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Old 06-23-2019, 12:58 AM   #1
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ARG! Lights!

All our running lights, and the electric brakes work but there are no brake lights or turn signals working on the trailer. Checked the truck plug receiver with one of those LED testers and everything passes there. At a loss here. Weird that both right and left turn signal/brake lights are out at the same time. They are two filament bulbs and the running light part works fine. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
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Old 06-23-2019, 06:57 AM   #2
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Is your TV led lights? Possible it may not work with non led lights. I know early on some vehicles didn't work with less, maybe the opposite.
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Old 06-23-2019, 07:35 AM   #3
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No, the TV are just normal filament bulbs. This is really odd.
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Old 06-23-2019, 07:39 AM   #4
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The filament for the turn signals is the same filament for the brake signal lights.
I suspect there is an open lead for these.

You could confirm this by connecting to someone else’s pickup with the 7 pin connector.

If the signal leaves the pickup OK, but not the trailer, the wiring problem is with the trailer having an open.
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Old 06-23-2019, 07:48 AM   #5
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OK the way I am reading your problem, the TV plug is all correct at the rear plug with the tester. So that rules out any problem in you TV, so the problem is in your trailer. I would start at the connection point of the pig tail connection to the trailer wiring, check all connections and make sure they are tight and you have the proper voltage there. Then work towards the rear lights if all is correct at the pig tail connection point.
Note, both filaments of the rear bulb should light with the break pedal, so since you have running lights the lights may not be the problem. First check the break lights of the trailer with the running lights off. If both trailer lights light you may only have both filaments within the trailer light bulbs burned out. If no lights you have an open in the wiring in the trailer for the turn lights.
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Old 06-23-2019, 08:19 AM   #6
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We just tried the LED plug tester again. Turn signal output ok but no brake signal or at best a flicker. Maybe relay(s)? TV is a f150 2010
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Old 06-23-2019, 08:33 AM   #7
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Check for a bad ground connection at the lights. You should be able to test for voltage at the lights by connecting the neg. lead on a voltmeter to a known good ground point to the frame.

Could be a bad splice in the junction box that connects the umbilical cord to the trailer's wiring.
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Old 06-23-2019, 08:42 AM   #8
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Check the Truck connector. Sounds like you may have narrowed it down with tester only showing a flicker on the truck connector. Climb underneath if needed and check wiring going into the connector on the truck. I had problems with a different truck and I found the Electric Brake wire in my connector badly corroded. Had to take the connector apart to find it.
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Old 06-23-2019, 08:44 AM   #9
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Wouldn’t a flaky ground also affect the running lights? They are working as expected.
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Old 06-24-2019, 02:03 PM   #10
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Check grounds
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Old 06-24-2019, 08:56 PM   #11
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UPDATE
Dealership says everything as it should be. I can’t for the life of me understand how both left turn / stop and right turn/stop won’t work. They obviously have separate wires coming back from the pigtail plug on the trailer. Do they run all the way back intact or is there some junction somewhere along the path that the bulb assembly plugs into? This is the only thing I can think of. The brake signal light assembly has become unplugged somewhere along the path of the wires. The odds of two broken wires that do exactly the same thing seems pretty much impossible. Bad ground can’t be the case because the marker lamps use the same socket as the turn/signal brake lamps as the lamps are two filament bulbs, one filament for the marker light and the other filament for the brake/ turn signal. I have acquired one of those magnetic tow light kits that tow trucks use on cars they are moving. Ran the wires down the side of the trailer and low and behold I now have brake and turn signals.
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Old 06-24-2019, 09:06 PM   #12
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In my 5th wheel all the rear lighting goes from the terminal block for the pig tail directly to the left rear tail light. The right side wiring then runs across the unit to the left side and is interconnected there. I would look for a poor connection and such there.
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Old 06-24-2019, 09:15 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by me here View Post
We just tried the LED plug tester again. Turn signal output ok but no brake signal or at best a flicker. Maybe relay(s)? TV is a f150 2010
Not quite sure what you mean here. See pic below.

Click image for larger version

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Your left turn signal sends a flashing (ON/OFF/ON/OFF......) current through pin #5. Your right turn signal sends a flashing current through pin #6.

Your brakes should send a constant current through BOTH pins #5 and #6.

So is what you mean is that you are getting a flashing signal at pin #5 for left turn signal and a flashing signal at pin #6 for right turn signal, but nothing at either pin, OR both pins flicker, for brakes? If so, it sounds like a TV problem, not a TT problem.
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Old 06-24-2019, 09:57 PM   #14
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Check both parts of the Bargman plug, check the junction box where the umbilical cord connects to the rv wiring, and check the ground connection for the brakes/turn signals. The brake/turn ground connection may be separate from the tail/marker lights ground.
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