Awww, man...Did a lot of loud talking at our house today...
After bringing home our quads today, I decided I better try to figure out why all the trailer lights weren't working. We have a 16' Aluma trailer that we really like (liked).
Three different lights on the driver's side were either not working or the lights were very dim. Probably a grounding issue. The rear brake light was easy. The mounting bolts were easy to get to and loosened up with no issues. The grounding bolt was very corroded. Shined it up and all the contact points with a brass brush. Turned on the lights. Tah Dah! One down. Two to go. It was all down hill from there. The trailer is aluminum. One of the selling points of aluminum is that it doesn't rust. So
WHY would they use light mounting bolts that rust/corrode really really badly?? On top of that, the bolts come out under the trailer, in a recessed area that was never meant to accomodate a human hand. Even after a good soaking of WD-40, two of the mounting nuts would not loosen. What did loosen was the entire bolt. Oh, great.
I took off the lens cover thinking there would be a bolt head. Wrong! Just a jell pack where the LED's are secured. All one piece. The short version is this~~The only way to get the light off was to break it off. Hey, at least I'll be having some fun. After getting the light broke away, Wi-Fee was able to get vise grips on the round headed bolt while I used the rachet underneath. What a pain!!! I remembered having a couple spare lights that I had gotten off ebay when I added lights right after we bought the trailer. (The lights seized up were the factory installs).
Two things I learned. Again.
Company's will go as cheap as possible to save pennies without any regard to the grief it will cause in the future to their customer. The bolts should have been made with rust resistent metal.
It's obvious the bed of the trailer is put on after the wiring has been completed. The bolt locations could not have been any worse. If the guys building the trailer had to install the lights the same way we had to un-install them, they would no doubt come up with a better way. Horrible...
OK. Done whining. My wounds look to not be too serious and best of all, the lights are all working.