Toad lights and Diodes

Funny Harbor Fright story: I bought a pair of their inexpensive magnetic lights for around $10. Fell off on the first trip. Wire parted on one of them and it was completely lost. I found out how cheesy those magnets were. So I go to return them for credit. Cashier: But you only have One Light... Manager: Just give him a gift card...

Thanks Will for the tip. Just pure luck on my part, but I thought about that and ran my wires under the hood and thru the cabin and out the hatch in the back. This kept the wires away from any paint. The lights really did their job with one exception; the left signal light will not blink while the bake light is on. No real problem, my MH lights in the rear are very visible over the top of the toad, We made it to Tennessee with no problem.

jswat wrote:
I'm back on the road and headed for Tennessee. I went to Harbor Freight and bought some of the magnetic lights and rigged them up on the toad. I also bought a couple of their 95 lb magnets which really hold the lights down good. Maybe I can find someone to trace down my troubles when I get back home. By-the=way, my MH lights are visible to those behind but I really want to be seen and safe. Thanks everyone for your helpful comments.

..Hope its not too late, and that you already knew this or got lucky and haven't had a problem yet, but:

Even for just 1 trip, on a temporary basis like you're doing now with those magnetic lights: Do NOT run the wires for those magnetic lights across any painted surface on your toad! The wires vibrating, shaking in the wind WILL scratch your paint, badly. I know its more of a pain, especially since this is a very temporary solution, but you need to route the wires so they are not laying against any painted surface. I learned this lesson the hard way 'bout 2 years ago. Cost me quite a bit of $$ in detailing, buffing, etc. to get those scratches out.

I'm back on the road and headed for Tennessee. I went to Harbor Freight and bought some of the magnetic lights and rigged them up on the toad. I also bought a couple of their 95 lb magnets which really hold the lights down good. Maybe I can find someone to trace down my troubles when I get back home. By-the=way, my MH lights are visible to those behind but I really want to be seen and safe. Thanks everyone for your helpful comments.

jswat wrote:
I'm stuck in Tyler, TX with non-working toad lights.

Ok, but why are you stuck in Tyler?

Texas law says that you don't have to have ights on your TOWED if followers can see the lights on your TOWING.

Go on home and fix things.

Tim

jswat wrote:
I'm stuck in Tyler, TX with non-working toad lights. I drug the rear end of the MH and crushed the light cable going to the toad connector. I've replaced the cable and have signal all the way back to the diodes in the rear of my toad. My question, can diodes fail ? When my cable was crushed, all the wires were exposed and in contact with one another. Would this cause a short that would kill my diodes. Thanks for any help.

you betcha they can fail. lose the diodes and you lose your lights full time. had them fail twice in our '03 wrangler. never want to go thru that again so we had a second wiring harness and a second set of bulbs installed. when hooked to the MH the umbilical connects the second set of bulbs via the aux wire harness.