Trailer tail light

[Joyma_TX]

My tail lights are not working. So I bought similar ones on amazon with two bulbs.
Here is original right tail wire connection:
Red wire from light to yellow wire from trailer
Black from light to black from trailer
Green from light to green from trailer

The new right light has 5 wire:
I plan to wire as the old way: red to yellow, black to black and green to green. There are two new white wires. What can I do with the two white wires? Can I just rip them off?

I tried it out and it seems to work now.

the original left tail light connection is:
Red wire from light to two yellow wires from trailer
Green wire from light to two green wires from trailer
Black wire from light to red wire from trailer

The new left wire also has 5 wires, including 2 new white wires. I plan to connect the same as the old way. What should I do with two white wires? It seems these two wires were ripped in the old light.

Thanks so much.

Chelsey

[Bill]

The white wires are the grounds for each bulb. You say it works with them not connected to anything, but I have no idea how that could be. In the original wiring, the ground connection for each fixture may be provided by the screw that attaches the fixture to the aluminum skin. In your pictures, I see no connection between the shell of the bulb and the screws that pass through the fixture.

For example, in your lower left picture, I see two bulbs. Look at the one on the left. It has a red wire going into the socket, but nothing coming out. In order to light up, the metal shell of the socket must be connected in some way to ground - that is, to the metal parts of the trailer. Specifically the aluminum skin. I would bet that in the original fixture, one of the metal mounting screws passes through a metal plate of some kind, which in turn is part of the socket. The screw makes electrical contact between the metal plate and the aluminum skin of the trailer. In that same picture I see four holes in the corners of the white plastic base plate, but there is no metal plate going to one of the screw holes. Instead, the ground connection is made via the white wire on the back of the socket. In other words, you must find some way to make the white wire contact the aluminum skin of the trailer.

I think the pictures you are showing us are pictures of the new fixtures. Can you take the lens off one of the old fixtures, and show us a picture of that fixture?

I wouldn't rip those white wires off until you figure this out.

Bill

[Joyma_TX]

I am not sure why but it does work. I guess the old light also has 5 wires but they rip 2 white wires off.

[Kidkraz]

Does it work when ya put the turn signal on? And does the back up white light work when the shifter is in reverse, besides just the brake light when applying the brakes?

[Bill]

What year is your TM?

If the new lights work as they should, then your job is done, even if I don't quite understand what is going on. If you still need help, start with this post

https://www.trailmanorowners.com/for...d.php?p=153130

Dick has included two wiring diagrams at the bottom of the post - the second one is the one that may be useful to you. In the lower right-hand corner of that diagram, you see the running lights, backup lights, and turn-and-brake lights (both functions on one bulb with one wire). The color of the wires in the TM is also called out. As you noted, each side actually has 3 colors coming to it from the TM. One side appears to have 5 wires because the same color wire comes out of the TM wall and goes back in again, headed for the other side.

Left fixture:
Red from TM is the left turn and brake signal
Yellow is the left backup light
Green is the running lights

Right fixture:
Brown (it may look black) is the right turn and brake
Yellow is the right backup light
Green is the running lights

White is the common ground for all of it, and inside the wall it is attached to the trailer's aluminum skin. This means that you can make the needed ground connection in the fixture either by using the white wire, or by connecting the ground in the fixture directly to the aluminum skin. My difficulty is that I don't see where either of these connections is made.

Bill

[Joyma_TX]

Thanks so much for the explanation. My trailer is 2006. I see the difference between my old light and new light now.

For the old light, there is a long screw that attach the metal shell to the trailer aluminum skin. However the screw for the new light is not long enough. Once I use a long screw for the new light, that means the light is already connect to the trailer aluminum skin. Therefore I don’t need to connect the two white wires. That is why in the old light they rip the white wire off.

[Bill]

I think you are there. If you drive a screw through both of the holes in the fixture (marked in red), and into the aluminum skin of the trailer, the lights will work. Each of those holes passes through the metal of one of the bulb sockets, and picks up ground for that bulb.

If you attach the fixture to the TM using only the mounting holes in the four corners of the white baseplate, it will not work.

This is probably what you meant when you said "the screw for the new light is not long enough - I replaced it with a longer one". The screws marked with red arrows are not intended for attaching the fixture to the trailer. But if you use them anyway, they do pick up the needed ground connection.

Incidentally, instead of drilling two new holes in the TM skin, you could drill only one new hole, and twist the ends of the white wires together. This joins the two socket grounds, and one screw then carries both to the aluminum skin.

Bill

[Joyma_TX]

Bill, you are right. I mean the two holes in the middle. It all works now.

Thanks so much.

Chelsey