Today’s Volvo wagon was kind of a flop, so the pressure to get the lights done has at least subsided for now. At least I got all the rest of the lights hung, which took much longer than it should have. Every hole needed to be redrilled for the new lights, and it took separate trips to both Lowe’s and Home Depot to find screws that would work with them.
If the rain holds off, I hope to drag the trailer up to the driveway tomorrow and install the new wiring harness.
I decided not to use the LED light bar that I wanted so badly for the rear, because there was just no good (easy) way to mount it to the curved, extruded frame that would ensure any hope for its survival.
Fortunately, the kit came with a pair of red marker lights too.
If you ever get tired of Repairing lights you could switch to grommet mounts.
The lens and bulb are a single assembly that just plugs in, so cracked lenses can be fixed without any splicing.
A set of boxes and a drill should make them more durable. You might even be able to mount them vertically to keep them in tight to the frame:
I love the trailer. My enabler is steel but wow has it dragged home a lot of junk. It really is one of my most prized possessions. Glad to see yours getting some love.
About once every decade or so, I have to rewire a trailer. That's about enough for me. It really should be a simple task, but it always takes longer than expected and climbing under a trailer several hundred times in a day takes its toll. I did some other stuff too, but, unfortunately, I spent about seven hours on this thing today.
I was highly motivated though.
Suddenly, I love backup cameras. This was my first attempt, without even putting much effort into it:
The sun was starting to break through the clouds when I was about to get started, and the driveway gets the morning sun, so I decided I'd rather work in the garage. Fortunately, it just barely fits.
This turned out to be a good decision.
Not much to photograph from the underside, just yellow, green and brown wires, plus an entire bag of zip ties.
The taillights, brake lights and side marker lights all work as they should.
The turn signals work, but they're still a little wonky. I'm going to blame cheap Chinese LEDs, because the wiring was pretty straightforward. The only way you would notice that they operate differently from one another would be when the hazard lights are on. Hopefully, we won't need to worry about that.
While I was at it, I decided to ad some much needed new safety cables. The plastic on the old ones had gotten pretty brittle and was falling apart. I've had these sitting in my basement for about five years.
I was getting pretty tired, but since everything is easier in the garage, I decided to replace some of the rotted wood that acts as spacers for the aluminum diamond plate center floor. I used a combination of Doug Fir, poplar and oak, because that was what was closest to the saw.
Floor is better now.
It works!
I see why the trailer lights come back broken. As maybe the king of broken tail lights, I'd move them back from the very end of the trailer, a foot or so,
so they are not sticking out in the most of harms way. Mine are now hinged too, and so far have survived a couple or three tows.
In reply to nimblemotorsports :
I see your point. Thanks for the suggestion.
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