Onto the trailer!

One of the things that I did not think about was the trailer. I was so focused on this little sailboat that could be all ours. I didn't give the trailer any thought at all. I did not think about the fact that just like the sailboat and our cars, it will need maintenance and repair. Well it needed some repair before I could get the boat back into the water. The lights stopped working! So time to dig into the wiring and figure out what the problem was.

How not to do wiring!

When I started trouble shooting to figure out the problem I found that the trailer wiring was a mess! The wires where just twisted together and given a little touch of solder! Then a little bit of electrical tape to cover them. No wonder the connections went bad.

Only partly soldered!

 So when I saw that I figured it was simply an issue of bad connections. There was enough wire that I saw I could cut the bad connection and make a new good connection. I was thinking this should be an easy fix for once. I should have known that there was no way it was going to be that easy. I guess I was hoping for a brake.

What a mess.

So I cut out one of the connections and tried to strip the insulation off of the wire. When I pulled the insulation off of some of the metal wire came with it! The metal was just falling apart inside the insulation! I have never seen anything like that.

I noticed that there was a white powder around the wire. I just figured some water and corrosion must have messed up the wire. So I went about 6 inches farther down the wire. If I had to go any farther then that I would need to get some new wire. Unfortunately the metal wire came out that time too.

So at this point I cant use this wire any more. I cut the wire about 12 inches farther down the line. Again the metal came out and the white powder was there. So I was going to have to replace all the wiring. Time to go shopping.

Bad wire!

I was able to go to my local family run hardware store. I found a trailer lighting kit with the lights and the wire harness that was made in America! I was very happy about that find. So the next step was pretty simple.

I had to unbolt the old lights. Luckily only 1 of the 4 gave me any real trouble. When I went to loosen the nut, it and the bolt would just spin. So I got a big screw driver and broke the plastic light housing to peaces. Was able to get a large pair of channel locks on the back of the bolt. Then I was able to loosen the nut. 

The wiring was just held on by plastic zip ties. So those where easy to cut off. Was able to pull all the old wires off.

The holes for mounting the lights onto the wheel well of the trailer where a bit to close together. The new lights would not just slip right into the old holes. Luckily there where so close that I was able to drill the holes a bit bigger. Bingo the bolts slid through and things where looking up.

Was able to run the new wires along the trailer chassis. Then tested the lights. The right ones worked fine and the left ones did not. So I figured it must be a ground issue. I took the light housing off. I went and sanded around the holes again. Then put it all back together. The lights where working fine now.  Then I just used zip ties to hold the wires where I wanted them. 

New light.

Well one more project done. Just have to keep working on them, one by one.