Topic: trailer wiring??

[jetcracker82]

I rented a trailer to go up to Scotty's jeep & 4x4 tomorrow and when I hooked up the lights to my trailer hook-up, the blinkers were blinking all fast.  I know when blinkers blink fast that means you've got a bulb out.  Mine only do it when the trailer is hooked up.  The guy at the rental place had a little tester and it said everything was fine.  We tried 3 different trailers and all had the same effect.  Has anyone had this same problem?

[Enjoi]

there should be a button on top of your steering wheel that is called your emergency blinker. Move it to the side and it should turn off. 

Im thinking bad relay though. Is the trailer blinking or the jeep blinking?

[jetcracker82]

both are blinking but really fast.

[jetcracker82]

its not blinking all the time, just when I use the blinkers it goes fast.

[Jesse-James]

That's odd, mine always blink a little slow with a trailer.

[jetcracker82]

That's odd, mine always blink a little slow with a trailer.

Yea its going to take some investigation tonight after work.  I might just have a bad ground that I hope I can fine before tomorrow morning.

[lanulos89]

yea i have the same problem, what you need is high capacity flashers, the little silver things under the dash board of the jeep.  replace them with high capacity ones and you'll be fine, i had the same problem with my jeep im just too cheap to replace them, but my friend had the same problem and that fixes it.

[Jeffy]

The problem is probably with the relay and might be able to fix your problem by getting a better Electro/Mechanical flasher relay.  The newer ones (the plastic blue metal cheapies are mechanical only) are designed to work normally if there is any slight change in resistance. (they will still not blink when there is an open circuit though)  Which relay to get will depend on your Jeep since CJ/YJ and TJ's use different relays.  I think the relay should be around $5-10.

http://www.tricoproducts.com/index.cfm?location_id=123

Although generally, if the light is out the other lights will not flash.  A common problem when swapping to LEDs is that there is too little resistance and the lights flash too fast.  Adding resistance should slow them down...

[jetcracker82]

The problem is probably with the relay and might be able to fix your problem by getting a better Electro/Mechanical flasher relay.  The newer ones (the plastic blue metal cheapies are mechanical only) are designed to work normally if there is any slight change in resistance. (they will still not blink when there is an open circuit though)  Which relay to get will depend on your Jeep since CJ/YJ and TJ's use different relays.  I think the relay should be around $5-10.

http://www.tricoproducts.com/index.cfm?location_id=123

Although generally, if the light is out the other lights will not flash.  A common problem when swapping to LEDs is that there is too little resistance and the lights flash too fast.  Adding resistance should slow them down...

Called my local AutoZone and they have the good ones in stock.  $7.99  I'll pick it up and see if it helps.  Thanks for all the help fellas.

[neale_rs]

If high resistance means slow flashing and low resistance means fast flashing then it would seem the trailer lights are lowering your resitance. This means they are in parallel with your jeep lights, otherwise they would increase resistance.  Does this happen to your lights with other trailers or just this particular one?

[jeepheap]

i agree with neale. who and how is your plug wired? it may be just hooked up wrong.

[chardrc]

the blinkers on my s10 go faster when hooked up to a trailer.. the way i imagine it is that with the trailer lights its pulling more power/ amps which makes the metal thing that makes it blink get hotter faster and when it gets hot it pops up opening the circuit vus making it turn off then it cools fast to close the circuit making the lights go on vus a blinker... that my theory that is subject to failure.

[lanulos89]

yea like i said flashers replace em

[Jeffy]

the blinkers on my s10 go faster when hooked up to a trailer.. the way i imagine it is that with the trailer lights its pulling more power/ amps which makes the metal thing that makes it blink get hotter faster and when it gets hot it pops up opening the circuit vus making it turn off then it cools fast to close the circuit making the lights go on vus a blinker... that my theory that is subject to failure.

Ohms Law states that, "in an electrical circuit, the current passing through a conductor, from one terminal point on the conductor to another terminal point on the conductor, is directly proportional to the potential difference (i.e. voltage drop or voltage) across the two terminal points and inversely proportional to the resistance of the conductor between the two terminal points."

In mathematical terms, this is written as:

    I = V/R

So what does that mean?  Well...

• I = Current measured in Amps.
• V = Voltage measured in Volts.
• R = Resistance measured in Ohms.

In this case, the voltage is constant at 12 volts.  This can not change.  The only things that can change is I and R but they have to stay in proportion with each other since the outcome must still equal V.  So, as one increases the other must decrease.

Now depending on how the lights are wired, they will either increase or decrease the resistance.

For Series Circuits R(Total) = R1 + R2...

For Parallel 1/R(Total) = 1/R1 + 1/R2...

This ends Electronics 101...   

[jetcracker82]

I just got s new flasher relay and it worked fine except I lost my dash lights.  So I need to get in there and investigate the whole lighting system.