Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Trailer plug wires

trailer wiring is about as simple as it gets. a hot to each light and a ground. a kid could wire one.i don't understand. for 30.00 you can put a complete kit on most any trailer.they even come color coded so you can't screw it up.

Trailer lights and trailer brakes are two differnt things.OP was having trouble with the brakes.

Yes, they are simple. Which is why it's so frustrating they rarely all work as they should for any length of time. I've pulled and wired and messed with a bunch of trailers over the years. I've yet to meet anyone who has messed with trailers for any appreciable amount of time who can say "I never have any issues with trailer lights/wiring" LMAO. As saddlesore pointed out, my frustration on this was the with the brakes, and specifically the plug on the truck.

And as a matter of fact the lights I've got on my 2 current trailers have 2 wires, neither of which is the ground. I almost upgraded to LED's (the ones I looked at did have 3 wires one of which was a ground) but didn't want to drop the coin.

You're right in that 12V wiring is as simple as wiring gets. The problem isn't with new stuff. The problem is gremlins in older stuff, especially stuff that doesn't have any loom around wires strung inside of small spaces, like a trailer frame. Is your grounding problem the ground wire, the connector, or has your wire worn through due to no loom and you're grounding inside of the trailer frame? Or a combination or all 3? Regarding brakes, the above grounding scenarios could be the issue, or your actuators could be faulty, or they could be rusted open, or shut. If you bought used, add in that lord only knows what sort of madness resided within the cranium of the trailer's previous owner.

not addressing the brake issue...

but on the wiring, all the rain we get every winter over here, just plays havoc with the lighting on my trailer...

So I went down to Platt Electric Supply and bought encased wiring in rubber, for about $60 for the trailer.... put in sealed lights...all the parts ran me right at $100....

but since I quit messing around with cheap crap from the Auto Parts store, and took the time to do it right, I've had zero issues over the last 3 winters now...

The summer when I was four, mom said I took a piece of metal that formerly connected the drive wheels on a wind-up choo choo, climbed up on a chair and with one hand on the exposed steam radiator pipe, inserted the thin metal piece into a wall outlet.

I'd already learned not to grab the radiator pipe in the wintertime when the heat was on, so that wasn't a factor.

Got lucky the first time and picked the "hot" slot, wound up under the kitchen table screamin' that my tummy was on fire. Mom was always too dramatic with her descriptions.

So naturally when I was all growed up, got into working in housing construction as a plumber and electrician, among other things. Ain't hardly been jolted since the episode in the kitchen.

As for trailer wiring, I have owned a trailer of some sort since I was 17 and now have two. In my (51 years) experience, trailer wiring only works when it really friggin' feels like working, regardless of anything done by me.

One year I hauled the double axle flatbed to hunting camp to fetch a coupla cords of firewood home. Lights/brakes worked find when I left home. Hooked 'er up for the trip back, only had brake lights/turn signals. No problem, almost made it home afore dark.

JMHO from years of having trailers. Most problems I have run into have been grounding issues.

Very true. That's why most of us who've had problems in the past recommend running ground wires from the plug to the lights, not grounding through the frame. Frame grounding seems like it would work fine but most grounding problems seem to show up there.
Even worse is grounding through the hitch ball. Those always seem to fail when things get dirty.