Running Light Problem or NOT???
I own a 2008 Keystone Cougar Model 291RLS – a 30 footer with two (bedroom and main) slideouts.
Recently. I tried a ’trick’ I had read about in some or other orum discussion that one could ‘turn on’ ALL? (I assumed ‘ALL’) a trailer’s running lights by ‘jumping’ PINS 4+5 on the rigs ‘trailer to tow vehicle’ connector used to power all these lights, brake lights and turn signals, etc.
I tried it, using a 5 amp fuse, and It Worked! Neat! Probably wouldn’t want to do it if one was dry camping or was not on ‘Shore Line Power’ for obvious reasons BUT, might come in handy some time to know the trick.
Anyway, not long ago I decided to order some suitable LED ‘bulbs’ to replace all my trailer’s incandescent running light bulbs so I ‘did the trick’’ to cause the trailers running lights to light up so that I could get the ‘polarity-sensitive’ LED bulbs inserted properly,
In the process of doing these replacements, I noticed something:
MY 5th has a total of THIRTEEN external running (or ‘clearnace’, if you prefer) lights: FIVE on the rear of the trailer up near the roof (ALL RED; ALL the rest are AMBER); TWO AMBER up near the roof on the trailer’s ‘nose cap’, and THREE MORE AMBER on EACH SIDE of the trailer – ‘front’, middle, and ‘rear’.
In the process of replacing the stock bulbs with LEDs, everything went fine with respect to (a) all five rear red ones, and (b) both the FRONT AND REAR SIDE AMBER ONES.
However, when I tried to replace (FIRST) the MIDDLE RHS AMBER Fixture’s bulb, I could NOT get the LED to work regardless of orientation!
Hmmm. Got out a Multimeter and checked – NO 12 volts, + OR –, ACROSS the terminals.
“Oh well, will come back to this one later”.
I continued to work my way around the trailer. Right-Front – O.K.. Left-Front O.K. (But – MIDDLE LEFT LIGHT ‘Fixture’ ‘bad’ exactly like ‘MIDDLE-RIGHT’. HMMMM!!! Something’s funny hear.
Finished off at LEFT-REAR (O.K.) and then seemed to notice something ELSE (since confirmed) that BOTH AMBER ‘FRONT CROWN/CAP’ Lights were ALSO not lit (‘STILL’; EVEN with the incandescent bulbs still in them!).
So far, still haven’t gone up there – maybe tomorrow – to check these BULBS AND SOCKETS - *BUT* “hard to believe” that BOTH these (fixures) bulbs are bad so I suspect something…
Like, maybe a COMMON POWER (WIRE) Supply or ‘GROUND’ problem?
If *I* were wiring up a (large number of) trailer clearance lights, I wouldn’t wire them ALL up (in parallel) together but would ‘segment them’ into at least 2 (in my case) or even 3 parts, with each subset of bulbs being wired up ‘in parallel’ sharing BOTH a POWER and GROUND line/wire.
Maybe? that’s it??? And there’s problem with one or the other of these two wires? If true’, ‘that’ would explain it.
Well, earlier today I decided to see if I might be able to, if not PINPOINT, then at least NARROW DOWN the possibility of where the problem might lie.
I FIGURED that since NEITHER the middle RHS or LHS would display a 12 volt differential with ‘The Fuse’ inserted AND all the other lights were working, maybe I could test to see if ‘The Problem’ lay with a ‘broken common power line’ OR ‘broken (common) ground (again, assuming ‘wiring’ and ‘sharing’ as above) SO:
FIRST, I ran a Long Test Lead STRAIGHT Back To ‘NEGATIVE’ on the main battery. THEN, with The Fuse installed and using a Multimeter, I checked for +12 volts FROM EITHER of the TWO LHS AND RHS FIXTURE TERMINALS to the DIRECT GROUND (The Long Test Lead).
RESULT – NO 12 volt differential FROM EITHER (receptacle) terminal to ‘DIRECT GROUND’ so it appears that 12v is NOT ‘getting to (one of) the socket’s terminals.
O.K., so, now let’s try connecting the Long Test Lead to the Main Battery’s POSITIVE TERMINAL and then check for a 12 volt differential to Ground (through the MM) again through EITHER OF the sockets two terminals.
Results: Nothing!!!
Now maybe I missed something. Maybe I’m completely ‘off base’ here, but this seems ‘weird’. (
I should mention that I also conducted these identical tests using the WORKING LHS FRONT AMBER SOCKET and DID GET in all cases, the results expected, BUT:
It seems we’ve got here a case where NEITHER TERMINAL/WIRE ‘goes to’/’sees’ EITHER ‘+12’ OR ‘Ground’ i.e. no continuity through either wire ‘back to’ where it ‘should be’.
This is leading me to believe that MAYBE I’m ‘completely missing something’.
MAYBE the Four Lights In Question ‘CANNOT be Tricked’ into coming on with the ‘Jumper Trick’.
MAYBE??? they only EVER ‘Light’ under ‘different conditions’ such as (possibly) (a) the TV much be hooked up AND other connections in the plug are made and/or (b) maybe the TV’s Headlights (not just ‘Running’) must actually be on OR (c) maybe these FOUR Lights only work as SIDE/FRONT ‘TURN SIGNAL’ indicators, similar to the RED REAR AND REAR-SIDE and AMBER FRONT AND FRONT-SIDE bulbs/lights on Automobiles?
Anyone got any ideas? Suggestions?
Thanks
Recently. I tried a ’trick’ I had read about in some or other orum discussion that one could ‘turn on’ ALL? (I assumed ‘ALL’) a trailer’s running lights by ‘jumping’ PINS 4+5 on the rigs ‘trailer to tow vehicle’ connector used to power all these lights, brake lights and turn signals, etc.
I tried it, using a 5 amp fuse, and It Worked! Neat! Probably wouldn’t want to do it if one was dry camping or was not on ‘Shore Line Power’ for obvious reasons BUT, might come in handy some time to know the trick.
Anyway, not long ago I decided to order some suitable LED ‘bulbs’ to replace all my trailer’s incandescent running light bulbs so I ‘did the trick’’ to cause the trailers running lights to light up so that I could get the ‘polarity-sensitive’ LED bulbs inserted properly,
In the process of doing these replacements, I noticed something:
MY 5th has a total of THIRTEEN external running (or ‘clearnace’, if you prefer) lights: FIVE on the rear of the trailer up near the roof (ALL RED; ALL the rest are AMBER); TWO AMBER up near the roof on the trailer’s ‘nose cap’, and THREE MORE AMBER on EACH SIDE of the trailer – ‘front’, middle, and ‘rear’.
In the process of replacing the stock bulbs with LEDs, everything went fine with respect to (a) all five rear red ones, and (b) both the FRONT AND REAR SIDE AMBER ONES.
However, when I tried to replace (FIRST) the MIDDLE RHS AMBER Fixture’s bulb, I could NOT get the LED to work regardless of orientation!
Hmmm. Got out a Multimeter and checked – NO 12 volts, + OR –, ACROSS the terminals.
“Oh well, will come back to this one later”.
I continued to work my way around the trailer. Right-Front – O.K.. Left-Front O.K. (But – MIDDLE LEFT LIGHT ‘Fixture’ ‘bad’ exactly like ‘MIDDLE-RIGHT’. HMMMM!!! Something’s funny hear.
Finished off at LEFT-REAR (O.K.) and then seemed to notice something ELSE (since confirmed) that BOTH AMBER ‘FRONT CROWN/CAP’ Lights were ALSO not lit (‘STILL’; EVEN with the incandescent bulbs still in them!).
So far, still haven’t gone up there – maybe tomorrow – to check these BULBS AND SOCKETS - *BUT* “hard to believe” that BOTH these (fixures) bulbs are bad so I suspect something…
Like, maybe a COMMON POWER (WIRE) Supply or ‘GROUND’ problem?
If *I* were wiring up a (large number of) trailer clearance lights, I wouldn’t wire them ALL up (in parallel) together but would ‘segment them’ into at least 2 (in my case) or even 3 parts, with each subset of bulbs being wired up ‘in parallel’ sharing BOTH a POWER and GROUND line/wire.
Maybe? that’s it??? And there’s problem with one or the other of these two wires? If true’, ‘that’ would explain it.
Well, earlier today I decided to see if I might be able to, if not PINPOINT, then at least NARROW DOWN the possibility of where the problem might lie.
I FIGURED that since NEITHER the middle RHS or LHS would display a 12 volt differential with ‘The Fuse’ inserted AND all the other lights were working, maybe I could test to see if ‘The Problem’ lay with a ‘broken common power line’ OR ‘broken (common) ground (again, assuming ‘wiring’ and ‘sharing’ as above) SO:
FIRST, I ran a Long Test Lead STRAIGHT Back To ‘NEGATIVE’ on the main battery. THEN, with The Fuse installed and using a Multimeter, I checked for +12 volts FROM EITHER of the TWO LHS AND RHS FIXTURE TERMINALS to the DIRECT GROUND (The Long Test Lead).
RESULT – NO 12 volt differential FROM EITHER (receptacle) terminal to ‘DIRECT GROUND’ so it appears that 12v is NOT ‘getting to (one of) the socket’s terminals.
O.K., so, now let’s try connecting the Long Test Lead to the Main Battery’s POSITIVE TERMINAL and then check for a 12 volt differential to Ground (through the MM) again through EITHER OF the sockets two terminals.
Results: Nothing!!!
Now maybe I missed something. Maybe I’m completely ‘off base’ here, but this seems ‘weird’. (
I should mention that I also conducted these identical tests using the WORKING LHS FRONT AMBER SOCKET and DID GET in all cases, the results expected, BUT:
It seems we’ve got here a case where NEITHER TERMINAL/WIRE ‘goes to’/’sees’ EITHER ‘+12’ OR ‘Ground’ i.e. no continuity through either wire ‘back to’ where it ‘should be’.
This is leading me to believe that MAYBE I’m ‘completely missing something’.
MAYBE the Four Lights In Question ‘CANNOT be Tricked’ into coming on with the ‘Jumper Trick’.
MAYBE??? they only EVER ‘Light’ under ‘different conditions’ such as (possibly) (a) the TV much be hooked up AND other connections in the plug are made and/or (b) maybe the TV’s Headlights (not just ‘Running’) must actually be on OR (c) maybe these FOUR Lights only work as SIDE/FRONT ‘TURN SIGNAL’ indicators, similar to the RED REAR AND REAR-SIDE and AMBER FRONT AND FRONT-SIDE bulbs/lights on Automobiles?
Anyone got any ideas? Suggestions?
Thanks
