I spent 40 years wrenching on cars and stuff mostly in dealerships. I am now 75 years old, 10 years retired. Watched some of your videos they nearly brought tears. The way you think, talk and try to reason why the fuck. The memory of working with real men and idiots, the mechonic’s mind set, the tricks of the trade that dumbfounded the ignorant, the heavy price paid for skilled eyes, ears, and hands. The hands on knowledge of mechanical physics learned through trial and error while losing my ass on the clock. Now all that wonderful is a fading memory, my life now is around polite old men and the wife 24/7 while young men (rightly so) don’t give a shit how I did it yesterday. And sure don’t write very well either.

Only thing worse than trailer wiring is electrical tape on trailer wiring... I don’t understand how it can remain so sticky, yet never stick to anything!

"It's always the last thing you fix that solves the problem." It gets much harder to judge your progress if you continue fixing a problem after it's solved.

This has to be the only KZfaq channel that I enjoy going through the comments as much as I like watching the videos

My buddy owns a trailer repair shop. Standard procedure is remove all wiring and start over. Especially boat trailers

Knipex pliers- seldom the "right" tool for the job, but usually the highest quality "wrong" tool for the job.

Why is trailer wiring so universally terrible? If somebody marketed a top quality waterproof wiring harness that happened to come with a trailer attached to it, they'd sell a million units.

When I get trailers in the shop I can almost guarantee I’m gonna start by pulling out all the wiring and running a new 7x14g wire and start fresh. Saves me at least two hours of trying to figure out what the last guy did because you know the wire is going to change color about three times before it gets to the back.

"Probably just the gas cap" Yeah, she's a keeper.

One correction, some mis-diagnosis on your part here. The brake-away contraption was working correctly, but some context is important. First consider the kind of cliff-side mountain road that is twisted and bumpy enough to knock a whole trailer loose. First things first, the driver ain't got time to worry about whatever's happening to the trailer, he's got more important things to focus on for a little while. *Did you see that reaction time? 2.5 seconds and there's already smoke. Perfect.* Now that wiring is laced throughout the whole flammable underside of the trailer right? Those thin unjacketed wires are that way from the factory by design! In another 10 seconds the whole trailer would have been up in evenly-distributed smoke. But no fire yet, see where I'm headed? That's your critical timing right there. It's an old Indian trick, smoke signals. The purpose of the smoke is to help you locate the trailer at the bottom of the ravine it's now lying in after you got the truck back under control and your passenger is sitting upright again and looking for a tissue. Now I was talking about timing, see, you've got yourself a few minutes to find the trailer from the smoke signals and disconnect the battery. Else, feature #2 kicks in: Insurance Claim. Did you know that if an animal is alive when you hit it, it's not considered an avoidable obstacle, and your comprehensive coverage will pay out and it's not considered an at-fault claim so your premiums won't increase? Call your broker, it's true. So, your driving was fine, an animal jumped out of the bush, you knocked it back into the ravine, the trailer came loose from the swerving... presto. New trailer. Now all those years of neglect, water rot, bent jack, sun-rotted air vent.. they're all about to pay off. Why fix the cow when you can get the milk for free? What condition was the trailer in? Well, no one'll ever know, because Feature #2 makes sure there's nothing left but box tube and ashes. What you've done here is tamper with the factory settings and voiding the whole warranty system. This thing is going to crash and you're not going to get a penny for it, you're actually going to have to fix it. And who wants that?

As a fleet mechanic, I can safely say, that is indeed the anthem to a successful repair. Also, a salute to the jeezless rat mother who decided that fire sale on red wire was appropriate for EVERY wire under a dash.

*invokes Greyskull to disconnect a battery* This guy is amazing, love it.

I've been an RV tech for 25 years. If it's taught me anything it's to not own one.

Step one: plug trailer cable into car/truck Step two: drive off, preferably full throttle Trailer is now free of wiring Step three: install new wiring All done!

The dirtiest word in the English language is”intermittent “

Spent all day fixing electrical gremlins on a led arrowboard trailer. Now it's on my favorite youtube channel. There is no escape

I picked up the flush cutter trick in my first week of my career as a dirty wrench bender. Although at the time I didn't know what they were. The second time I came outa the back of a Windstar engine bay with my arm looking like it was instead the maw of a great white. After the boss charging me for the use of 22 band-aids I took a pair of my normal side cutters to the bench grinder till I had made me a pair of flush cutters. I used that tool to save me many a pint of lost blood for pert near 20 years, till some kid decided they liked the old tool more than I did. It was the second time I fell a great degree of loss in my life, almost shed a tear.

"One little tug and they come" Haha! That one even caught you off guard

I removed the entire factory wiring on my boat trailer. Re-wired it using those crimps with the heat shrink that has the glue in it. Used a proper crimping tool and heat shrink gun set to about 900 degrees F. Can't pull the connections apart with all my strength, given that's not a whole lot anyways. She's all waterproofed now. Added several extra grounding spots throughout the whole frame because the ground is usually the thing that loses connecting first. Coated all bare metal grounds with liquid rubber. Bundled the harness throughout the whole frame and added extra sleeving at points where the wires would have been rubbing on the frame. Filled up the hollow square tubing tongue with expando foam to keep the wasp out. She should last at least 4 summers now. That is as long as nothing goes wrong with the boat. Lol

I kept a pretty straight face until, "and... we have smoke." I thought good sweet Christ what now? The poor bastard. Great stuff as always. Thank you good sir. I'd have given you a case for that job and more likely a solid bottle.

35 years accident free wow is your first kid 35?

The difference between this and some of the airplanes I've opened up: The trailer is made of steel.

Still the best goddamn shop teacher on the internet. Says me.

It's always enjoyable to watch other people with problems....

My favorite comment of the video “ And we have smoke “. That explains all my experience with trailer wiring.

I like how the "I've worked 7 accident free years" sticker is just as fresh as the one for 31 years. Either that tool box never gets used (would explain accident free), or....

Aaaannnnddddd that's why I HATE working on trailer "issues" I was the main electrical diag tech for years and every time a trailer issue it was always a clusterfuck!! I love your vids!

You're absolutely right. Trailer wiring only lasts a year, maybe two. Mine had the unfortunate intermittent issue of only working when stopped. Had a few too many people not too pleased with my lack of signals. Ended up ripping everything out and rebuilding from scratch. Soldered it all up. Lathered on liquid electrical tape and heat shrink on every connection with dielectric grease on the screw terminals. Four years and still going strong!

Scotch locks. Lil blue misery devices.

Do you remember a CBC show that used to be on back in the 80s, called "Do It For Yourself"? The host of the show, Mary Bellows, who would have some home repair stuff to do, would bumble through it, like a trouper: There was so much carnage and wonton destruction that I thought it had to be a comedy, at first. Her skills improved vastly by the end of the series. Not drawing any parallels, or anything. Your name's not Mary, for instance.

One of my favorite quotes: "Shortly after man invented the wheel, he invented the trailer. Ever since then, he has been trying to figure out how to hook up the lights." ~Patrick McManus

"...aaand we have smoke!" - time for a run to the Hopeless Despot to get a can of replacement wire smoke. Or call it a day and have some brews. A brew and a smoke always seem to go well together...

Rule one of Blue Collar Dogma: 1. On successful completion of work, always provide the Blue Collar worker with a sixer of his/her favorite libation.

Here in Australia, the from the factory trailer wiring is of the exact same quality. There must be a secret international standard that trailer builders all adhere too, that mandates the same rats nest of wires and crappy loose connectors.

Thanks for making this video AvE. Been watching your videos for a few years now and I finally decided to fuck off from dead end jobs and become an elec-chicken! Watching these troubleshooting videos gets my juices flowing and a few notes to put in the ol' guidebook upstairs. Taking some electronics classes at the local votech too for some low voltage fun, haven't seen the blue smoke monster yet alas.

The narrative on your videos is even better than the videos. Thanks for the great info and entertainment

I'm going through some rough times and every time a new AvE video comes out it makes me forget all about it for a good 20 to 30 minutes. Thanks for making these videos.

its the song that never ends it goes on and on my friends

work at a RV dealership and the hell of it is that all that factory wiring is up to spec and code!

I have not laughed so hard to a video. Being a mechanic by trade your troubles are a daily event. Love the repair and listening to the process. Thank you for your videos!!!

I used to be a cable guy who had to fix your tv or internet when it was cruddy.. Some of the best advice I ever got in the beginning was: Find out where you are good, find out where you are bad, then cut it in half. Keep doing this until you find the chopped, nicked, cut, spiced or otherwise defective part. This advice has served me well in many different debugging situations, cable or otherwise.

After years of working on old livestock trailers that spend 95% of their life on gravel roads, this wiring still looks great! I'm used to wires rotten through, wires twisted together with tape (no connectors) and about fifteen Scotchloks over the span of 16" of wiring. I'm a big fan of proper trailer cord protected by metal tubing and using aluminum junction boxes and solder crimp heat shrink butt connectors for any splicing. Ideally, everything should be homerun as much as possible, including the ground wire.

I work in the trailer and towing industry, so when I saw you try to plug the trailer in upside down I nearly shat my pants. One of our customers did that to a brand new ford escape, which torched half the wiring in the car

"spare roach clips in the battery compartment" the best sentence i've ever heard

Welcome to Charlie Foxtrot's Hitch 'N Go, home of the Roulette Splice - "When'll she go? Nobody know."

Fooking scotch locks. The bane of every trade that has to deal with angry pixies.

I don’t understand half of what you’re saying 90% of the time, but I must admit, I learned something

Also a tip from a mechanic, having some old rubber tubing from radiator hoses, cooler lines, and heater hoses are great for wrapping a wire and making a “grommet” for wires run through frames that can be installed without removing wiring. Works awesome for the dodge 5.9 dsl and the trans cooler lines always getting fucked by someone before you.

It took me a solid 5 minutes to realize the trailer was the job and AvE hadn't gotten distracted fixing it before going to fix something else.

Maaaaan your tone changed so much when the wife walked in 😂😂😂😂 Love it🤣

I used to work for an rc dealership, this was literally my day everybday.

One of my first electrician jobs was working carnivals/fairs we don't want to talk about trailer wiring. I swear I spent 90% of my time just getting lights working. Also some credit to your Canadian brothers. I am down here in Bentonville, Ar land of Walmart and had an SUV run me off the road yesterday due to me being in his blind spot. He stopped and apologized to me. I knew immediately he wasn't American, due to him saying sorry like 20 times. I had a great laugh when he pulled away and I noticed his Canadian plates, I wasn't even mad I got ran off into the shoulder of the highway. It gives me a story to share over a beer this weekend.

First time I troubleshot the brake controller on my truck, I thought it had an intermittent issue also... until i thought about it, the brake controller monitors resistance across the brake circuit. too low resistance, brake controller ignores the load. Thats why brake controllers are rated for a certain number of axles. A quick trip to oreilly's and purchase of the cheapest incandescent test light available gave me the proper tools to test the brake controller at the plug. The internal resistance on any other meter is not enough for the brake controller to activate. Just a little food for thought for everyone.

On the plus side, imaginary hangovers are a breeze... 😊

I think your project prowess is vastly underated especially considering that you do it all one handed...you even manage to make my day single handedly!!!...cheers once again.

Watching your videos really makes me wish my father stuck around.

i ohmed out every goddamn wire on my dads trailer after he rewired it, turns out the dingus end on his brand new GMC is faulty...

That was a lovely song to close 'er out there at the end

Tip! If you don’t have flush cutter like in video for zip ties...cut close as you can and hit it with a lighter flame to melt the sharp zip tie! 🤙

Watched this again and again, something about watching a guy going thru hell makes you feel related. Carry on Brother, we've all been there. Many times I've sung the NASA approved creed for the reparation of eleco-mechanical contrivances, sometimes to no avail. One time I was so sick of patching the factory wiring I torn it all out put in all new wire, crimped, soldered and heat shrinked all the new connections. Electrical taped the wire bundle at any frame rubbing places where the insulation could wear though and Zip-Tied the wiring to the frame. Spent at least three hours and $50 and still had a cheap used utility trailer that was probably only worth $75. Well avoiding a defective safety equipment ticket was worth it. The end of the video with the imaginary six pack is a classic!

"The green death... In white form." 😂🤣

Having worked on motorcycles for the past 20 years I can say that while the factory wiring is pretty good...usually, I have not seen ONE home-gamer repair that was above the level of your average two year old's repair ability.

My God! The last 45 seconds of this video is worth the price of admission all on it's own

You need to write a book with all your crazy funny sayings, slangs, words etc!!! Lol

Holy cow; I thought I was the only one that sang that song.

Trailer wiring... OMG, nothing but horror... I've got a trailer board which I wired myself with the witchcraft known as solder and shrink-wrap. I always keep that handy so I don't have to fix anything I borrow and hitch up! The electrical breakaway system is odd. Here in the old country it's mechanical. A metal cable loop which is placed over the tow ball. It yanks on the handbrake as its (de)parting gift. The electrical system seems prone to failures (flat battery, bad wiring, pre-escaped magic smoke). The cable system just pulls on the other end handbrake lever (forwards), the handbrake already has a locking ratchet, so if your trailer handbrake works, so does the breakaway. KISS. Oh, and your colonial trailer plugs are weird and you smell funny.

Entertaining as per every illegal crossing of the border ;) . On a personal note... i was laying on the bed yesterday arvo, and it hit me. Ive got a bottle of bitter germans in the fridge, why dont i give AvE's bbq fried thingy's a crack. So i did. With much potatoage, onions and the like, we scalded some real nice tucker thanks to you. Cheers cobber!

That "Lunch box" is from my neck of the wood. Pretty Sweet

Dude! That woman sounds Canadian... did you know that before you dated her?

My airplane avionics tech taught me about waxed lacing cord for tying wiring bundles. He preferred that to zip ties precisely because of the razor-sharp edge side cutters leave.

Im always impressed by your vast and expansive vocabulary. It only stand close to your poetic use of the English language which is Canadian

That "telephony IDC connector" , Blueys we called them was a blast from the past, not too bad inside the car but never outside and after using a couple you never used them ever again.

Looks like a real piece of garage kept enjoyment

Scotch locks are the bane of my existence. I've seen those far too often from factory in trailers and it drives me friggen nuts.

Thanks for the zipity flush cut, making the world better one snip at a time, just like my vasectomy.

"By the power of Grey Skull". That came out of left field.Best youtube quote I've heard in days.

Marrets = Wire Nuts in the USA. Only Recommended for Sparky Sparky Pixie Wranglers.

Rookie mistake taking the wheel off, just leave it on and pull the entire hub, keeps the hub on a nice platform to work on

Reminds me of the times at the trailer shop having marrettes, solid core household wiring and household electrical boxes including switches, outlets, and junction boxes all underneath the trailers flapping in the salted winter road breeze. Never let a contractor near your trailer.

As a master automobile technician, I will say that was an interesting way to diagnose an intermittent short to ground.

Ya lost me on the yoga pants that don’t go ta yoga 😂😂😂🤠👍

I spent some time in the car audio industry, those cursed T-taps are the single biggest cause of intermittent faults.

"spectacles, testicles, wallet & watch" - this needs to be on a t-shirt. lolol

Watching AvE= Fun education Getting drunk and watching AvE= laughing too hard to even focus

Funny that this vijayo should drop on Windows' "Patch Tuesday" when we get our monthly helping of "green death, in software form".

Somebody buy the man a socket set. For frogs snacks.

I can relate to that on so many levels. That's what I do for a living. Fixing mangled and badly done trailer wiring. Great vid!

That scotch lock is giving me U-Haul flashbacks. Installed entirely too many of those doing wiring installs. I would also recommend you have your wiring done somewhere other than U-Haul.

A decent multimeter should not pop its clogs if you measure resistance of a power line, even the mains.

I hate trailer electrics, completely agree always as janky as hell, sometimes easier just to assume it's all shit and rip it out and rewire correctly. That said I've never seen electronic pixie-brakes like that before.

I just bought a trailer & the wiring was comfumbled, I have a 7 way plug with brake booster as well so ling story short took me 3 hours to figured out the rewire soldered the connections & heat strinked & done. Working great now...

Many trailer factories use scotch locks. I've spent many an hour removing scotch locks and corroded wiring on trailers running the salted winter roads on the frozen shithole of Hoth.

You'd be amazed how those proper heat shrink connectors have come down in price, thanks to the Chinese no doubt. You can get them as cheap as under 10 cents per these days on Amazon! Granted, may not be as high quality as the ones you observed, but they are copper core, heat shrink tube, adhesive lined. Crazy! Made a repair just like the one you looked at on an ABS sensor cable recently. Glad you would have thought I was something like a professional. 😅

I remember fixing a disabled customers car at work, As it had apparently got a flat battery 8 months earlier and she’d just left it in the car park because she didn’t know what to do, So I told her where to get a battery, to buy a can of petrol and that I’d sort it on my break, a couple of weeks pass and she lets me know she’s coming in, I go on break turn up with my tools at the car and it’s in the corner of the multi storey car park, barely any light and I didn’t have a torch, not wanting to have wasted her time, I continue she opens the car, I fuel it up and get to disconnecting the battery, little did I know she’d put the key in the ignition and turned the key so I was now working live, socket set tapped the air con lines...and bang. My socket melted a nice 2mm hole in the metal line and now the gas was shooting at my face and I was wondering what the frig I’d done. Thinking I’m way over my head, and wanting to abort after the brand new battery’s 500 ish CCA’s still flowing through my system, ask her if she has break down cover, she says no... by the power of gray skull manage to find some high temperature rubber tape and managed to seal it, get in the car to start it and find that the dash lights were on, car starts, runs great, I politely ask why she turned the key, she didn’t realise she had....Total time for the battery change at this point is an hour and a half. I had expected something in return for the impending doom of returning to work an hour later then I was meant too, I had planned to turn it down, but nothing, she had brought a battery and a can of fuel. And just said “I owe you a beer some time” someone that I only know when she shops at my work and have never socialised with outside of.... and that was the last time I did anything like that for a customer, had heart palpitations for about a week. Luckily when I told my evening duty manager what happened, he just let me off, lesson learned I guess. Seeing your lack of beer reminded me of that, thinking of you from Salford in England.

One of the programmers at the shop I work at and myself always talk about your VJOs. Definitely helps the time go by with a chuckle or 2

I remember doing this trying to fix the trailer wiring game many times with my Grandfather on his farm... damn trailer would sit for months and then surprise nothing worked the next time we'd go to use it.

Trailer wiring has long been the bane of my existance! Everybody's an axespurt! I've had to overcome many fuckwaddled "repairs" far too often... Specticals, testicals, watch wallet keys. The Holy divinity of the workin' man!

Brakes? Objects in the rear view mirror are losing. Those overgrown hills in shittiest-place-on-earth BC just make it easier.

I have never plugged in or watched a trailer plugged in and had all the lights work. That connector is new to me in Aus we had a round one with seven pins it has a key so will only go one way and male female pins that alternate between the plugs for the same reason. Very cheap plastic ones which you drop the hitch on and it smashes and old style zinc dicast which are scookum with pin outs cast in. Now the new ones are flat with the centre pin offset in two sizes of pins. When you hire a trailer the garage has a rack of short converter cables which you have find and grab the correct one. Because people fit there own sometimes the plug is on the car so that makes quite a few combinations. It never ends. The crazy Aussie.

Aint no network connector, that's a wonderful scotch lock, real popular with car audio installers here in the UK. There also really good at converting all you dash wiring into a giant convection heater 🔥 😂 😂