[UTfrontier]

This evening I moved my trailer to a friends house. Before when I was towing, the park lights would come on when I used the brakes. I got used to it and had no problem. Tonight however, when I started up my truck, plugged in the lights, then hit the brakes, my left turn signal stayed on and never turned back off. Even when I tried to use the turn signal switch, it didnt flash, just stayed on. It does this with the brakes too now. With the headlights and park lights off, it turns off. As soon as I use the brakes, the park lights, dash lights, and turn signal turn on. Any ideas on what caused this and what I can do to fix the turn signal until I can buy a factory OEM tow harness? Am I going to find any of these oem tow harnesses lesser than $100? And where? I also thought I could smell some sort of hot wire, or burning insulation when I got out.

 

[PJM911]

I bought a towing harness from Napa, it plugged into an existing plug connector in the rear, worked like a charm and only cost $59. Good luck.

 

[Firebreed]

sounds like it could be a bad ground somewhere. which would in essance cause a short... ive seen grounds do weird things with electronics. check your wireing.

 

[colin123]

i was towing a 44' boat down to florida (not with my fronty of course, i was driving a kenworth. although i have moved a 13500lb 55' boat with my fronty, only moved it about 30' from one end of the shop to the other but thats another story) part way through Illinois i noticed the truck was starting to get a bit of load on it like i was going up hill but at the time i was actually going down hill. i looked down at the electronic trailer brake controller and it was going crazy, i was applying brakes to the trailer for seemingly no reason at all so i pulled over. after a bit of time looking about the trailer i noticed a busted light on the trailer with wires that were touching the frame on the trailer and was messing with the brakes. not quite the same as your situation but a prime example of how a simple short (that for some reason wasn't blowing any fuses... weird) can cause some very strange problems. your harness and trailer wiring would be good place to start looking

 

[UTfrontier]

Hey thanks guys for the info. I did notice when I was backing the trailer in, one of the tail lights on the trailer was out, when earlier it was fine. I will go over and check the bulb and see if the leads broke and were touching. Also my ground was a little shotty to begin with, I will try it again and see what happens. Do you think that im going to have to replace any relays or such in the dash for the turn signal? Also if the short was in the bulb of the trailer, wouldnt it stop once i unplugged it from the truck? Or was the damage already done?

 

[colin123]

since you noted the smell of buring wire i'd say there is a good chance that the damage may already be done. i had to replace the brake controller on that kenworth that i hauled that boat with cause it never worked right again after the incident. check your relays

 

[UTfrontier]

Ok, since things are tight, and I dont quite know what exactly is wrong, I bought a universal brake light kit from checker and spliced it into the y plugs for the tail lights. When I removed all that I had installed, every thing worked just perfectly. Turn signals were good, no park lights with brakes or anything. I took a good look at the piece I took off and there was a huge amount of shorting between the brake light wire, and the turn signal, what do you know. Turns out the way I had mounted the converter box was rubbing those two wires together, and they finally touched and shorted out that converter box. I do plan on eventually getting the oem bypass trailer kit, but cant splurge on that now. Ill let you know how this all works when I go to pick up my trailer next week. Oh and if you were curious, it is a 6'x12' enclosed that I am using for a delivery business. Tows just fine behind the beast, and I cannot complain too much about the power. There seems to be enough there and more for what I need.

 

[colin123]

Ok, since things are tight, and I dont quite know what exactly is wrong, I bought a universal brake light kit from checker and spliced it into the y plugs for the tail lights. When I removed all that I had installed, every thing worked just perfectly. Turn signals were good, no park lights with brakes or anything. I took a good look at the piece I took off and there was a huge amount of shorting between the brake light wire, and the turn signal, what do you know. Turns out the way I had mounted the converter box was rubbing those two wires together, and they finally touched and shorted out that converter box. I do plan on eventually getting the oem bypass trailer kit, but cant splurge on that now. Ill let you know how this all works when I go to pick up my trailer next week. Oh and if you were curious, it is a 6'x12' enclosed that I am using for a delivery business. Tows just fine behind the beast, and I cannot complain too much about the power. There seems to be enough there and more for what I need.

glad you found the problem and that all works fine now:goodjob:

 

[Q451990]

Good to hear that you got it fixed. It's scary how many issues are cropping up with trailer installations... and I need to wire mine up soon.

Does anyone have any experience with this kit?

Valley 30108 at AutoAnything

or this one?

http://www.etrailer.com/pc-VWH~33515.htm


Heath

 

[UTfrontier]

Do you have a first or second gen? The one in the second link is alot like the one I bought at checker for my 01. So far I cant say anything about it because I havnt tried it with the trailer. As far as install, it cant get any more simple then that harness. Plug and play pretty much, just be sure to tuck all the wires out of the way of rubbing, sharp objects. I learned that the hard way.

Good to hear that you got it fixed. It's scary how many issues are cropping up with trailer installations... and I need to wire mine up soon.

Does anyone have any experience with this kit?

Valley 30108 at AutoAnything

or this one?

Plug-N-Tow (TM) Wiring Harness 33515 : Trailer hitch bike rack and trailer hitches - etrailer.com


Heath

 

[Q451990]

Do you have a first or second gen? The one in the second link is alot like the one I bought at checker for my 01.

It's an '04, so it should be the same as yours. I think the picture for the first one is a generic, I think it would have to have a box to convert it to a 4 wire setup since our turn signal bulbs are separate.

Heath