Trailer disco lights.

[Muddy Toes]

The other morning I was towing my boat in the dark and having led lights in the fronts of my wheel arches I noticed that when I went over some rough road or a pot hole the lights would flicker.At first I thought it was just the lights in the wheel arches but when I was backing down the corrugated ramp my deckie said my tail lights and brake lights would do the same.They are good on a smooth road It's just when the car/trailer are going over the rough stuff they do it.
I've tried to do a bit of fault finding this morning so I hooked the plug up to the car and got someone to shake all the earth and other connections I could think of to see which one was doing it.
Not the plug, not the earth to the trailer, not the earth on the car, not any wire connections (that I could see).
So I put it to the collective brains trust that is Ausfish to maybe suggest some things I can try.
Failing that.........someone find Finga for me.

[Blindfreddy]

Any part of your wiring shorting out on the steelwork of your trailer Muddy?
.
Maybe even a loose wire at the back of your light fixing

[fishfeeder]

Try adding a Mirror ball, its not a disco without one !!!

I would give the connection on the car a clean and a good spray with WD40..

Cheers
Brett

[cormorant]

Tap the connector with a screwdriver - I'm guessing a loose wire or bad connection. Needs short sharp taps that shaking won't reproduce. Tap the lights themselves as well if it isn't the connector. Ive had melted wires, scraped insulation on chassis, bad connectors and even bad lampholder all cause it over the years. Eventualy they will stop working and you will find the obvious fault.

Out of interest running lights should be amber forward and red to the back I think.

[Muddy Toes]

Thanks for the suggestions so far guys......I'll try tapping the connections, I've only been lightly shaking them.And yep.....amber forward and red to the rear is how they are

[The-easyrider]

I had issues on my old trailer with LEDs but the box trailer lights worked fine. Turned out the earth on the trailer plug on the car was not good enough but it only effected the LEDs ran the earth to the battery and they worked fine

[johncar]

The main trouble areas are at the trailer plug connection and the internal wiring terminations, second most common problem area is at the rear of the trailer where the lights are joined onto the trailer wiring loom, often only done with cheap automotive crimp connectors which become unreliable after a while.
Reterminate your plug ends and reconnect all the rear connections with the proper Heatshrink sealing butt connectors.

[bigjimg]

If all the lights are flickering i would be exposing the wires at the plug where they are connected and checking the Earth,both the trailer plug and car socket.Jim

[Muddy Toes]

Thanks for the replies guys......I'm tending to think it's an earth too Jim or is there any other place that would cause all the lights to flicker?

[PinHead]

ya gotta stop playing the Bee Gees while you are driving..this could be causing the problem !!!