4 wire trailer lights

[JustBob]

I have a 1984 Coachman C175 that I am trying to get ready for camping season. Most of the work is done and I am now re wiring the lights. When the flashers are on the tail lights and side markers flash. The left and right turn signals work. When I turn the tow vehicle lights on none of the lights on the trailer are illuminated. Is this normal with a 4 wire system or should the side markers and tail lights come on when the T/V lights are on?

[wavery]

I have a 1984 Coachman C175 that I am trying to get ready for camping season. Most of the work is done and I am now re wiring the lights. When the flashers are on the tail lights and side markers flash. The left and right turn signals work. When I turn the tow vehicle lights on none of the lights on the trailer are illuminated. Is this normal with a 4 wire system or should the side markers and tail lights come on when the T/V lights are on?

The side markers and tail lights should come on with the headlamps. The flashers should flash the T/S bulbs. The brakes should have a separate bulb on a 4-wire system.

What is your T/V?

If you have a later model T/V, the T/S and brake lights work off of the same bulb.

Basically, it's yellow (left) and green (right) wire for T/S and brakes , brown wire for tail lights & markers.

Older vehicles have a separate wire for the stop lights, I don't remember the color.

[austinado16]

My guess is that you've wired things up by matching the color of the wires in your camper, to the color of the wires in your tow vehicle's harness.  Can't do that on older campers as they appear to have been wired in their own colors.  Been there/done that, with my '87 Starcraft and the '83 Starcraft that I turned into a flatbed trailer.

Here's the solution:
1) Turn on your tow vehicle's parking lights.  With the camper hitched up to the TV, and the camper's wiring harness grounded.....this is usually the white wires.... touch one of the camper's colored wires to the brown wire connector on you TV harness.  Repeat this step until you see that the camper's running lights and tail lights are on.  You've just figured out which camper wire powers the running lights and tail lights.

2) Start your TV and turn on the left turn signal.  Touch one of the camper's wires at a time to the TV's yellow wire.  When the camper's left turn signal starts working, you've found the correct wire.

3) Same as #2, but for the right turnsignal and you'll be touching the TV's green wire.

Now wire it all up, and check hazards, stops and turns again.

If your TV is set up for a 6 or 7 pin, you might go that route into the camper, and then you can charge the camper's onboard battery, and run your 12v refrigerator while enroute to the campground.  Pretty handy!

[JustBob]

TV is  2002 Nissan Frontier 4wd

[mike4947]

This is why we always recommend using products like http://www.etrailer.com/pc-VWH~33515.htm
No muss, no fuss, just plug and play.
Many vehicles need a converter built into the wiring for the TV's three lighting circuits to the trailers two wire circuit.

[JustBob]

To those that posted thanks for the advise.

The problem was that when I installed the connector I grounded it to a cross member of the truck bed. The truck bed is rubber mounted so the ground was failing. I moved the ground to the frame and the lights now work.