Trailer Lights

Depending on the year of your vehicle and the type of connector that may or may not have been installed by the factory, you could have a "hot" wire already running to the trailor, normally about a 10 ga. this is for running interior lights and the like.

Are you running a ground from the trailor to the truck, or are you relying on the trailor hitch to make the ground, if you are relying on the hitch this will kill the brightness of the lights on the trailor.

If you decide on running your own hot wire with a relay make sure you fuse that thing right up close to the battery, beleive it or not, I have seen a couple of vehicle fires, because of modified wiring that shorted with no fuse to blow.

Hope this helps.

Thanks. I am "virgin" trailer guy. I am using the factory installed harness. It was tucked up under the spare. It had about eight wires. I am only using the park lite, brake, left and right turn signals. Never thought to add a ground. I will give it a shot.

Joe

Ya just run a 10 ga. wire (white if I remember correctly) from the trailor frame to the trailor's wiring pigtail, and that should hook you directly to the trucks ground and brighten things up a little.

If your talking about the trucks pigtail you basically do the same thing run a wire from the trucks frame to the trucks wiring pigtail, unless the ground is in the factory harness.

The ground is there. That was the white I picked first! When I get the truck back (wife drove it 2 miles last Fri and it died. Dlr is still sorting it out.) I will hook a dedicated grd.

Thanks,
Joe

If thats a flat four plug that you are running I would ditch that right of way and wire direct to the the trailer wireing with a 4,6, or 7 pole round plug the flat four are nothing but trouble.

Yep, flat four. I will take your advice. I may be getting another truck, so the flat four may not be an issue!

Joe

I run the 7 blades on everything because I have reverse lights and other things on my trailer.

My question to Deere is why the flat fours are trouble? If the connections are clean and covered in dielectric grease you should not have a problem. This is the same for any plug and receptacle. Vehicle wiring problems almost always are found to be bad grounds or poor/corroded connections.

A little off topic...My f350 has no juice at the connector on the truck for the drivers side signal on the trialer. I haven't been able to get the trailer lights to work so I hooked the test light to it and it seems ther is no power at the connector (the truck tailights work fine) I had the same problem with my other truck...what do you think ....Fuse?

Depending on the year and model of your 350 it may have a totally seperate harness from the front of the truck for tow lights.

Look up in the fuse panel on the left fender.

Fireman

The reason I say they are trouble is the seem to be more likely to have problems like you mentioned. Lets face it they are designed to be cheap for people who only pull a trailer on a limited basis not all the time.

Actually they are designed for lightweight trailers that do not run brakes or other accessories. These trailers could be pulled everyday and not affect the wiring.

Further every year I replace many trailer receptacles. Most are the larger socket types because the owners never clean them out or grease them. Most people with the 4way plug tuck it up when not in use.

Wires are wires. If you care for them and set them up right then they will last.

hmmmmmmmm let me see light weight trailers normaly do not get used everyday. They are cheap plugs for people that do not need anything other than a cheap plug for a boat trailer or something of that sort.