Trailer wiring question

[MikeA57]

I've been rewiring my 16' utility trailer and I'm adding an 9 LED light bar on the back of it. It has 3 wires, Red, Black, and White. I know that White goes to ground on the trailer and the instructions state "Attach the Black wire to operate the dimmer illumination of the light.Attach the Red wire to the Stop/Turn circuit to operate the brighter illumination of the light." So I attach the Brown harness wire to the Black LED wire. But the Red wire on the LED bar has me confused. Should I connect both the Green and Yellow harness wires to the Red wire? Or will that mess up the turn signals by doling that? I've attached a drawing showing the proposed wiring as described.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[Smallplot]

Does this light bar have each side flash with turn signals or just get brighter with the brakes? Thinking it should just have a ground and power from your parking lights. If they are designed to come on brighter with the brakes, then you would have to attach the same wire as your brakes (either red or blue). You may have to go back to the axles to get the brake wire as I have seen them switch to the three wire behind the axles to cut costs. If the light bar flashes with your turn signals, then you would have to attach to turn signal wire for each respective side.

Kind of depends on how the light is supposed to function after being hooked up. Need more info!

 

[aczlan]

To use this you will need to connect the green and yellow wires to the red wire with a diode on the yellow and green wires (a diode is like a check valve, it only lets power flow in one direction) OR you will need to tie the red wire into your electric brakes.
If you connect both the green and yellow wired directly to the red wire as shown, you will flash all three lights with either turn signal.

Aaron Z

 

[MikeA57]

Thanks guys, that's exactly what I was thinking. I can route another wire from the brake connection up at the wheel (blue wire) easily. I could wire up the diodes but I'm not sure what size I would need and just running one more wire from the brake will be the easiest route.

The package states that this is a Stop/Tail/Turn light, but with only three connections I don't see how it could be a Turn light. There are a whole bunch of solder joints on the back of the circuit board and if I knew which ones to tap into I could probably convert it to work as a turn signal too, where half of it would flash for one direction and the other half for the other direction. But, I don't need that, I just want it to work.

I probably ought to go ahead and spend some money to have a protective shroud welded over this thing or else it'll probably get broken the first time out!

 

[aczlan]

The package states that this is a Stop/Tail/Turn light, but with only three connections I don't see how it could be a Turn light.

One on each side would make it a turn light just like your existing Stop/Turn/Tail lights.

As for amperage, it should be well under 1 amp, but something like: 6A, 50V Rectifier Diodes (4-Pack) - RadioShack.com should take care of it.

Aaron Z

 

[SPIKER]

As others stated the Stop Tail or Tail Turn combination lights you would need two (2) to include the turn light one for left one for the right.

for marker lights it needs to be set as far out as possible usually within 6" of a side then it can be marker & brake or tail & turn.

Normal wiring attach the "Red" to the brake light so that the BRIGHT LEDs are on with the Brakes. otherwise if used as Tail & Turn then the Red wire would be attached to either the Green or the Yellow depending on if it is on left or right side of the trailer.

BLack wire should be tied to Brown (Tail) light or to "Black" marker/ID lights depending on the trailer color harness you have.

Mark

 

[MikeA57]

for marker lights it needs to be set as far out as possible usually within 6" of a side then it can be marker & brake or tail & turn.

Here's what I picked up:

So it's going dead center on the back of the trailer. Then I've got the 2 normal brake/turn signals on each side of the trailer. I've also got 2 marker lights that I'm considering putting on the sides of the trailer, ahead of the wheels.

I'm using a 7 wire cable with the round connector from the tongue of the trailer to a junction box then I just ran the normal 4 wire trailer cable to the other lights. I also ran a separate 2 conductor cable to the brakes that also ties in to the junction box. This light bar was just an afterthought.

 

[MikeA57]

That's why I got confused; because the packaging said Tail/Stop/Turn and I couldn't see the wires that it had on it with it in the package. Then when I opened it and saw there were only 3 I was like, "What tha...?!?!?"

 

[mjw357]

Should I connect both the Green and Yellow harness wires to the Red wire? Or will that mess up the turn signals by doling that? I've attached a drawing showing the proposed wiring as described.

Thanks,

Mike

If you connect the green and yellow to the red, your turn signals will operate like hazards when you signal left or right. You need to isolate them with diodes as others have mentioned.

The problem with using the blue brake wire is that it is not a full 12v until the brakes are applied firmly, it varies from about 2v to 12v depending on how hard you stop.

 

[mjw357]

That's why I got confused; because the packaging said Tail/Stop/Turn and I couldn't see the wires that it had on it with it in the package. Then when I opened it and saw there were only 3 I was like, "What tha...?!?!?"

OK this is meant to be a left or right S/T/T, not a clearance marker/3rd brake light. You can use it that way I suppose, but again you will have to use the diodes.