Trailer Wiring ...

[mykwalker1]

I took my pup out this past weekend for a quick one nighter with my daughter as she had a girl scouting event.  I had a room to sleep in ... but thought it would be wise to give it a spring shakedown anyways.

It traveled nicely to the location about an hour away without incident.  Then on the way home I noticed the brake controller light would flash when I had on the turn signal.  The brakes (trailer) would work still -- but the lights would still flicker and change to a color that I hadn't seen on the controller last year.

Additionally, the brakes were overly sensitive - i.e. they would lock up periodically (under braking) at a setting on the brake controller that previously wouldn't have a problem.

What's weird is at times on the way home -- everything would be great and work fine and then moments later down the road I'd signal and it would flash.  

Any ideas -- maybe a bad ground?

Thanks!

[austinado16]

Yes, I would definately check the grounds for the trailer harness.  It may be trying to make a ground connection through the towing ball, and either your ball is rusty, or the inside of the tongue where the ball rides is rusty, so you get a good ground at times, and then not a good ground.

[wavery]

Sounds to me like your trailer has a demon :yikes: .

[mykwalker1]

Yes, I would definately check the grounds for the trailer harness.  It may be trying to make a ground connection through the towing ball, and either your ball is rusty, or the inside of the tongue where the ball rides is rusty, so you get a good ground at times, and then not a good ground.

Thanks ... would the ground be different than the one from the trailer battery?  

Also, the TV has a ground that is correctly grounded ... wouldn't it ground through that as well?

I'll check around the trailer wiring and see if I can see one that's not secure.

Thanks,
Mike

[wavery]

Thanks ... would the ground be different than the one from the trailer battery?  

Also, the TV has a ground that is correctly grounded ... wouldn't it ground through that as well?

I'll check around the trailer wiring and see if I can see one that's not secure.

Thanks,
Mike

The ground for your trailer lights must come from the TV, not your camper's battery. Your trailer lights are on a totally separate system.

Use a test light to be sure that the ground lug on your trailer socket (on TV) is good. Then check the ground lug on your trailer plug. Don't count on your trailer grounding through the trailer hitch.

The symptoms that you describe suggest that you may have a wire strand (inside the trailer plug) that may be intermittently shorting. You may want to pull both sides of the trailer socket apart and make sure that all of the connections are clean and secure.

This might help:
http://www.accessconnect.com/trailer_wiring_diagram.htm

[Recumbentman]

I would recommend that you spray both the connector and plug with WD-40 and wipe out both pieces. could be as simple has having dirt or some other foreign object not letting the system make a good connections.

[wavery]

To have 12v bleeding from the T/S to the brake controller, it may be more than an interruption in service (dirt or bad ground).

You may have voltage bleeding from one circuit (T/S) to another (brake lights). There are 2 places that could happen. The trailer harness plug or (believe it or not) a burned out bulb. It isn't common but sometimes when a dual filament bulb blows, the blown filament (in this case the T/S) will short across the good filament (in this case the brake lights). When the T/S filament is activated, power will bleed back through the brake light circuit. However, this is rare and my $ would be on a arrant wire in the trailer plug. A bad ground may cause a similar phenomena. I thiat case, a good cleaning could do the trick.

[mykwalker1]

To have 12v bleeding from the T/S to the brake controller, it may be more than an interruption in service (dirt or bad ground).

You may have voltage bleeding from one circuit (T/S) to another (brake lights). There are 2 places that could happen. The trailer harness plug or (believe it or not) a burned out bulb. It isn't common but sometimes when a dual filament bulb blows, the blown filament (in this case the T/S) will short across the good filament (in this case the brake lights). When the T/S filament is activated, power will bleed back through the brake light circuit. However, this is rare and my $ would be on a arrant wire in the trailer plug. A bad ground may cause a similar phenomena. I thiat case, a good cleaning could do the trick.

Thanks ... I'll check the lights and the ground.  I don't think it's a miswiring situation as it worked well last year and earlier this year without incident.

Thanks so much for all the replies.

Mike

[wavery]

Thanks ... I'll check the lights and the ground.  I don't think it's a miswiring situation as it worked well last year and earlier this year without incident.

Thanks so much for all the replies.

Mike

I wasn't suggesting a "miswiring situation". Automotive wires are stranded wires, made up of hundreds of tiny wires covered with insulation to make one wire. They do this because they are more flexible and resistant to vibration. Sometimes, one of the tiny strands can come away from the main wire, especially when they are used in a clamp type connection in a harness. If that tiny little strand comes in contact with one of the other connections, it can cause the symptom that you have.

When making up a trailer harness, the best way to do it is to coat all of the exposed wire ends with solder  before putting them through the connection and tightening the screw. This ensures that you won't have any loose strands and cuts down on corrosion. Hardly anyone goes to the trouble of doing that and that is why most trailer wiring problems occur.