Quirky camper lights

[Notakwanon]

In the past 4 months I've had the same problem on two separate occasions with the lights on the rear of my Outfitter slide-in camper. Without going into all the details, let's say that I've checked all the bulbs on both truck and camper and they all work and I checked continuity thru the cable connecting truck to camper and that looks good. Contacts on cables and plugs were cleaned, and put back together with a bit of conductive gel. Camper lights come on when the truck lights are turned on, and the turn signals work. Yet when the brake pedal is depressed, all the lights on the camper rear, including the backup lights, come on, but weakly. With a 10 year old truck and camper, I suspect an improper grounding problem somewhere. Would it be a mistake to cut into the cable which connects truck to camper and splice an additional wire into the ground wire, then make a new ground to the truck frame? Thanks. Tom McCloud

[Kayteg1]

Looks like manufacturer put copper and aluminium or zinc together?
That create electrocorrosion that speeds up the process.
Now put LED bulbs in it and you are set for long time 🙂

[AnEv942]

It should or may or if it doesnt you know where to look...



Biggest issue on older incandescent bulb holders is the socket to mount joint comes loose or corrodes between (mine steel sockets were rusting). Its simply swedged on to a bracket.


That's riveted to al. backing plate that is grounded by lead that crimped to copper wire that is riveted, ....These are Bargman fixtures, aluminum plates and rivets subject to corrosion. Mine the lead riveted between plate and the connecting bar you could spin.


Following the fix of others I ended up running a jumper wires from the ground lead. Cut off the crimped on connector and added 2 wires soldering directly to base of bulb receptacles. Left original ground path intact. Not sure why some aftermarket mfgs don't hard-wire ground.

[Notakwanon]

Actually, before mounting the hold-down I sanded the aluminum frame member smooth & bright and applied dielectric grease to that spot. Like you, I hope that stops the problem from re-occurring. TM..

[tattoobob]

Just a thought but maybe you could get some dielectric grease and stop this from happening again

[996Pilot]

XLNT -- glad this fixed it for you. Camp-On 🙂

[Notakwanon]

Thanks for the replies. 996Pilot got it exactly right. I pulled the passengers side lights off and corrosion at the ground was obvious. You've got the copper wire & hold-down, steel set screw and mounting screw going into the aluminum frame member! Everything was cleaned to bright metal, re-assembled and tested and all the lights come on bright, and operate as they should. And since all the tools were out, I repeated on the drivers side, where corrosion was also observed. With luck this will solve the problem for a long time. Thanks for saving me a lot of time, 996Pilot. Tom McCloud

[AnEv942]

I'd run a jumper from truck, check if its a ground issue before cutting into any loom. Pulling a bulb would verify if its the issue from power crossover.

Because its a weak light does sounds more like something looking for ground. Assume also that its weak enough or not long enough signal doesn't show when signal on, same path? Camper taillights mechanical grounding would be my first suspect if its not direct wire.

[996Pilot]

Had the same problem on my 2006 Outfitter. Pull the light assemblies off the rear of the camper and clean up the ground wires or re-ground them. On mine the grounding for these lights started a bit of bi-metallic corrosion (tin plated terminal lugs grounded to aluminum frame) and the symptoms were the same as yours. After thoroughly cleaning and re-grounding I'm rock solid on all lights again. YMMV

[d3500ram]

Even though you say you have checked the bulbs, recheck them again including the trucks- recheck all bulbs that have a brake light circuit and element.

The fact that more light come on when the brake is pressed is a clue. Somewhere the circuits are getting crossed and getting power by the brake circuit. There may be the chance that inside a dual element bulb that one of the elements broke loose and crossed over to the adjacent internal circuit. I am not saying this is the cause of this specific problem, but I ran into just this years ago when working at a dealership and it drove me nuts trying to figure it out.

Before going deeper, use the KISS principle and recheck all bulb that have a brake light activated. I am a firm believer in the KISS theory... in keeping with it, make sure that all grounding has good connection including between truck and camper.