Posted 2008-09-20 10:59 PM (#91825) Subject: Interior and Flood Lights - No Illumination
Elite Veteran
Posts: 781 Location: La Cygne, KS
Just bought a new 3-horse gooseneck and the interior lights in Dressing room and horse compartmnet along with the flood lights will not come on when truck is on and running. The brake, turn signals, and running lights are working.
Fuses have been checked on truck and appear fine. Our LQ trailer interior/flood lights work fine so I don't think it is in the truck wiring.... but not sure. Any ideas on what to check?
Posted 2008-09-21 10:11 AM (#91831 - in reply to #91825) Subject: RE: Interior and Flood Lights - No Illumination
Expert
Posts: 3802 Location: Rocky Mount N.C.
Did you buy that Diamond Dream Coach you looked at that had a little hail damage? Had the lights worked previously? Check the trailer cable plug wiring.
Posted 2008-09-21 10:32 AM (#91832 - in reply to #91831) Subject: RE: Interior and Flood Lights - No Illumination
Elite Veteran
Posts: 781 Location: La Cygne, KS
No, we purchased a new 2007 Cherokee. Second Cherokee trailer we have owned.... wish we never sold the first one. Hind-sight is 20/20 I guess.
Hubby picked the trailer up last week from Sutter MFG in Nixa, MO and he said he checked the ALL the lights. Hmmm.... now the interior/flood won't work. He looked at the fuses again this morning and one was blown. Now he is trying to figure out why the fuse is blowing.
We just got back from a week ride at Huckleberry State Park with our Elite LQ and all worked well, so we are fairly confident it is not the truck. Got to be something in the Cherokee plug/wiring. I hate wiring problems!
Posted 2008-09-21 11:06 AM (#91833 - in reply to #91825) Subject: RE: Interior and Flood Lights - No Illumination
Regular
Posts: 95 Location: East Central Kansas
The fuse that is blowing is the battery charge fuse. #4 pin on the trailer side. I have put a new fuse in and check the output from the truck side with a 12V tester and everything is good. Now I am looking at the trailer side to see if the fault is on the trailer side. Any good techniques anyone want to give up for troubleshooting a short on the trailer side?
Posted 2008-09-21 12:02 PM (#91837 - in reply to #91825) Subject: RE: Interior and Flood Lights - No Illumination
Expert
Posts: 3802 Location: Rocky Mount N.C.
First thing I would do is take the trailer plug apart, be sure there's not a strand of that hot lead wire touching anything other that the correct terminal. I always use a seperate 12V battery, (I don't use the trailer plug on the truck, you'll just keep blowing fuses) with pigtail jumper wires with a 15 amp inline circuit breaker just so I don't start any unwanted fires.
If nothing shows up with that inspection, trace that wire back into the trailer. Check those light connections where they come through the trailer....... Sometimes a gromet gets misplaced and the "technician" misses it and a hot wire makes it's way to a ground. Disable each light one at a time, trying to eliminate the bad one.
Do you have seperate switches on the rear of the trailer for interior lights, and another for the load lights??? If so turn them both off and see if that blows a fuse with the switches off. If it does, then the problem is between the switches on the rear and the trailer plug cable at the truck end..... You'll find the problem throught the process of elimination. It is agravating and time consuming, I worked on marker lights for the better part of a day this past week.... (try climbing a ladder and hanging on with one leg, just to get up there and drop the test light!!, I'm still sore all over) Found an LED marker light with moisture inside!!! Bad light from the mfg..
Posted 2008-09-21 5:51 PM (#91847 - in reply to #91825) Subject: RE: Interior and Flood Lights - No Illumination
Regular
Posts: 95 Location: East Central Kansas
Ok......Got the lights working, however I am not sure how. I think I had 2 things happen that were working against me. First is a bad ground. I tore the trailer cable apart literally. I looked over the whole cable and cleaned all the connections up and replaced all the plastic ties on the cable. Checked the battery connections for the trailer brakes and that was good also. I found 2 wires that were nicked when the trailer plug was put on. Cleaned the connector up and took the connector off. Cut that section off and put the connector backed together. Next I went through all the cabling between switches and all looked good. Then I got the old battery charger out and connected to the ground and battery charge wires on the trailer side. Low and behold all the lights work except for one in the horse compartment. Took that light out and found that the whole light fixture is a sealed unit. Thanks to a Dremel and some surgical cutting I got the light apart. Found the positive end of the light fixture touching the metal casing the light bulb slides into. Fix that issue, sanded the plastic pieces smooth and super glued the unit back together. Put the fixture back in place and all is well. Everything is working. No more blown fuses. Retento, you are correct. Have plenty of time to start at one end and work you way backwards.j
Interior and Flood Lights - No Illumination
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