[AT] Portable Trailer lights from Harbor Freight

[Gunnells, Bradley R]

Some good advice here. Testing the lights on a different vehicle to rule one or the other out.

I’m not sure I understood you Dean, was the trailer connected to the 7 pin when you were testing?

My F250 has both the 4 & 7 pin connectors from factory. But several years ago, when wiring a 7 pin on the old ’84 F250 I ran across some differences in pinouts in some of the information I found. Of the 7 pins I think the turn, tail, brake, and ground locations are standard. But there is also the support for backup lights and a power feed (such as charging a camper battery while in tow). So, if the trailer was connected is it possible that something in its wiring pinout doesn’t jive with the trucks?

Just throwing out something else to think about.

Brad

On 8/10/17, 6:35 AM, "at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com on behalf of Henry Miller" <at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com on behalf of hank at millerfarm.com> wrote:

    The problem with volt meters is that they don't draw a lot of current.
    You can get plenty of voltage through a bad connection as far as a
    voltage meter is concerned, but nearly nothing to a light bulb. 
    
    I'd check the wires to the 4 pin connector carefully. Also find someone
    else with a 4 pin connector on their truck to see what happens. Right
    now it could be either your truck or the lights, rule one out and we can
    make more guesses on the other. 
    
    -- 
      Henry Miller
      hank at millerfarm.com
    
    On Thu, Aug 10, 2017, at 01:53 AM, Dean VP wrote:
    > Several months ago this was a topic on Atis when Harbor Freight had these
    > light sets on sale for like $5 or $10 or so.  Well I bought two sets of
    > them In case I needed then on my trailer and the second set to carry
    > around in my truck for anyone else who might need them at an Antique
    > Tractor show.  Well recently I decided maybe I ought to hooked one up to
    > my truck and trailer to see how I liked them.  Didn't work so good.  The
    > first indication was it appeared I had a crossed wire or poor ground
    > since whenever I turned on a turn signal both turn signals blinked at a
    > lower brightness.  Chased grounding, cleaned contacts, etc, etc.  No
    > solution. Keep in mind my normal trailer lights are working fine. Then I
    > found out that if the tail lights were on, night time, whenever I braked,
    > both taillights would go out. Not dim, completely out.  That had me
    > really going and then I found out that if the tail lights were not on,
    > daytime, the brake lights worked just fine.   Now that had my h!
    >  ead completely spinning. 
    > 
    > So after a while of being completely dumfounded I finally realized I had
    > another brand new set in the truck so hooked them up. Same damned thing. 
    >  Let me reiterate, my regular lights on the trailer work perfectly.  The
    > only difference is the HF lights are fed by the small 4 pin connector
    > right next to the 7 pin connector that feeds the normal trailer lights.
    > Now One could come to the conclusion that there must be something wrong
    > with the 4 pin connector circuits  or  both HF light sets are defective.
    > I have tested the 4 pin connector with a volt meter and the voltage
    > appears correctly with no cross talk between pins for the turn signals. 
    > I get a good low ohm ground measurement between the ground on the 4 pin
    > socket and the ground on the truck.  
    > 
    > I'm stuck.  At the present time I am convinced I have two identically
    > defective light sets from Harbor Freight.  Primarily because I cannot
    > come up with anything that could be wrong in the 4 pin circuits that
    > could produce these kinds of weird results. Am I overlooking something
    > really simple? Or even something complex. It has me stumped if it isn't
    > the lights themselves.   Unfortunately I have nothing else to check the 4
    > pin connector with here.  I suppose there may be a commercial tester for
    > them but I haven't looked for one.  Maybe I'm just flat stubborn
    > believing it is the lights. 
    > 
    > 
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