How To Wire Trailer Lights! [[ OLD HORSE TRAILER NEW LIGHTS]]

Рет қаралды 28,525

3 жыл бұрын

Trailer lights can be a huge pain on older trailers and especially boat trailers. Nothing drives me crazier than intermittent trailer lights. Due to constant wet and dirty conditions and constant abuse. Trailer lights need maintenance constantly. If a light gives me a problem more than a twice I replace it. If you shop around they are much cheaper than a ticket. Often less than $20.
Trailer wiring can be a bit confusing. When I first wired a trailer many years ago. I was very confused for a moment. I have done low voltage electrical work all my life. We use 2 conductor for almost everything. Which is a positive with a negative wire. With metal trailers the trailer itself is the negative. All you have to do is tie the ground from the plug (the white wire) to the trailer frame. Then run one positive wires (depending on the light) to the light. The only thing past that is getting the right and left turn signals correct. If you use a factory 4 conductor it is very simple.
Probably the most important thing about wiring trailer lights is good wire connections. Good as in water tight. Either connectors with dielectric grease or sealing your butt connectors. My go to is liquid tape. Works well and easier than heat shrink in my opinion. In this video I used connectors with dielectric grease. They are made to connect telephone wires in outdoor enclosures. I use them at work sometimes when we have them.
I hope this video will help you in some way. Hopefully you will now be able to fix your own trailer lights. This is a horse trailer, but it is the same concept on most all trailers. Boat, equipment, utility, car haulers, etc. Thank you for taking the time to read and watch! Please subscribe!

Пікірлер: 32

@theequinealchemist9448 3 жыл бұрын

This was the easiest video to understand of all my KZfaq searches! Detailed, straight to the point and easy to understand. THANK YOU! I’ve never wired a horse trailer before and this got me through it with success.

@FishHuntCookTinker 3 жыл бұрын

I am glad it helped and you were able to do it successfully. Thank you for watching!

@rackedtilmax 3 жыл бұрын

Did you have to add two ground wires to the frame in order to get your clearance lights to work. If not how did you get them to work on both side??

@user-he8sn8yg7i 2 ай бұрын

Good information right there. In way to be patient when talking about it.

@Legacy4K 7 ай бұрын

Thank you! You made my day!

@cwilson9636 2 жыл бұрын

Your video made me confident enough to go pick my trailer back up from the shop to do it myself. Thank you! I was looking at at $500.00 repair to rewire my trailer. Thanks for the save and the video

@FishHuntCookTinker 2 жыл бұрын

That’s awesome to hear. I am glad you were able to DIY and save some $. It is good to hear that my videos help someone. Thank you for watching and I hope it turned out like you hoped!

@cwilson9636 2 жыл бұрын

@@FishHuntCookTinker I greatly appreciated you and your video. My children and I didna great job and the rewiring of my 3 horse slant was simple. Kids live being under the trailer. I did the layout of the wires. We did the work like the pros would. I had them watch your video too. So anybody can do this! Thanks so much again for the motivation 😊

@FishHuntCookTinker 2 жыл бұрын

That is awesome. I love to hear you got the kids involved! My daughter helped a lot fixing ours up. Mostly on the painting though.

@cwilson9636 2 жыл бұрын

@@FishHuntCookTinker 👊 Great Job! Builds confidence in kids and that they can do anything they pit their minds too! Keep the Great videos coming😊

@bikerbitch44 3 жыл бұрын

By God I greatly appreciate you and your ability to not only explain each process, but also the wire diagram, wire coloring, marker placement, rivets and everything in between. I'm restoring my 2 horse that's almost identical as yours, I bought mine without any wiring or covers. Mine doesn't have brakes either so that was good info for me also. I'm getting ready to paint her before I install wiring or floors, I am going to be installing a upper back light bar and inside lights, 2 inside small osculation fans and a audio/video camera that will connect to my trucks dash monitor just so I can keep an eye on the horses during the haul. Not one other tutorial on YT explained or helped me out! I'm not a dumb bunny but up until 3 years ago I didn't know anything about trucks or trailers except how to put gas in the tank or how to pay for it at best.. as a much needed personal therapy for depression after the loss of my sister, daddy, daughter and son, plus recently divorced my fault entirely and no blame on him, I woke up walked outside took a deep breath, saw both trailer and my old 98 GMC k2500 4x4 just sitting there unused for over a year.. so I googled, You tubed to get the truck started and it took off from there.. I had bought the trailer to restore for small shows and vet runs..so now going on my 3rd year and working on weekends, I am proud of me, still sad on days but greatfull for people like you and your shared knowledge to old woman like myself that wanna learn and wanna do the unknown and finally figures out they CAN. If I tear it up! Hey it can be fixed or scrapped! After all I worked, paid for it and hold the titles! Lol.. you get my point.. anyway thanks again... You don't know how much your knowledge was worth to me..

@FishHuntCookTinker 3 жыл бұрын

I am very glad my video helped you. It is awesome that you are learning to fix things yourself. Most of my friends and family give me a hard time for always working on stuff. I have so many projects I can barely keep up. They say I should enjoy the weekend and rest. To me there are not many things as rewarding and therapeutic as fixing something old or broken. When you are deep in a project you are excited about your mind is focused on one thing. I am sorry for the hard things you have had to deal with, but it is great to hear your story.

@tryingtohelpout 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much, that helped me tremendously get lights on our 1971 trailer

@FishHuntCookTinker 2 жыл бұрын

I am glad to help. I enjoy hearing others found my videos helpful on their projects. Thank you for watching!

@JerichoRoseOfficial Жыл бұрын

This was soooo helpful!! Thanks for all the explanation and including your troubleshooting!! 🎉

@oscarcruz9585 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for your video. It's going to help me hook up my lights on my horse trailer with ease.

@FishHuntCookTinker 2 жыл бұрын

I am glad it helps you out! Thank you for watching!

@teresawort9124 3 жыл бұрын

Dude you just saved me some money. I have a 1973 stock horse trailer. The marker lights need rewired. The rest of the light are good. So I can do that work myself. Coolness ! I also need to raise the the horse head area of my trailer. There is a half moon welded plate in the trailer roof In this area. If removed it should be pretty easy from a body shop to add another 12" to this area. I am going to have the shop replace the bearings, brakes, control arm, tie rods, leaf springs etc. New tires too.. Once all that is done I will have it repainted.

@FishHuntCookTinker 3 жыл бұрын

I am glad it helped. When you get all that done it will be ready to go. Should last you a long time. Thank you for watching!

@dmitrikhorokhorin9307 3 ай бұрын

Спасибо

@user-xy4rl2km2k 11 ай бұрын

What did you use for the rust?

@user-yy3ll9bm1q 10 ай бұрын

What size the tail lights

@rackedtilmax 3 жыл бұрын

Did you have to add two ground wires to the frame in order to get your clearance lights to work. If not how did you get them to work on both side??

@FishHuntCookTinker 3 жыл бұрын

One ground is all you need. From the plug to any clean metal on the trailer frame. The metal trailer is one big ground. Anywhere on the trailer that is metal will be a ground for your lights. All the wires you run to your lights are positive voltage. Each light will have its own ground that just ties to any metal on the trailer. In the instance of the clearance lights. There is no actual ground wire. They get their ground from the screws or rivets you use to mount them. It is important to make sure the holes you use to rivet them or screw them on are clean metal. I believe you can see in the video the ground strap inside the clearance lights. One side has a metal strap where the mounting hole is. The other is just plastic. This metal strap goes to the light bulb to provide ground or negative. The only time you would need a wire for ground is if you were mounting the light on wood. For whatever reason. In this case you would have to run a wire from the metal strap on the clearance light to any metal on the trailer. I hope this makes sense and helps. Thank you for watching!

@ttv_sway9531 2 жыл бұрын

Hey I have a question on my horse trailer should the wires have 14 volts or 12v cause when I check it shows 12 volts while truck is on

@FishHuntCookTinker 2 жыл бұрын

It’s hard to say honestly. I don’t remember ever taking a voltage reading on my truck and trailer lights. As long as you have 12v you should be good. Most newer trucks probably have voltage regulators that only allow 12v to lighting circuits. That way the circuit can not be over loaded by the alternator. Thanks for watching hope that helps!

@demarcoparham3241 3 жыл бұрын

What size tail lights did you use

@FishHuntCookTinker 3 жыл бұрын

I used 4”. I was going to put a link in the description. Apparently I got some that were discontinued from Walmart. I could not find them online or a link. Thank you for watching!

@kellycollier2026 3 жыл бұрын

It was all good until I saw that anvil shaped piece of metal from Harbor. Come on man! As a fellow Southerner I expect better.

@FishHuntCookTinker 3 жыл бұрын

Have you seen how expensive real anvils are? I couldn’t justify a good one. I use it to beat random things more than make knives. If I get more in-depth into knife making I’ll get a good one. Thanks for watching!

@kellycollier2026 3 жыл бұрын

@@FishHuntCookTinker I keep a ball bearing in my pocket all the time in case I come across a decent one at a random yard sale. Yeah they are ridiculous expensive. Lucky for me I inherited from Papaw and Dad a couple nice ones. As a farrier I can't get by with a bad one.

@FishHuntCookTinker 3 жыл бұрын

I’m sure in they line of work you need a good one. I have tried to buy a few at auctions in the past. Some one always needed it more than I did.