Ok, I have a new idea.

When unloading at night i often find myself tripping around. Why? Because it's dark.

So, I want to wire in a light on the back of my trailer. I think if i went out there and started splicing wires i could eventually get it. But, since i have this wonderful computer i want to see what you guys think.

There are 2 wires leading into the taillight that i'm going to take the power from. I'm thinking one of them is the turn signal light wire (or else the brake light wire ) and one of them has got to be just the normal running light wire. .... i think.
Now how they grounded all this.. i guess it's grounded over at the vehicle its hooked up to.
The more i type... the more confused i get.

So... back to my train of thought (which is about to de-rail )
I want to tap into the running light wire and take it through a toggle switch and then to the light.

Thats all i think i'm up for typing, anyone have any ideas.



Answers go there
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Taillight should grounded by being bolted on and in contact with metal trailer frame...you should have two wires going into that taillight. One is turn/brake and the other is your taillight wire (brown on my 18ft trailer)...should be able to splice into that taillight wire for hot and ground onto the trailer frame. Another thought is wire a set directly off of your truck plug...unplug the trailer and plug in the spot lights....they could be the magnetic sort and one on each side of a down tailgate or on top of each bedrail. I know that oreilly's sells a 12v accessory plug that hooks onto the flat four truck plug and then could accept the 12v light with the cigarette port end (or a splitter for two lights)...just trying to give some more suggestions!!

 

Generally speaking left turn/brake is a yellow wire, right turn/brake is a green wire, and brown is your tail lights. Does your truck have a flat four way plug or a round 7 wire? If it is the round, your truck should have a hot wire there (top right prong when looking into to truck plug. If your trailer has the 7 wire cord you can use the black wire as hot for your lights. Otherwise, go off the brown and it should ground to the frame. This will require your truck lights to be on though...

 

a friend of mine did that with a separate 4 pin flat harness. he just unplugged the trailer and plugged the light harness into the truck. worked for him! he did it that way cause he said "i'd be walking by the hitch area anyways, no biggie to plug/unplug". go figure.

 

I remember when I was younger, we used one of these.

But I guess dark today is a lot more complicated than it was back then.

 

Ball hat lights work great.

 

It's the normal 4-hole, utility trailer style hook up.

 

Oh ha...

Old timers.. lol

takes the fun out of it

I often find myself with an excess of energy, even after working... Got to let it out somehow. Weather it be making something or doing something stupid with the buddies..

But hey, it's constructive... Sort of.

 

it's pretty easy- I've wired winches and lights on my trailers before.

secure the light to your trailer. black wire to chassis ground- red (or white) wire to inline toggle switch- toggle switch to any of the trailer running lights.

done.

the light will only work when the headlights or running lights are on. The toggle will allow you to shut off the trailer light when driving.

The whole project should take no more then 15 minutes.

 

here's a simple bmp I drew up for you-
red = positive 12v wire from running lights.

you shouldnt have to ground the actual case of the light- depends on the light you buy- but most will have a grounding wire to the chassis because a lot of people mount lights on plastic...