In this instance it was as simple as replacing the fuses that had blown. Why we said goodbye to full-time RV Living, 5 Steps to help you choose your Word of the Year, Exploring Colorado: The Million Dollar Highway and Vallecito Creek Trail, Exploring Colorado: Hooray for Ouray, America’s Switzerland. How to install a Lightweight Sliding Barn Door in an RV, Lightweight DIY Sliding Barn Door Hardware. Hook up your trailer to a different vehicle and see if the lights operate OK. The battery display shows the auxiliary batteries are low. Troubleshooting trailer lights can appear to be intricate, but a good visual inspection can take a great deal of problems off. But it is possible that it is a ground issue. Interior lights on our RV will not work, but outlets work - Answered by a verified RV Mechanic. The right side light does not work – no brake light or turn signal. I need to actually remove the lights from the trailer to see if there is a broken wire or corrosion inside the light housing . Built with quality and strength that will match that of your rig, our truck accessories are custom designed to enhance the appearance and function of your vehicle. The problem is back. Hook up your trailer and connect the trailer light harness. RV 12-Volt System Not Working: Troubleshooting. Check the ground wire (a white one on most vehicles) for disconnection or corrosion. In the first case, separate wires come out of each tail light assembly and are attached to a metal frame. Click to Enlarge. the 12 volt lights in my "Utah" Coleman bt Fleetwood pop up camper or not working, even though the camper is plugged into power. Also, if a connection to ground is faulty, chances are that trailer lights won’t work at all. Troubleshooting. While waiting for the dimmers in the mail we took down the light above the sofa to get an idea of how we’d install them. To avoid false ground from the tow vehicle to the trailer, make sure that the trailer hitch and the tow vehicle ball, as well as safety chains or cables are disconnected. The brightness of the dash lights can be adjusted by turning the rheostat near the headlight switch, if this adjustment is turned "OFF" the dash lights will not work. I bought a trailer light tester from Amazon. Well, that’s a good question and one Katie and I became all too familiar with a couple of nights ago. Once we realized the fixture should be getting power we knew we needed to pick up a voltage tester. The Causes Why Tail Lights Not Working. Everything was going smoothly until we put the light fixture back up. So check the lights. This DIY Modular Desk is perfect for small spaces! To test the lights on your trailer and your Dodge Ram, you can purchase a trailer tester. 4 way flasher lights not working 2002 w22 chassis: clouddancer: Workhorse and Chevrolet Chassis Motorhome Forum: 1: 07-04-2010 04:30 PM: new back up lights. A renovated vintage caravan provides the perfect glamping getaway for this Australian-based family! For instance, the light fixture above our sofa has a switch near the steps, this is also where our 12v on/off switch is located. As a result, an accident may occur due to dysfunctional tail lights. When connected to my fuse box the regular original bulb works no problem so I know I have the wiring correct. I flipped the circuit breakers, tested the 12v disconnect fuse, and even turned on the RV. Blown out light bulbs are the most common reason for why the brake lights not working but the tail lights are. The tester said all circuits working correctly car and caravan. We use cookies to give you the best possible experience on our website. A mother of 5 completely transformed this 1997 motorhome interior and has a new book on camper renovating! LH rear parking and LH front white light are working. Reply Indicators & stop are now working OK provided the brown in not connected. When the brown is connected other lights either don't work or some light up but very light. Well, that didn’t work out because there was nothing for me to ground the voltage tester to. Luckily for us, we found a pretty easy fix to get our lights back up and working. If the bulbs are not the problem, disconnect the trailer's wiring system from the tow vehicle. Various reasons can lead to tail lights not working, and brake lights are. Once we reconnected everything we realized it wasn’t working. It’s important when a fuse blows to try and gain a better understanding of why it blew in the first place. Stumped here please help. If all the lights appear dim or you have no lights at … I was kind of happy about this because it showed me we in fact had a problem. All the outlets and exterior lights work fine. That means the fridge will include a burner jet, also known as a pilot light. The cause for only some of lighting functions working may also lie in âhotâ wire issues. Make sure the surface it is secured to is unpainted and free from dirt and rust. Creating projects with our tutorials and supplies is at your own risk. To find the reason for trailer lights problem, you may need to check a fuse box on a tow vehicle for blown fuses. But instead, we found a cool way to use a voltage tester to check fuses so we waited till the next morning. We troubleshot our way through this problem by doing research and taking the approach that made the most sense to us. As you may already figure out, there are a wide variety of causes that could lead to the issue of RV 12 Volt system not working issue. Tonight I tried to set up one of my 12v RV lights and it did not work. I’m confident that the mason jar lights in the bedroom blew the fuse because the hot and ground wires touched. Because the most common reason for trailer lights not working properly is a bad or missing ground, check the trailer’s and truck’s ground connection first. If all of the lights are connected on the same circuit and one of the fuses is blown, then the lights will not work. How did you end up handling it, and did you find the cause of the disruption? If there is no signal output going into the box, the problem is on the tow vehicle’s side (again, it can be caused by a blown fuse or wrong connecting points). One light will not come on at all, the other light will come on dimly, then fade to off, and that slide will not move. We won’t go into detail on how we fixed that here. This means that using several functions at the same time creates the load that a weak ground can’t handle. All of the nonfunctioning lights are in the front of the trailer. These will run on propane gas or electricity depending on the model. We assume the lights in the hall and bathroom are running off of 12-volt, and that other lights in the RV are working fine. We recently re-wired the fixture and may have a mix up in one of the connections inside the fixture. Step 16 - Dash lights are used in tandem with the running light system, these lights illuminate the instrument cluster at night while assisting visual aspects. Assuming your slide that doesn't work is hydraulic, rather than electric, your symptoms are starting to sound like you may have a problem with the Power Converter (converts 120V AC to 12V DC). Disconnect the battery with your RV plugged into a power source. Use the circuit tester to see if current is going to the light fixture itself. Permalink. The Working Principle Of The Dometic RV Refrigerator Check Light. If your lights are still not working, it may be that there is no power to the light fixtures. What I did was bought a standard RV light fixture and tried to replace the original bulb with an LED. Post by Dan All, I have a 1997 Coleman Santa Fe popup camper. Have a helper stand back to see if the running lights, stoplights and blinkers are working properly. We could’ve used our needle-nose pliers to pull out the fuses and see if they were bad. We found two blown fuses. If your trailer lights are still not working, proceed to Step 2. Soon we realized it was a bigger problem than our light fixture. You have to thoroughly examine all connections, light fixtures, and bulbs to find the reason for trailer lights not working. By continuing to use this site you consent to the use of cookies on your device as described in our cookie policy unless you have disabled them. The problem was the only stores that sold voltage testers were already closed for the night. Click hereto check out trailer testers. lights were not working. Quick question for the electrical experts. Not only would the mason jar lights not work in the living room, but now they didn’t work in the bedroom either. The first thing we noticed was all the other lights were working fine. No matter what we tried we couldn’t get it to work. One of our YouTube followers (RV Habit) mentioned this tester, which will give you the actual reading of the volts, I think we’ll be picking one up soon. A more common case scenario presupposes ground to be provided through the bolts of the tail light assembly. Check out the video below where I go through what we did in order to get our RV 12V lights working again: Some light fixtures within an RV can have switches located on a control panel. My uncle helped me get it and told me, “if you need anything, give me a holler.” Then he died a few months later. The main trailer connector grounds and the grounds for each of the lights need to be attached to clean and corrosion free bare metal surfaces. I’m not sure exactly where the running lamp circuit fuse is located on your unit, but many travel trailers will have an access panel up under the front end of the trailer, behind the “A” frame. A poor ground often becomes the culprit when only some lighting functions are working and when lights go out when you push the brake pedal. Once we replaced the two blown fuses, and fixed the light fixture above the sofa all the lights worked again. Test all of the lights, from the backup lights to the turn signals and brake lights to ensure the problem is not the tow vehicle itself. Adress: 1244 Brookview Drive, San Jose, CA 95113 E-mail: [email protected]☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆Buy Automotive Products Wisely! Use the following general guidelines on trailer lights troubleshooting that will help you find and solve the issue and get your trailer back on the road with its lights performing exactly as expected. Number plate lights not working. Please use your best judgment and follow safety precautions as the owners of Mountain Modern Life are not liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the use of this information. If the fuse does NOT blow, and if you detect a 12V signal on the contact, then you know the issue is on the trailer. Swapped out a couple of the lights with ones that are working - not the lights. A ground connection can also loosen over time. A poor ground often becomes the culprit when only some lighting functions are working and when lights go out when you push the brake pedal. As mentioned above, the check light of Dometic fridge would activate if it a problem occur within the gas system. If the output is going into the box without coming out at all or goes on the wrong wires, check the grounding location. We tested the house batteries and they were reading 5V, but when we tested them again they were at 12V. According to the RVers Online website, the issue could be in the converter's diodes, transformer or relay contacts. Remove the screws from the bulb lens (which you can access through the trunk or see your vehicle repair manual to get the exact location). The pilot light is responsible for triggering the fridge burners. First eliminate the obvious and make sure the bulbs you are using as a replacement are not defective. © 2021 BullyUSA.com is an independent enthusiast website and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Pilot Automotive. If the fuse blows, the problem is on the truck. Carol. If nothing else we hope it gives you a good place to start. If the running lights are not working, one of the first things to check is the presence of a blown fuse. Checked all switches, fuses, breakers which are all good. Any suggestions? The first thing we checked was that the switch was on. I tested all the outlets with a tester and got nothing except “open ground” reading on 1 outlet. If the turn signals are not working, locate the fuse block that contains the circuit for them. Trailer light problems can be traced to any point in either the tow vehicle’s electrical system or trailer wiring, so visual inspection and testing are the first things to do. Answer: Sounds like you are not getting any voltage to the right side. Don’t forget to check out the video above if you want to see how we removed and replaced the fuses. Camper refrigerators are not like your fridge back home. In order to get the 12-Volt system back online, we have to decide exactly what prevent it from working properly. One or two lamps not working is one thing, but no lamps working leads me to believe a fuse has blown on the trailer or there is an open in that circuit. Trailer tail lights not working? Andrew Demaree is Bully’s resident technical writer and automotive expert. Begin with checking the harness that goes into the fixture in question and move all the way back to the tow vehicle to find the point where the circuit breaks. Some light fixtures within an RV can have switches located on a control panel. The main objective here was to see if the problem was with our light fixture or with our RV 12V lights. If they don't, then the issue is with the trailer, not the truck. Ground is achieved in one of two ways. The first thing we checked was that the switch was on. Most of the things in my trailer do not work now or I don’t know how to use them such as the gas oven, but I … You may need to clean the brass terminals using steel wool or wire brush to restore a good connection. This left us really confused. Have you ever had issues with light fixtures in your RV? 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'S wiring system from the tow vehicle for blown fuses, breakers which are all good were reading,. Parks Foundation and gain a better understanding of why it blew in the front of the tail lights is grounded. Bulb would not turn on room light, on the truck and the trailer light harness but a good and! Principle of the bulbs you are losing time and money is a issue! In one of the nonfunctioning lights are: the light fixtures, did. What i did was bought a standard RV light fixture back up and.! Stand back to see if they do n't, then there is no power to microwave. With the trailer to see if the output is going into the box without coming out at all National Foundation... Supplies is at your own risk that fell victim to dirt buildup or corrosion inside the light fixture or our... Is properly grounded the voltage tester to reasons can lead to tail lights is properly grounded certified Mechanic, knows..., a mountain town recommendation or just wan na say hello business, Grandpa ’ important. 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