I bought a used Yakima Rack and Roll trailer. The right rear tail light only comes on when lights are on, and is bright like the brakes are depressed. Signal doesn’t flash. Make try to fix, but may rewire the whole thing. Can’t find rewiring info anywhere. Any suggestions? Thanks.
On a trailer, the ground connection goes through the trailer frame, and problems like you describe are often caused by a problem with the ground. Try unbolting the bad tail light and wire brush the mounting screws, the portion of the frame where the mounting screws go through, and the lock nuts that are used to bolt the light on. You need good electrical conductivity through all of that to get a good ground connection. It’s also possible that the tail light will have a short stub of wire with a eye on the end that goes under the mounting screw, so make sure that’s clean and has good conductivity too.
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If you do rewire the trailer, you can optionally add a ground wire. This tends to make the ground connection more reliable.
Assuming that the car side is working fine, you usually can get a testing connector inexpensive to test the signals.
If the light uses a bulb instead of newer lens. They may have a incorrect bulb. Many times the bulb for the rear trailer light has 2 elements in it so one bulb will either show dim running lights and can show the brake or turn signal.
Usually the rear lights have 1 ground connection for both brake and running light. And you indicate the the running light is bright but no turn or brake on that light…
The bulb could also need to be replaced.
By all means, make sure ground connections are clean and tight, for starters (and a wire brush isn’t enough. Scrape the connection area down to fresh, shiny metal using something like a screwdriver). It’s common that fixing ground connections solves everything. That said (and some of what’s described below might be obvious to you already, but if it’s not, the info might help)…
What you describe is a very common problem for two-filament bulbs of the “old style”, which had two lead pins at the bottom of a brass cylindrical base, with two pegs on opposite sides of the base at different elevations which matched notched slots in the light-fixture housing at corresponding elevations (this is supposed to prevent installing the bulb backward but that doesn’t stop some people from putting it in backward anyway, so check this). That style of bulb is notorious for having a bad fit in the socket, and in trailer applications (as opposed to the situation in old cars which use the same bulbs), this problem always seems a lot worse (maybe due to cheaper fixtures or just more exposure to the weather). A more-modern style of two-filament bulb that has a slide-in connection is a lot more reliable, but there can still be problems with getting good electrical connections at all three contact points.
What you describe is a situation where the brake filament is energized by the parking-light circuit. Also, from what you describe, it seems that the parking filament might be energized too. In any case, the brake-light circuit (which also is the same circuit that energizes the flashing of the turn signals and four-ways) must not be having any affect at all here, or for this light fixture it’s shorted with the parking circuit.
If jiggling a bulb in the socket clears up the problem, this probably won’t be the last time you need to do that, and the best solution is to replace all light fixtures with modern ones having LEDs. If your trailer already has LED lights, it’s most likely that your problem involves bad wiring connections.
You do need to verify that the wiring is all okay, using a multi-meter (you can get a cheap one at the hardware store for about the same cost as a decent calculator). If the wiring has a problem, that won’t take long to identify, but if you see a lot of bad connections it can be easier to install all-new wiring (see below).
You don’t need to contact Yakima about a wiring diagram (and DON’T order any parts from them because they will most likely gouge you on prices for basic items you can buy anywhere). All basic trailers use the same wiring pattern. Also, they all use the same color code for identifying which wires energize which lights (or which filaments in old-style two-filament bulbs), and which wire is the ground. I could summarize this here but there are lots of internet sites and YouTube clips that explain trailer wiring, and it is very simple to understand. Any auto-parts store, or hardware-type store that sells hitches and the like will sell trailer wiring kits, as well as modern replacement trailer lights. You will need a basic four-wire kit, and one that has a very short overall length will do the job since your trailer is so short. You don’t need exactly the right wiring kit. If your trailer has side marker lights and your wiring kit is only for taillights, you can splice in the extra wires that are needed to energize the side markers. I’d recommend that approach, actually, since you can put the spliced-in wires exactly where you need them and you won’t have lots of extra wire that must be coiled up and stored on the trailer frame in bulk (messy) or cut out and reconnected to proper length (which is no easier than doing the splicing job).
If you re-wire the trailer and you have never soldered wire connections before, I recommend getting a soldering gun and soldering all connections (internet advice sites and the guy at the hardware store will tell you to cover your solder connections with heat-shrink tubing but there’s no need to mess with that. Electrical tape is fine). Hardly anyone solders their connections nowadays - they just use twist-nut connections - but the day WILL come when those twist connections fail and you’ll be tracking down wiring problems all over again, while soldered connections will still be good when your great grandchildren have the trailer. By the way, if you have a propane (or MAPP gas) torch, you can solder with that and it will be a lot quicker but you can’t do the work in close proximity to stuff that doesn’t like heat (such as soldering right next to plastic light fixtures).
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Yeah, I took off the ground at the tail light (actually there were two) sanded both ends and the attachment point. Still no joy. The signal works when the lights are off, but only “bright” light when lights are on, no flasher. Also, this is an aluminum trailer so I wonder if this even works. I haven’t removed the light yet, but I think these lights are LED, so not sure about bulb issues here. I can use the trailer, the lights on the car are easily visible, but I would really like them to work…
Your next step is to clean up additional ground connections. Besides cleaning up ground connections for each of the trailer lights, find the ground connection between the trailer plug and the trailer frame and clean it up. Then, find the ground connection for the trailer plug of your car, and clean that up.
I have difficulty picturing how these kinds of problems come about, but I have had it mentioned to me briefly by people over the years for whom visualizing flow in such circuits is second nature. What they describe is electrical current taking “wrong paths” through other light fixtures when the proper ground connections are poor. Very strange things happen when this occurs, with “wrong” lights" being energized as you describe, or with the proper lights being extremely dim. I’m half tempted to draw a circuit diagram and try to figure out for myself how the symptoms you describe might come about, but I think the most expedient thing is to recommend finding and cleaning the ground connections of three types: those for each light fixture on the trailer, the trailer plug, and the output plug on your car.
It should be easy to figure out if the light fixtures have old-style glass bulbs or new-stile LEDs. Just take off the red plastic lens and see what’s inside. If in fact there are glass bulbs, obviously that means there are additional electrical contacts to clean (three for each bulb).
Did you buy a testing meter yet? That might still come in handy. We’re talking about a meter that measures volts and ohms.
You are risking a ticket if the trailer lights do not work properly.
Not here in SC if the car lights are visible then you are good to go. Laws for trailer lights vary state to state. In fact, SC doesn’t even require titles or tags for boat trailers and other small trailers.
That holds if the trailer is used only in SC. Otherwise tags, title, and lights are required.
You might be right, and I don’t know every state’s DOT regulations. However, I asked when I titled my sailboat about the trailer and was told I didn’t need to title or tag as other states honor each other’s regulations. For instance, the previous owner of my Potter 19 sailboat pulled it to NC, VA, GA, and FL. He was only pulled over once in FL and when the officer learned he was from SC he wasn’t ticketed. Then again things change, and it would not hurt to check when traveling out of state.
From the SC DMV:
“You must register your utility, pole, or farm trailer only if you’re traveling out of South Carolina. If your boat trailer has an empty weight of 2,500 pounds or more, you must register it in order to use it on SC roads or out-of-state. If your boat or utility trailer is under an empty weight of 2,500 pounds, and you are not planning to travel out-of-state, then you do not need to register it.”
Whether out of state police are aware of the SC regulations or not is a gamble.
However, you appear to be right as far as lighting, but reflectors are required.
"(6) On every trailer, semitrailer, or pole trailer weighing three thousand pounds gross or less, on the rear two reflectors, one on each side. If a trailer or semitrailer is loaded or is of dimensions so as to obscure the stop light on the towing vehicle then the vehicle also must be equipped with one stop light;
(7) On every pole truck or trailer, a strip of light reflecting paint, tape, or reflectors on the external sides of the pole support frame or bolsters, or both, where practical."
Police tend to be funny if you have lights but they don’t work.
One wouldn’t think that for as simple as this trailer is that it would be difficult to trace the error with basic knowledge of automotive wiring. Andy gave the link for the wiring diagram. Any idea if the tow hitch connector works with other trailers? Maybe the problem isn’t with the trailer.
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“One wouldn’t think that for as simple as this trailer is that it would(n’t) be difficult to trace the error with basic knowledge of automotive wiring. Andy gave the link for the wiring diagram. Any idea if the tow hitch connector works with other trailers? Maybe the problem isn’t with the trailer.”
I had been thinking the same thing. It’s okay that not everyone has the experience to figure out wiring flaws of this kind (though owning a trailer just about guarantees that one will have opportunities to get such experience), and in that case, simply taking the car and trailer to any basic car-repair shop might be worth it. The guys at the shop should be able to figure out the problem in a few minutes, and I’m guessing that the cost of repair at a shop won’t be any greater than the cost of a traffic ticket.
More thoughts:
Okay, for the first time I actually looked at the wiring diagram on the Yakima website. Yes indeed, it IS exactly the same wiring pattern as what’s present on virtually every other brake-less trailer that exists on Earth. BUT, that wiring contains 15 (!!!) electrical plugs, not counting the single plug by the hitch that all trailers have for tapping into the car’s lighting system. Plugs are a likely location for continuity flaws. It’s bad enough that on an older wiring system one might need to jiggle and rub the connections on the main trailer plug to get all the lights working properly, so imagine having 15 additional plug connections elsewhere on the trailer!
Note also that there are TEN ground connections (on eight separate locations) on the trailer, and as already mentioned, those connections need to be in good shape.
I looked through the customer reviews of the trailer and among the surprisingly small number of reviews listed (only 20), two of them mentioned the wiring as being a weak link. One person said they had to be really careful after partly disassembling the trailer for storage (apparently compact storage via disassembly is a selling point) to avoid accidentally cutting wires when putting things back together. I suspect that’s strictly a dumb mistake by that particular user, but if one person can make that mistake, others probably can too. You got this trailer used, so who knows what the previous owner might have done. Another person said that they had all sorts of bizarre malfunctions with the lights, and that even after many months, Yakima was unable to deliver a new wiring harness so the place where he bought the trailer fixed the existing wiring instead. Then they had the same problem again half a year later. Still, for what it’s worth, such issues happening over and over again CAN be a basic part of trailer ownership, at least until the wiring is upgraded beyond the usual “cheap” level of quality that many trailers have as original equipment (this can be as simple as soldering all the existing connections and replacing existing light fixtures with LED models, as already mentioned).
It’s still not totally clear from the OP’s comments whether he’s confident in diagnosing wiring problems, but my gut feeling is that he’s not. Therefore, since I’m not the OP’s neighbor and can’t offer to fix everything for free, I stand by my most recent recommendation, of just paying an auto-repair shop to fix it. If you want to retain the ability to completely disassemble the trailer for winter storage, I’d suggest attaching the wiring to the outside of the frame and having electrical plugs only at each light location, so that you can just unplug the lights and remove the wiring completely before disassembly. That will eliminate many of the other plugs, and keep all plugs accessible to be messed around with in case problems crop up during use (instead of them being buried and inaccessible within the frame). If you don’t need to take the trailer apart, I’d ask the shop to eliminate ALL of those plug connections, taking an extra few minutes on each of them to join those wires by soldering. OR, they could just replace the existing wires.
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Yes, too the reflectors, and trailer weight. I just didn’t get that specific. I happened to have lights on all my trailers. Years ago, when I was hauling bees and honey back and forth from FL to SC, I decided to tag the trailer I was using at the time just to avoid any hassle and because I would be on the road at night, even though at that time I didn’t have too. Safety should be at the top of the list. Just pointing out that laws differ state to state.
It’s clear most of the posters are not familiar with this trailer. Lights are LED and the trailer comes pre-wired with plug-in wiring.
Unplug the connector to the issue light, clean and replug.
According to the wiring diagram, this trailer uses the frame as the ground, so that won’t help if it’s a grounding problem.
That’s correct. And on that topic, the symptoms that the OP describes can’t come about ONLY from a bad connection on the “+” side of the affected light fixture (because the brake lights in that fixture are activated when the parking lights is on, and activation of the brake/turn circuit via the car changes nothing), so there seems to be no chance at all that simply cleaning the plug that goes to the light will solve the problem. The problem surely has to be related to one or more of the other issues already mentioned in this discussion.
And while I’m checking in here, here’s a possibility that hasn’t been mentioned. In spite of various remarks (even from me) that LED lights are expected to be reliable, such light fixtures might have something go wrong. A good way to check this possibility - especially if lacking a test meter - would be to exchange the left and right taillights. If the problem remains within the same light fixture, that’s where the issue lies. If the problem remains on the same side, it’s an issue with the wiring.
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