snowmobile trailer lights

[dakotakid31]

what would cause all(running and tail) the lights to blink when i turn on the turn signals? they all work fine when i turn the lights on but all blink when the R or L turn signals are turned on. took the ground off to see what happens-nothing so put that back on. tried a new plug into the truck-again no change. which wire is crossing to cause this or is it something i am missing?

[Jeremy airjer W]

Sounds like you have a bad ground. Try running a wire from the trailer ground to a know good ground on the truck. If the problem corrects itself then we know we are on the right track.

[dakotakid31]

OK...i took jumper cables and hooked it to the frame and the Grd wire- same results. moved it to a few different spots natta. could the trailer plug be bad?

[Sandmannd]

Could be the plug, but also the adaptor. Do you use an adapter into the truck, that has gone out on me a couple of times.

[dakotakid31]

yeah i have two so i did try that.was hoping it was that but it wasnt. dangit

[Jeremy airjer W]

If you have a test light you can easily determine if the truck side is good, which I suspect. Hook the clip end to the ground (male terminal)of the truck side connector. With the lights on probe the remaining three terminals. If the test light lights up then you know the truck side ground is good.

Now you can focus on the ground for the trailer. I'm betting that somewhere along the ground wire there is a break.

[Macgyver55]

Its definitely a ground problem. On any trailer, make sure the ground (white) at the connector is attached to the tongue and clean. If it is a tilt trailer, check to see if there is a ground wire from the tongue to the bed (where it tilts) Some times they corrode, or break off. The lights will still work as long as there is a good connection through the bolt, but if that gets a bit dirty the lights will act just as yours are.

[sparkyaber]

99.9% of the time it is the ground. I have started drilling and tapping 1/4-20 bolts with crimped and soldered ends, also a layer of paint to reduce corrosion.

[ishgood]

Is it a sledbed?

I had some weird stuff like that happening to mine and it turned out to be the tail light connections.

From the factory, the connectors on the back of the tail lights were just not plugged in all the way. If you have the sealed beam type tail lights, they just mount in a rubber grommet. Take a screwdriver, pop em out, check the conntectors.

The other thing that can happen is filaments break and get crossed, cause weird feedbacks that look like a bad ground. Unplug one tail light, see if it makes the other one work correctly.

[dakotakid31]

As soon as i get a chance i will be trying some of the ideas. Already replaced the plug and sanded dowm where the ground wire connected-natta again. Its a Karavan Ultra but for the heck of it i will check that out.

[hanson]

Alot of trailers ground through the trailer frame.

With your tail lights, there will be 3 wires coming out of them, the white is typically ground. Most often the ground will be grounded right at the tail light to the frame, typically at the mounting bolt connections. The ground then follows through the frame to the white "ground" wire that connects to your pigtail connection. The truck/trailer connection than grounds it to the truck.

So if you are grounding at one end of the trailer into the frame, check the lights and make sure they are grounded well to the frame. Little bit of rust will cause your problem.

A not so easy fix to eliminate all grounding issues is to run ground wires back from the truck/trailer connection to the all the lights and bypass grounding through the frame. This will eliminate a lot of problems.

I'm 100% positive your problem is with the ground. Check the pigtail to frame ground. Check the light(s) to frame ground. And check everywhere in between to make sure positive contact is being made. The simple way to avoid all grounding problems is to run new ground wires from the pigtail to the taillights, and any other lights you wish to fix as well.