Lights on tow car not bright

rvcruisers wrote:
Thank you, Scott, for your impute. I will do some checking. Great advice!

"Impute", I had to look that one up. You're welcome.
Scott

Thank you, Scott, for your impute. I will do some checking. Great advice!

rvcruisers wrote:
My tow car is a 2015 Jeep Wrangler. Towed behind a Fleetwood Terra RV. I used the Hopkins Custom tail light kit HM56200 in the Jeep. After all was connected and lights were turned on, the Jeep's lights came on but were not as bright as they should be. Can anyone give me some advice? Thanks, Bill

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Bill,
First off, NO, there is no problem with the gauge of the wiring used in the Hopkins wiring harness. I and many, many others have used that same harness for thousands and thousands of miles with no complaints. Ours too is a '15 JKUR and I did the setup of all the towing equipment.

And NO, you don't need to install LED bulbs. Unless other modifications and alternate flashers are installed, your turn signals will go nuts if you do that. The stock flashers are designed for a given amount of resistance, i.e. the use of stock incandescent light bulbs. When an LED is installed, they provide ZERO resistance and both flashers and, what's called the T.I.P.M. (Totally Integrated Power Module) that controls all of Jeeps body works, i.e. lighting etc.,thinks there's a light out and it will give you a bulb out signal on the dash.

So, to the problem. Yes, If I were you, the first thing I'd do is, check the ACTUAL voltage for each given signal, i.e. left turn/brake, right turn/brake, and running lights, to see what kind of actual voltage is being presented AT THE TRAILER PLUG on the motor home. That voltage might be hard to actually determine on the turn signal/brake check but, the running lights is an easy one because it's a constant voltage. Now, you should, I say SHOULD, have a minimum of around 12V at least for the running light signal.

But, during your tests, make DARN sure you're test meters ground is on a PERFECT ground on the coach, even if you have to grind some clean metal someplace on the frame etc.

Now, If you find the test reveals a strong 12V with your meter on a nice ground, perform the same test, using the ground that's inside the trailer plug on your coach. That will tell you if your ground in that trailer plug, is at least, TRYING to provide a good ground for the pig tail leading to the Jeep.

Then, take the same tests, at the other end of the pig tail to make sure, that all connections on and in, pig tail, for both ends, are good, clean and secure. Once that's all done and you're satisfied that you have good voltage to that point, then you can start looking at any issues with the Jeep. But, for now, just make sure your motor home lighting output, is sending quality signals to the Jeep.

Then go after the Jeep to see if your dim lights are the Hopkins cause or, any wiring done that attaches that Hopkins unit.
Scott

I agree with the possible ground problem. I also ran into a similar problem with the Hopkins kit on my HHR. I had hooked the Hopkins wiring to wiring I had previously run from back to front on the vehicle. Turns out the total length of the wire was too much. After removing about 15 feet of extra wire the lights were much brighter.

x2 on measure the voltage coming out of the motorhome vs voltage to lights the jeep.

I had this problem when the motorhome had a wiring converter, and the converter had an output of 8 volts.

Fred

Make sure white wire is connected to ground connection is clean and has zero resistance to battery negative terminal.

I used this kit twice. Not on any of my Wranglers. Agreed on ground. I assume you didn't hook tow bar up. That would help with ground. Might not be Jeep side.Post what you fined

Many of the kits have too small of wire for standard lamps.
I would suggest changing the lamps out to LEDs. The draw could be enough to brighten the lamps.
Next or maybe first, measure the coltage at MH and then at the Wranglers lamp socket. This would verify voltage drop. It is even possible loss is in the coach.

Poor ground connection can cause the dimmer lights.