I just recently found out, thanks to a friend who was following me, that I have a turn signal problem. They work great all by themselves, but when the brake light is also on, the off-side turn signal also blinks, but alternating and not as bright. This goes both ways.
I have tested the socket on the TV, and its voltage output is what I would expect. I would normally expect a ground problem, but for this: a meter test between the R (brn) and L (red) lines going into the trailer shows continuity. I don't think it should. Do I have that right?
I'm confident I'll eventually work this out by disconnecting enough wires to see what happens, but has anyone seen this? Maybe you can save me a little time and brain strain.
Thanks,
Randy
I found this on a site which might provide some other things to check.... I copied a couple sentences as a sample of what they suggest for checking various scenarios.
https://rwtrailerparts.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/diagnosing-and-repairing...
"If the bulb is only “half-twisted” in, then both filaments will light, as the bulb’s two contacts will touch both tail-light prongs. This will create a dead short when a turn signal or brake is used with the running lights on, and can also result in all marker lights blinking or illuminating along with the turn signals or brake lights."
To help trouble shoot, Do you have separate brake and turn signals on the TV and is it a 4 pin or 7 pin hook up? Oh yes, (and this has come up before), did it ever work?
And yes you are correct, they should be seperate from each other. Your book should have a diagram in it.
The TV has separate brake and tail lights, and there's a converter between the TV wiring and the 7-pin trailer socket.
I suspect it never worked, since I've had the trailer. Sad to say, I never checked that operation. I never had anyone handy to step on the brake when I stood behind, so I went with the belief that if the turn signals worked, the brake lights must be OK. Good lesson there.
Randy
Randy in Paonia
The 7 pin allows you to jumper the 12 volt line in the RV plug to the different light wires. Jump the 12 volt to the left and right and see if they both come on. The fact that you have continuity between left and right in the RV plug makes me think the problem is in the RV. Start with the easy stuff like removing the bulbs and retesting, then disconnect the lights wires at the lamp. Divide and conquer. Good luck.
Thanks to everyone for the info and advice. I tend to be a little slow on diagnosis of electrical problems, but I'm pretty sure I've narrowed it down to a short between the tail light and ground wires on the lower right fixture. At least on a continuity check, both of those wires, from where I can reach them (under the left-hand dinette seat), connect to the same places at the fixture: tail terminal and ground on both sockets.
Now my chore is to get access to the wiring in the right rear lower. This is conveniently located behind the water tank. If anyone has experience getting to this wiring on a 16' Scamp, I'd love to hear about it. Wish me luck, and I'll report back when I get this corrected.
Randy
Randy in Paonia
Are you doing your continuity testing with the bulb out of the fixture? If the bulb is in the socket you will get continuity between tail light and ground through the filament. If you are using a meter you should set it on OLMS. A reading close to zero resistance would indicate a short. A higher reading would be the resistance of the bulb filament. Most digital meters are not very good for continuity testing because they wil show "continuity" even with very high resistance. Using the OLMS mode is much more accurate.
Thanks for the thoughts on this. I'm using a cheap analog meter. It's not very accurate, but I like it because I can easily see the needle swing if there's continuity.
And I have been doing this with the bulbs out. With the exception that I missed the right rear marker. Because of that, the diagnosis I reported a couple of posts ago is misleading. I was reading continuity through that bulb. Still at it...
Randy
Randy in Paonia
I hope you all are finding this entertaining as I flotch along and reveal my lack of intelligence.
I was going to hold off and not report back until I found the answer. But the investigation took a turn today, and created another question. I went as far as I could with continuity checks, and concluded that my wiring is all right. I started doing voltage checks to see if I could identify and unusual voltage drop somewhere. Coming off the battery ground, I checked voltage on the R & L turn sig/brake wires where they come out of the wall in the back. I found between 6.5 and 8 volts. So, I thought, there's a really bad place in the wiring where the two wires are all corroded and contacting each other. To verify this I made a really long dual jumper and ran it directly from the brown and red incoming wires under the front bench to replace the old wiring to the harness in the rear. SAME VOLTAGE! That changed my perspective, and I checked voltage further forward. At the incoming under the seat, it was a bit more, which is OK considering the long travel. At the socket on the TV I got about 10V. This isn't right, and brings up two questions: 1) 2V is a pretty big drop for going through a six' hookup cable, and 2) even more important, why isn't it 12V?
Now I'm wondering about the turn signal converter. I'll test it tomorrow. I read, in all my web-browsing, that this things do commonly drop the output voltage by a couple of volts. Thus, my question to the forum, if you haven't tuned out by now: what are the best brands of turn signal converters that have less voltage drop?
Thanks,
Randy
Randy in Paonia
Call E- trailer, (Or the converter mfg.) they have techs that may have insight into your converter issue and E-Trailer could recommend a good light converter. Myself and others had issues with Subaru Outback light converters. With the vehicle and its lights off and if you had led lights on your trailer you could see the running lights barely lit at night. We just made sure the plug was disconnected from the car.
Check your converter ground.
Eddie
Thanks everyone for the ideas and suggestions. I thought you'd want to know how it all turned out.
After exhaustively checking the trailer wiring, I moved forward checking voltage. First I discovered that I was getting only about 8V back at the rear. I began to suspect the converter, which I had initially eliminated. My brilliant wife pointed out that I have another trailer - why don't I hook up to it and see if I get the same symptoms? I did, and I did.
The next question was finding a good replacement. My old converter was a relatively cheap Hopkins. I did some research, then called Etrailer.com. They directed me to a Tekonsha model 119190, which was already on my short list. It takes power directly off the TV battery. I ordered it, installed it, and it's all better now. The brake & turns are much brighter, and the blink is nice and crisp and confined to one side. If you're shopping for a converter, I'd recommend it. You can see details at https://www.etrailer.com/Wiring/Tekonsha/119190.html.
Randy
Randy in Paonia