KChookem
04-25-2009, 06:57 PM
Here is something to check on your trailer with LED, and perhaps other sealed trailer lights.
Within a few trips with a new boat trailer, the left side LED lights began to go out. The hype on LEDS is that they are fully encased in something like a plastic resin and there was no way for water to get in. So why do so many LEDS boat lights fail? Eventually, I unbolted the light unit from the trailer to see why they would go out, and here is what I found...
The metal license plate bracket was mounted between the light unit and the trailer frame. When driving, the wind force on the plate and bracket was enough to bend both back, permanently. This pressure, probably combined with more stress and flexing driving at highway speeds, caused stress cracks on the bottom of the lens cover nearest the license plate. Eventually, the plastic weld of the red lens cover to the black base broke until less than two inches of weld were intact (meaning the red lens was about to fall off). Now water could easily get inside the housing, and to the electrical wires and LEDs.
Taking the unit apart was not an easy task (Wesbar waterproof 3x8 #271575). I found that once the lens cover is broken, water does get to the bits of electrical/transistor (?) wires not completely sealed in resin, as evident by green corrosion on them. Since I had reached my level of incompetence, I did not determine why, where or what caused 14 of 16 LEDs quit working, or why two continued to work.
Within a few trips with a new boat trailer, the left side LED lights began to go out. The hype on LEDS is that they are fully encased in something like a plastic resin and there was no way for water to get in. So why do so many LEDS boat lights fail? Eventually, I unbolted the light unit from the trailer to see why they would go out, and here is what I found...
The metal license plate bracket was mounted between the light unit and the trailer frame. When driving, the wind force on the plate and bracket was enough to bend both back, permanently. This pressure, probably combined with more stress and flexing driving at highway speeds, caused stress cracks on the bottom of the lens cover nearest the license plate. Eventually, the plastic weld of the red lens cover to the black base broke until less than two inches of weld were intact (meaning the red lens was about to fall off). Now water could easily get inside the housing, and to the electrical wires and LEDs.
Taking the unit apart was not an easy task (Wesbar waterproof 3x8 #271575). I found that once the lens cover is broken, water does get to the bits of electrical/transistor (?) wires not completely sealed in resin, as evident by green corrosion on them. Since I had reached my level of incompetence, I did not determine why, where or what caused 14 of 16 LEDs quit working, or why two continued to work.