Trailer Lights

[FunFlatsFishing]

How often do you have to repair/replace your trailer lights?

I recently switched to LEDs and even those have gone out on me after a few months. 

[Moderator]

Trailer lights are truly vexing..  Your best bet is to get good sealed LED units and run a new harness. Be careful to use the heat seal connectors and then use shrink wrap over.

Pipe lights are another solution for those frustrated with failures.

Always make sure your grounds are good and connectors sprayed with corrosion spray..

Brake lights are essential to keep grilles & water pumps off your lower units..

Be safe !

[fishmanjj]

Eliminate splices whenever possible, if needed..I solder in a butt splice, coat with dielectric grease, use shrink tubing and keep a good coat of corrosion spray on the trailer plug wires also. I have switched to sealed LED and have no issues after two years. My trailer gets dunked in salt water at least 40 times a year and up to these current LED's , I have replaced too many sets to count. Seemed like I had stock in # 1157 bulbs !! 

[Mellow Yellow 1806V]

I've tried the LED lights and in my opinion they are a complete waste of money. I started just buying the cheap submersible ones for around $5. They last as long if not longer than the LED lights and if they go you just replace the 50 cent bulb or the whole thing for $5. One thing I do is always unplug them before putting in the water. I had 2 sets of LED lights not make it 6 months and have had cheap ones last a couple years. 99% of my fishing/hunting is done in saltwater.

[THE OUTLAW]

Use the pipe lights .

Put all splices right under the lights .

Use a heavy duty extension cord .

Run up both sides of trailer .

Most important .

ELIMINATE THE SIDE LIGHTS

That extra splice is your weak link.

Instead , use the red/white trailer reflective tape .

That works 24-7-365.

Then, put your plug connections inside your trailer , two to three feet behind the hitch .

Lastly , I sealed up the forward channel , behind the hitch with closed cell foam .

There is no exposed connections , the lights never get wet , and there are no splices between the lights and the plug .

5 yesrs . 0 issues

 

K.I.S.S

[linesider 159]

I use an extension cord for the harness with walmart submersible leds. Never had an issue

[gasparilla]

I did mine similar to what @theoutlaw described - but, I installed a NEMA electrical box, probably 8x8, in front of the winch.  I put watertight electrical fittings for the wires to enter and exit the box - inside, I connect everything to the harness, sprayed it down with some corrosion protectant, and forgot about it.  The only way to go.

[smilemaker]

Depending on the width of your trailer you may be required to have a light in the middle of the trailer, so it may  not be possible to go post only. The length of your rig may also require side lights. The trick is to keep it to a minimum to stay legal and not look like a pimped out 18 wheeler. Sealed LED is the way to go but the trick is to make the wire connections sealed. Use a shrink crimp,cover with liquid electrical tape and place shrink wrap over that  before it dries to finish it off, LEDs are sensitive to proper wiring so make sure the pos/neg are correct. If backwards they may still work but will not be as bright and the life span will be shortened.  Also a poor ground is the most common cause of early failure.

[FunFlatsFishing]

13 minutes ago, smilemaker said:

Depending on the width of your trailer you may be required to have a light in the middle of the trailer, so it may  not be possible to go post only. The length of your rig may also require side lights. The trick is to keep it to a minimum to stay legal and not look like a pimped out 18 wheeler. Sealed LED is the way to go but the trick is to make the wire connections sealed. Use a shrink crimp,cover with liquid electrical tape and place shrink wrap over that  before it dries to finish it off, LEDs are sensitive to proper wiring so make sure the pos/neg are correct. If backwards they may still work but will not be as bright and the life span will be shortened.  Also a poor ground is the most common cause of early failure.

I believe in Florida, only the two lights are required 

[smilemaker]

Found this link for federal rules. I would think that staes would be the same.

http://expediter.com/pdf folder/J folder/J28-30.pdf

[hurricane]

Most common issue with trailer lights no matter the type, is the ground. If the light is grounded at the back near the light, it will fail in no time.

If you never want to mess with trailer lights again, go with the pipe lights. Do the splices high in the pipe so they don't get wet, run the grounds all the to the front. Should last the life of the trailer.

[mulligan]

Quote

If you never want to mess with trailer lights again, go with the pipe lights. Do the splices high in the pipe so they don't get wet, run the grounds all the to the front. Should last the life of the trailer.

What Hurricane said.  I have always done the above and have not had an issue.  If you want to have running lights on the side of the trailer make the splice up near the tounge and run a separate wire for the running lights.  This way if you have an issue with the running lights it should not effect your tail lights.

[triplec]

6 years on my LEDs and wouldn't run anything else. As others through, make junctions at tongue and home runs for each light. On mine I make connections above and keep lights above water. Only sees salt so I wondered how they would hold up. Mine are much brighter over time than incandescent. As Dino says...its always the ground...when there is an issue...or so it seems.

[FunFlatsFishing]

Let's see how long they last this time. 

Tons of dielectric grease, heat shrink connectors covered by heat shrink sleeves. 

[Capt. Troy]

1 hour ago, FunFlatsFishing said:

Let's see how long they last this time. 

Tons of dielectric grease, heat shrink connectors covered by heat shrink sleeves. 

Not Gonna last long at all. You are showing the white wire grounding to the frame of the trailer and relying on those "exposed bolts" and frame to make up your ground. Thus, running current/voltage through your trailer frame to achieve the ground. I bet the tongue of your trailer has a short white wire making up the plug ground to your truck. Another weak link. 

My Amertrail trailer grounded all the way back to the tow vehicle has until just recently original led lights on it. That trailer has been splashed close to 1000 times in 6 years. Run a Dedicated ground to the tow vehicle. Bad grounds are the common failure point as you just showed in your pic. Bad grounds will also pop the diodes in all the LED lights.  

[DonV]

Again, my humble opinion. Get a 16/3 or 14/3 extension cord and dedicate each light to it's own individual feed cable. Make it a "home run" from the truck's ground and light connections to each of the trailer lights, NO splices, again one dedicated feed to each light. It goes without explanation as mentioned in other posts, lots of sealant, or heat shrink butt connectors and additional adhesive heat shrink over everything at each splice. As Capt. Troy says " Bad grounds are the common failure point" and trailer frames to 2" hitch balls will equal bad grounds. Do it once like this and you are done!

[justdriftin]

Makes sense, but are you using tinned extension cords?  I haven't seen them.  If you are tinning your exposed wires, I guess not a problem because they are sealed very well.  But I use tinned wire for my trailer just like it do for any boat wiring.  And btw, check those wiring harnesses even the marine supply shops sell, make sure they are tinned.  I just got tinned wire from Pacer Marine last time i rewired my trailer and made my own wiring harness.  Was not all that hard.

I did have a sealed LED light end up not being sealed recently and filled up with water and fail.  Do not have the pipe lights, thought sealed led would be good to be submersed, but guess not.   

[FunFlatsFishing]

12 hours ago, Capt. Troy said:

Not Gonna last long at all. You are showing the white wire grounding to the frame of the trailer and relying on those "exposed bolts" and frame to make up your ground. Thus, running current/voltage through your trailer frame to achieve the ground. I bet the tongue of your trailer has a short white wire making up the plug ground to your truck. Another weak link. 

My Amertrail trailer grounded all the way back to the tow vehicle has until just recently original led lights on it. That trailer has been splashed close to 1000 times in 6 years. Run a Dedicated ground to the tow vehicle. Bad grounds are the common failure point as you just showed in your pic. Bad grounds will also pop the diodes in all the LED lights.  

What is the over/under? 3 months lol.

I'm taking bets..

[THE OUTLAW]

Can't predict when , as in the calander , but more accurately can predict when , as in time of day.

 

That would be at 0400 , when you are pumped to go fishing .

[Capt. Troy]

5 hours ago, FunFlatsFishing said:

What is the over/under? 3 months lol.

I'm taking bets..

A cold beer that your point of the next failure will be because of a bad ground unless you flip your rig get hit from behind while towing it.

In your pic I see, aluminum, galvanized metal, and stainless steel. Lets dip those 3 dissimilar metals in some salt water and then run a little

Voltage/Current through your trailer frame.That's what helps to turn boat trailers into metal sawdust.

Oh, I like my beer really cold.

[DonV]

Actually Capt. that zinc coated nut, washer combination sandwiched with the copper lug between the aluminum bracket is a sure bet for your case of really cold beer!! Oh yeah, the Outlaw is correct, gremlins wake up only on fishing days at 0330 to do their dirty work and almost always bring out the ever famous quote at the 0400 hour, "the lights worked perfect last trip out".

[GatorJ]

A couple of tips:

1. Buy quality LED lights. Not the ones from Harbor Freight or Walmart.

2. Use stainless hardware for attaching lights to the frame.

3. Use marine grade terminal ends and butt connectors.

4. As others have said, use post lights if possible, minimize the number of connections, use heat shrink tubing on connections. 

5. Possibly the biggest trick is to apply a double coat of Liquid Electrical Tape to all connections AND where your ground wires attach.

[FINCHASER]

Not sure why lights seem to be such an issue for some... my ameritrail is going on 5 years old and the LEDs have been rock  solid.  Ive had to replace a marker light or 2 only because of the contacts in the plugs corrode to the point they cant make a connection & Ive had to redo a couple butt splices as they all will over time get water in them and fail. 

  The issues are so few and far between that im fine with it vs running a 40 wire system to keep connections out of the water... until someone comes up with a way to eliminate all splices at the lights it will always be the weakest link.  Because of the low power draw of LEDs your ground connections have to be flawless. 

Not a fan of pipe lights... and theres a good bit of talk they don't last well up there due to the severe vibrations

[johnd]

It's the wires, not the lights.  Most new LED light packages come with ultra thin wires...do not use.  The extension cord idea makes sense, but a bit more money, buy Ancor marine wire (duplex unless you plan to home run the grounds).  Heat shrink butts covered with heat shrink tubes.  Every splice is a weak link that will fail early the morning you are going fishing. Lol.   As stated, most issues are ground related.

 

 

[Fishtails]

Good thread. We need to keep this one. Please