Below is a video on How To Wire Trailer Lights
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Today we will be showing you how to wire trailer lights. We are replacing the wiring and the lights on this landscape trailer. The brake light lens are broken and the wiring has become brittle from sun exposure in the tongue of the trailer.
It’s a good idea to know the length of the trailer and also see how the wiring is run on the trailer to ensure you get enough wire in your kit. This trailer it runs down the drivers side across the back and then to the passenger side tail light. We ended up buying a kit that came with 25’ of trailer wiring and LED lights to do this 10’ landscape trailer. We also decided to buy 25’ of white wire to add to the kit so each light will have a ground rather than use the frame of the trailer. If you lights are good and you just need to replace the wiring you can get a replacement spool.
To start you will need a pair of cutting pliers and we’ll cut and remove all the old wiring from the trailer. As we are removing the old wiring we are going to pull through the new wiring from the front to the back. As we routing the wires we will want to stop or leave the brown and yellow wire at the driver’s side tail light. The brown wire will be the running light and the yellow wire will be the left turn and stop. The green and brown wire will go across the back of the trailer and to the right/ passenger side tail light. The green will be the right turn and stop and the brown will be the running light.
Once we have all the wiring in place we can now pull the white wire though and pull any slack or extra wire back towards the front of the trailer to give us the most wire there to make the connector length as much as possible so it can fit multiple vehicles.
Now that we have all of the wiring in place we can now start replacing the lights. The current lights on the trailer only have a single power wire coming from the lights and they use the mounting point as the ground. That is why you will see the white wire coming from the connector connected to the trailer tongue. With these new led lights they have both a power and ground wire coming from them. Now you could choose to attach an eyelet and attach to the trailer frame to give you the ground. We have decided to run that separate white with the trailer wiring to attach the white wires from the lights to. You can buy trailer wiring that includes the white wire.
Now that we have the white run from the passenger side of the trailer to the tongue of the trailer. The vehicle side has an eyelet on it to attach it to the trailer. We are going to cut that off and then twist that white wire and the white wire we ran and connect them together and crimp on a new eyelet and attach to the trailer. Now that we have that connected we can now grab some ⅜ wire loom and put it over the wire from the vehicle all the way until the wire goes under the trailer. The wire loom will help protect the wire from the sun. Well use some electrical tape and tape the wire loom in a few spots to ensure it doesn’t come off the wire.
Next we can grab some safety glasses and a grinder and cut off the front two clearance lights with a grinder as the bolts are rusted. Once we have them removed we can grab two of the amber clearance lights from the kit and mount them. On this trailer we will need to drill the mounting holes and use some stainless hardware we bought separately to mount them. Once they are mounted we will need to make some jumper wires to go from the light to the main harness.
On the light side we will use some Heat Shrink Butt Wire Connectors to connect the wires together. Then we’ll use a heat gun or torch to activate the heat shrink. Then we’ll also use some liquid tape just to ensure we don’t have any problems with corrosion. Once the liquid tape has dried we can use some electrical tape and tape over it.
On the main harness side we are going to use some t tap wire connectors. Well use the t tap part on the main harness and on the wire extension well crimp of the spade terminal. Once we have the connection completed we can take some liquid tape and apply it to the open ends of the t tap and crimp of the spade terminal and around where it plugs into the t tap.
So this trailer only had one clearance light on the front corner of the trailer. So we decided to add an amber light to the front of the fender and also the red clearance light to the rear of the fender. So we made a quick template out of cardboard for spacing and drilled the mounting holes in the front and rear of the fender. Once we have them mounted we can repeat the process of connecting the wiring. The solder seal wire connectors to connect our extension wires and the t taps to connect to the main harness and coating the connections with liquid tape.
Now that we have the four amber clearance lights and the two red clearance lights connected and wired into the main harness we can now move onto installing and connecting the tail lights. On the passenger side we will use an 8mm socket and ratchet and remove the broken old tail light. Once we have that removed we can grab the new passenger side tail light and bolt it on with the new hardware. Once the light is mounted we can use the solder seal butt connectors to connect the brown and green wire as they will reach the main harness. Then we will use a t tap to connect the white wire to the harness.
You will repeat the process for the driver’s side. The only difference will be that you should have the clear part on the bottom of the light to illuminate the licence plate. You will also need to add the licence plate bracket onto the back of the light before putting the bolts through the mounting plate. For wiring it will be brown to brown, yellow to yellow and then t tap the white wire together.
Lastly we are replacing the center clearance light. You will need one if the trailer is over 80” wide. This one had one so we are replacing it. There is already a hole in the center of the trailer for the wiring on this trailer we need to drill it bigger to fit the new light. Once we have the hole drilled big enough to fit the light we can set it in position and drill the two smaller holes so we can mount the light. Once we have them drilled we can install the pan head screws and locking nuts and tighten them and mount the light.
With it mounted we can climb back under the trailer and wire it in. So on this center light we have a black wire which will go to the brown wire( running light), we have the white wire which will go to the white wire ( ground) and we have a red wire which can go into the yellow or the green wire (stop & turn). We will use the green since its passing by. Well connect all these with the t-taps. Well seal them with the liquid tape.
Once we have finished wiring in the center clearance light it’s time to test all the lights to see if they function properly. They have also come out with a wireless trailer lights if you have a 7 pin connector and would like a fast lighting solution.
Now that we have tested the lights and they work as they should, that’s it we have just shown you how to wire tralier lights.
