Rewiring a Boat trailer ??

[swampy]

My EZ Loader has a bunch of splices etc and I've thought of starting fresh...silly idea ?? Any tricks to running the wires ??

Thanks !!
swampy

[baitsauce]

No! This is NOT a silly idea. But to do it right be prepared to shell out some bucks.

Boat trailers are notoriously hard on lights. Then if they go into the salt, multiply that by a factor of 10. I just got fed-up with all the lighting problems on mine. Then the wife got tired of me belly-aching about them and took me to the auto parts store. She told me to get all the stuff I needed and said not be cheap about it, to do it right!! (What a woman!! :throb: I guess she knows me. :D)

So about a hundred bucks later I walk out with the stuff I needed.

I rewired the taillights with "14/4 TRAILER CABLE". It's a bit on the spendy side like around $1.25 a foot, but worth every penny. It's really tough stuff. It's like heavy duty extension cord. I ran that down each side of the trailer to each taillight.

For the marker lights I ran two strand 14ga wire. Sorry, but I can't recall the name of the stuff. It may be trailer cable too. But it is covered in a grey plastic sheith, and again some tough stuff.

Although I grounded the trailer at the toungue (through the plug), none of the lights are grounded at the the lights themselves. I don't know if I'm doubling my chances for a failure, but all the lights have both a hot and a ground wire running to them. This way I have no "three-way" splices in any place other than in the toungue of the trailer (where I can get to them with relative ease and where they won't get "flooded" everytime I back the trailer into the water). Besides, it's hard to get a good ground on a galvanized trailer.

After soldering the splices I dabbed a bit of vasaline on them then slid the marine heat shrink over and hit 'em with the heat gun. I ended up with perfectly sealed splices and so far perfectly working lights. :meme:

The only corner I cut is not going to LED tailights. My reasoning is the existing tailights are fairly new and work fine. But when they go out I'll make the switch. Besides, it'll give me something else to belly-ache to the wife about until then. :D

Hope this helps and makes some sense. It's kinda hard to expliain wiring.

//

[swampy]

Thanks baitsauce.....I think i'll give it a try.

:cheers:

[tallswedeone]

Having been through this a couple of times I found that it is much easier pulling the new wires through with the old wires that you are removing. I also really like my LED lights and can't recommend them enough if you are tired of dealing with bulbs.

Good luck!

[swampy]

Thx tallswede...in giving it some thought, which I often over do, I figured I would attach strings to the old wires at the back of the boat, pull them from the front and then attach new wires to the strings and pull back towards the back. er...knowwhatimean ? I'm not sure about side marker light wires ...??? Any bright ideas...I figured I would splice the marker light wires before sending down the hole and then fish them through somehow at the fenders...

Thx for the tips guys :applause:

swampy

[VWTim]

Just be carefull if you're soldering, as a lot of solder rosin (rosin-core type) is slightly coorosive and can cause failures in marine environments. Always clean it off with alcohol before shrinking. Also, tinned wire is a great way to go to limit potential problems.

[Highmark]

If you would like to keep it stock. Go to EZ loader web page.
if you have the model numbers, you can order everything for that trailer.
I mean everything from cross bars to complete wire harness and lights
you name it...

My EZ Loader has a bunch of splices etc and I've thought of starting fresh...silly idea ?? Any tricks to running the wires ??

Thanks !!
swampy

[noreaster]

Just recently rewired a trailor holding a boat i recentally bought. LED versus bulb? My boat goes in and out of salt constantly and Ive been doing this for over 25 years. I immediately replaced the perfectly good bulb lights with LEDS. In my experience its no contest.

[Fish Slammer]

Take a Cheap 25ft tape measure and bend over the end... it makes a good wire snake . worked good on my boat trailer!

[jdhogg]

im redoing mine but im gonna use the disposable type lights that are used on semi trucks.they are completly sealed and use a universal plugin,you can get them at parts house or truck stops.if it burns out pull the light out of the rubber mount and replace.the lights are tuff as they are used on semi trailers and get lotsa abuse.jmho

[Jrr]

You can also use 110v extension cords for wiring they go through the frame easily Use RTV to seal the end where you peal the covering off. Works great used it on log truck trailers with the sealed beam tail lights.Eliminated a lot of chafing problems.