Look in your Owner's Manual for the trailer battery charge fuse and check it with a continuity tester.

 

I've got a meter. I'll check it out thanks

 

I check the 20A Trailer Tow Battery Charge Fuse #107 and it tested good. I then checked the Trailer Tow Battery Charge Relay #301 under the hood and the spot is empty. No relay in that position and there are no pegs to accept a relay either. It's never easy!

 

I had a '94 F-150 with a cap that had the dome light option. Every time that quit working, it was an inline fuse. My cap was installed with an extra wire to power the dome light. I didn't install it, but it was attached to a spot in the under hood fuse block.

Dave

 

My work truck with an ARE has an inline fuse that runs clear upto the battery. However the ARE on my PSD runs down and ties into a group of wires above the hitch. I just have to believe there is a correlation between the interior trailer lights not working and the ARE light not working. However I've been wrong before.

 

The fuse and relay are in the Central Junction Box, under the panel below the steering wheel. This is according to your owner's manual, starting on page 208.

http://www.motorcraftservice.com/pub.../06f23og2e.pdf

 

So that splice under the truck, for the ARE light must be a solid brown wire ? Is there 12 + volts to that point ? I think I'd redo that connection, no matter what it looks like, and see if everything works again. The interior lights in the trailer are tied in to the running lights ? Or check the interior lights wire in the trailer for a bad connection at its source, probably right under the front end of the trailer ( and most likely just a Scotch Lock connection ).

Dave

 

Thanks, found relay and replaced with new. Did not make fix problem

 

I'll have to check for the brown wire under the truck and 12v. The interior lights in the trailer are seperate from the running lights etc. When I plugged trailer into wifes Explorer everything works fine including interior lights. Also the trailer uses the large plug not 4 pin as it has trailer brakes. I will report back later in the week when I get back from working out of town.

I'm assuming this brown wire is providing power to the light in the topper and the pin in socket that the trailer plugs into?

 

That's what it sounds like to me. If you have the little round 4 wire socket under the bumper, there should be a green, yellow, white, and brown wire. The brown one is running lights on the trailer, and most likely the trailer interior lights ( through a separate switch in the trailer. ) The interior lights of the trailer should be either an orange or possibly a red wire, from under the front of the trailer, to the inside switch. This feed wire to the switch is usually, in a 4 wire set up, connected to the brown wire under the trailer.

Since the trailer is fine on the wife's vehicle. there has to be a bad connection in yours, probably in the back end, either in or near the female side of the plug connection.

Dave