Trailer lights

J-Pipes

J-Pipes

Active member
I have a 2017 gator made bumper pull trailer that when hooked to all but two vehicles so far all the lights work as they should. When I used a friend's 2013 duramax to pull it while my truck was broke, everything worked fine until I turned the headlights on, then I had no trailer lights. I just blamed the truck then because it sits alot as the owner spends most of his time in a semi. But I just installed a hitch and harness on my wifes 2018 Nissan murano, and it is doing the same thing. All lights worked fine as long as the headlights are off. Turn them on and I have nothing. I'm thinking a ground issue, but kinda stumped as it has now done the same thing on different vehicles. You guys think I'm on the right track checking grounds, or should I be looking elsewhere?

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Hook back up to the last vehicle it worked right on.
If you again lose the tails, the problem is likely a ground.

Another way to check, is turn the headlights on, then try turn signals and see if the trailer's lights fluctuate a lot, which also means there's a bad ground.

Don't rule out a pulled wire in the connector plug, either.

Mark.
 
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That’s one of the more comical problems I’ve heard of in awhile. LOL
I think you are on track with a ground issue. Make sure that the ground terminal in the trailer plug actually has a wire going to it that is grounded to the trailer frame, and that they aren’t relying on the hitch ball to ground the trailer.
I fought with a similar issue when I would put 2 different trailers behind my Excursion. Once I grounded them thru the plug everything worked correctly.
 
Update. Haven't done anything with the trailer yet, it had still been fine when hooked to my truck, until Tuesday night. Getting dark, had headlights on, trailer brakes randomly activated going up a hill. Everything is fine until I turn the headlights on. Plan is to start with the grounds on the trailer, but I was wondering, could it be the battery for the trailer brakes? Need to get this figured out before next Saturday, making a trip to Illinois.

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J-Pipes said:
Update. Haven't done anything with the trailer yet, it had still been fine when hooked to my truck, until Tuesday night. Getting dark, had headlights on, trailer brakes randomly activated going up a hill. Everything is fine until I turn the headlights on. Plan is to start with the grounds on the trailer, but I was wondering, could it be the battery for the trailer brakes? Need to get this figured out before next Saturday, making a trip to Illinois.

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Check connections on 7pin on trailer side if its a removable pin. Our broke the plastic housing at one time and did funky stuff on my 99 but was perfect on my brothers 07. Just difference in female connector on truck would make it shift and make it go crazy.
 
Subsc'd for info.

Does the trailer have the pre-mad, molded, wiring harnesses or how is it wired? The last time I had an issue with mine, a mouse had gotten into the tool box in the neck and decided to eat a bunch of pvc. Made a mess of the wires.
 
Farm use probably won't work on a trip to Illinois! Jory, I dont know what that means to be honest. It's the factory wiring on a 2017 gator 82"×12' tandem 3500lb braking axels. Everything works fine brakes included, until I turn the headlights on, then the brakes are on full time.

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J-Pipes said:
Farm use probably won't work on a trip to Illinois! Jory, I dont know what that means to be honest. It's the factory wiring on a 2017 gator 82"×12' tandem 3500lb braking axels. Everything works fine brakes included, until I turn the headlights on, then the brakes are on full time.

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ok so the brakes work..try this for fun..take the trlr grnd..the one from the truck thru the plug and ground it to the same stud as the brakes..see if it helps...unless the plug is all fucll of crap and water insdie...I had mine doing some of that weird light crap..since I knew the brake grnd was good I jumped the light grnd to it and its been perfect ever since...
 
I'll post some pictures when I work on it tomorrow. So far I've only seen one ground up near the hitch, I did pull it loose already, but need to double check.

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J-Pipes said:
Farm use probably won't work on a trip to Illinois! Jory, I dont know what that means to be honest. It's the factory wiring on a 2017 gator 82"×12' tandem 3500lb braking axels. Everything works fine brakes included, until I turn the headlights on, then the brakes are on full time.
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So, I'd be willing to bet it is a short inside either the trailer plug or lead going from the trailer to the plug. Sounds like the brown wire is touching the brake wire. Hopefully you figure it out easy enough.

As far as the modeled wire harness thing goes, I now for load trail like mine, the harness is broken up into multiple sub assemblies. Each one has an over-molded connector for each splice. There is not of that scotch-lock BS and no places for water or weather to affect performance. They are far superior in the robust category. Mine failed because a pack rat decided to water proof his nest with PVC. LOL

Wire Wiring Harness
 
4x4dually said:
So, I'd be willing to bet it is a short inside either the trailer plug or lead going from the trailer to the plug. Sounds like the brown wire is touching the brake wire. Hopefully you figure it out easy enough.



As far as the modeled wire harness thing goes, I now for load trail like mine, the harness is broken up into multiple sub assemblies. Each one has an over-molded connector for each splice. There is not of that scotch-lock BS and no places for water or weather to affect performance. They are far superior in the robust category. Mine failed because a pack rat decided to water proof his nest with PVC. LOL



Wire Wiring Harness
Click to expand...
It is supposed to be a sealed harness system.

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get it hooked up while its doing the wrong weird thing anf then use some jumper cables fron the truck to the trlr to make a good grnd and see..kinda riggin but might help
 
Here's a picture of the cord coming into the junction box. I think it's in the cord itself, it has a pinched spot in it, I can remember it getting pinched, but not when it happened. I have another cord I'm going to swap it out with. I was checking continuity of the pins of the trailer plug, almost all of them ding together, to were as my gooseneck does not.
c18f4d65466779bd335ef605127cdc11.jpg


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Well, got this figured out yesterday. It had shorted out at the right taillight. Had to cut out a fair chunk of melted wires, but got it all back together and woking good on my truck. Also took a few to get my wifes Murano figured out, it is a ground issue. I'm using an adapter to go from the 7 pin trailer to the 4 pin in her car. The adapter harness I have has an extra ground wire, that needs a mating end made and attached to the frame of the car. The ground wire of the cars harness does nothing, even if I put it directly to the wire of the adapter. But if I wedge the adapter wire into the receiver it works. Just need to make a permanent setup for that.

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