Tail lights won´t turn on

[fvidania]

Hi all,
My tail lights don´t turn on. All other lights are working properly, brakes lights work, turn signal and reverse lights work but tail light.

I tried changing the bulbs even though they look good, and didn´t fix it.
I´m thinking it can be the fuse for this lights, but I don´t know how to recognize it between all the fuses I have.

My motorhome is a 2005 Georgie boy Landau 35ft and the 12V fuses boxes is located besides the steering (according to the owners manual).

Any tips on how to identify the tail lights fuse? changing this will fix the problem? could it be something else?

Thanks

[bobc]

In addition to the fuses under the steering column, you should have a fuse panel in the front engine compartment that contains fuses and relays. I had a similar problem on my 99 V10 and it turned out to be one of the relays in the front panel.

[JRS___B]

bsinmich - I agree with you 100% if the theory, engineering, as built, as modified, and as is today are all the same. But if a person has a used RV there is no telling what changes have been made by previous owners and repair techs. Also, some rigs have stupid setups that defy all logic right from the get go.

A case in point, a friend's motor home has one reading lamp that is not on any of the circuits that any of the other interior lights are on. No logic there. Now on the surface that sounds like no big deal. But this first living room reading lamp runs off the battery in the engine compartment. So while staying connected to shore power for a month or two, this lamp constantly draws on the engine's battery and when he went leave his engine compartment battery was dead.

Additionally there was no battery shut off for other batteries. That made no sense to me either given what he paid for the unit.

I wish I could remember some of the specifics of other quirks in his motor home's electrical system, but there were several. I do remember that when the battery bank went dead while in storage, that the batteries had to be charged with an external battery charger. Again, I don't remember the specifics. Just another quirk. Once the batteries were charged up, they stayed charged business as usual.

In my own fiver, I had a short in a 110v. circuit that tripped the breaker over and over. It took many hours over several tries to determine that closing the Molex connector in the wall caused an abrasion on the insulation on the black wire just ever so slightly, but it was just enough to allow it to connect with the ground. Our RV was seven years old when this problem appeared for the very first time. So darn near anything is possible.

[DougE]

The stop, turn and running lights usually use the same ground, so hunt down the fuse. Typical fuse block location is to the left of the steering column on the firewall (I don't know your vehicle for certain).

[Fleetwood99]

fvidania wrote:
Hi all,

Any tips on how to identify the tail lights fuse? changing this will fix the problem? could it be something else?

Thanks

Not sure on your MH Georgie Boy 2005 Landau but, try looking under the Hood in front for a Black Box for more Fuse's to check. Tail Light fuse usually is Yellow 20Amp.

Fixing the problem might be in your Trailer/Toad wiring. I would suspect that area 1st if, blow fuse. Or even the Socket its self if your not towing anything.

When did the problem start?

[Fishinghat]

Fuses can be bad even when they look ok. So, I replace fuses by switching two identical fuses to see if that's the problem. Often, it is. Then I just replace the defective fuse.

In your case, you may have to buy a box of fuses and replace several at a time, until you've gone through all those in the panel. You'll want to have a bunch of spare fuses anyway, so you're not wasting money.

Your rig is 9 years old, and problems with a bad ground wouldn't normally occur until later, unless your rig was exposed to high humidity, flooding, salt, or whatever. However, with older rigs it is a very common cause of electrical problems.

[Whaler]

For a test, ground the bulb with a piece of insulated wire by making contact with a good grounding point and touching the socket.

[fvidania]

Thank you for answer, where do you think I´m having the bad or missing ground connection?

[bsinmich]

JRS & B wrote:
The most likely culprit is the fuse.

But unfortunately that is not necessarily the case since every RV has it's own particular quirks. You may have to check all of the bulbs. It could be like an old fashioned string of Christmas lights where if one goes out, then they all go out. It could also be a case where, if one light burns out the rest stay on, BUT if one the bulbs is loose or removed, then the whole circuit quits. I had a situation in an automobile where, if one taillight burned out, it automatically burned out the other one as well. They always burned out in pairs. I never did figure out why.

Hopefully it is not case of a mouse eating off the insulation and causing a short circuit.

It definitely is not like the old Christmas bulbs. They were low voltage bulbs wired in series to work on 110V. Auto bulbs are all 12V to work on 12V and are never wired in series, but parallel. Mice are a possibility and since RVs are usually fiberglass a bad or missing ground connection is a good possibility. On a car the metal body serves as the ground but a separate wire is necessary on Fiberglass.

[fvidania]

All tail lights bulbs looks good. I checked all the fuses under my steering and they look good.
So, I´m taking it to a Ford dealer and see if they can help me out.

Anyways, I can´t find a fuse scheme of my actuals fuse box. I have a Georgie boy 2005 Landau and it has a Ford Triton V10.
I´ve found a lot of fuse boxes images along internet, but any of them is exactly the same than mine.

thanks

[JRS___B]

The most likely culprit is the fuse.

But unfortunately that is not necessarily the case since every RV has it's own particular quirks. You may have to check all of the bulbs. It could be like an old fashioned string of Christmas lights where if one goes out, then they all go out. It could also be a case where, if one light burns out the rest stay on, BUT if one the bulbs is loose or removed, then the whole circuit quits. I had a situation in an automobile where, if one taillight burned out, it automatically burned out the other one as well. They always burned out in pairs. I never did figure out why.

Hopefully it is not case of a mouse eating off the insulation and causing a short circuit.

[fvidania]

bulbs look good.
markers light dont turn on either.
I located the fuses and say " See owners manual for info" but it dossnt say anything.

Photo here:
http://postimg.org/image/io0lv37lv/

[dakdave]

have you checked bulbs? do the marker lites work?

[fvidania]

And you think that changing the fuse will fix the problem? thanks for the quick response!

[romore]

The fuse block should be labelled T/L or T/light, you might need a light to read it.