An electrical problem ,,,, need help.

id. painter · 04-21-2003, 06:46 AM

I just returned from a week of springer fishing. We did O.K.. My friend got one that was 35lbs. We landed fish each day except two.We got fish 4 of the 6 days fished. Good time , and i got my limit one day.
My only problem with equiptment was a strange one. The second to the last day , as the boat trailer hit the water it sucked all the juice out of my truck battery, killed the truck and it wouldnt restart with a jump till i un hooked the trailer lights.
Why did the water suck the juice out of my battery??? I figured id ask you all ,, seeing how you have been there and done that .. id. p.

Pilar · 04-21-2003, 07:18 AM

IDP, this is just a guess because to know for sure I'd have to check it out.

I think you may have a bad wire in your wiring harness on the trailer. Probably cracked insulation or a spot where the plastic is rubbed through. When this grounds against the trailer frame, you get a short circuit, high current flow and problems with the electrical of the tow vehicle.

Why did a fuse not blow?

Second possibility is a problem with one of the trailer lights.

[ 04-21-2003, 08:20 AM: Message edited by: Pilar ]

id. painter · 04-21-2003, 07:26 AM

Thanks pilar.. That gives me a place to start.
Buy the way i wore my Salty dog hat the entire fishing trip,it is now broke in.I got a little fish blood on it . Hi ,ho. id. p.

Miss B Haven · 04-21-2003, 07:29 AM

id- you don't have electric trailer brakes do you? If so - I'd start there, if there surge then check the lights.

Ps- always a good idea to disconnect the trailer lights before backing in the water, even with "water proof" lights.

Pilar · 04-21-2003, 07:38 AM

Thanks Mel, I forgot about the brakes.

Mello-Yello · 04-21-2003, 07:59 AM

Hmmmm, this is odd. Your wimpy little trailer wiring shouldn't be able to drain your battery like that. Not without frying the wire. A few thoughts come to mind though...

- Is your battery secured? i.e. is it possible it was grounding off to your frame somewhere or pulling on your leads as you backed down the ramp?

- How old is your battery? It's possible it's on it's last leg and is only holding a surface charge. This is sometimes enough to get your engine started, but it doesn't take much to drain that surface charge off.

- How are your battery connections? If they're bad, you may not be charging it to full capacity.

Water isn't really that good of a conductor, but it will conduct electricity. The amp draw from your trailer lights could go up slightly when they're submerged. This is what makes me question your power source.

A lot of people unhook their trailer lights prior to entering the water. Sounds like this would be a good place to start, but I'd continue searching for the source of the problem.

id. painter · 04-21-2003, 08:35 AM

The trailer brakes are surge brakes. The truck battery is only about a year old (i think??). It is well secured.. I havent checked the connections yet. It started right up after disconnecting the trailer , with a jump so my thoughts stayed with it being something in the trailer.I know absolutly nothing about wireing. id. p.

04-21-2003, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Ps- always a good idea to disconnect the trailer lights before backing in the water, even with "water proof" lights.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helv">Another good point by Miss B

Snapset · 04-21-2003, 09:26 AM

Mello Yello has a good point. Most trailer light wires are #16 or #14 at the biggest. Not only are they not big enough to handle the amps of drawing down a healthy battery that fast without catching on fire, the wiring on your truck would be on fire also. I would seriously look at your battery. If the electrolyte is drastically low and the incline of the ramp caused it to lose contact with the plates, or maybe the surface charge gave out, like MY mentionedThis could cause the symptom you described. BTW, I have a family reunion in Oakley around the end of July. Is there any good fishing at that time within 50 miles or so of that area? I will have my DB with a motor.

roundbelly · 04-21-2003, 09:44 AM

take your truck to the auto parts store or most any repair shop. they can hook up a battery load tester right in the truck. it looks like a jumper cable hooked to a box. it will put a resistive load on the battery and show if the battery is up to par, easy to do and then you can eliminate one part of the puzzle.

Pilar · 04-21-2003, 12:09 PM

Yes battery health is an issue here. I have seen marginal batteries or the root cause marginal alternators that went dead quickly because of the shorted trailer lights.

On Jen's rig ('96 Tahoe) all kinds of buzzers go off and the lights act all strange when my boat is hooked up. I know there are issues with my old carked out tail lights and wiring.

Gonna replace the whole shebang soon.

Crappy wiring + salt water = Grief.

Mr. Fisherman · 04-21-2003, 01:03 PM

Been there, done that.
Check the ground connections on the battery.
Then check the bulbs and sockets.
Then check the trailer wiring.
I'd suspect the ground connections on the battery as possibly being loose. Check both ends. I felt kind of silly when I finally found my loose ground years ago.
I also rewired my entire trailer one time only to find two blown bulbs. Who would have thought they both would have blown at the same time? They did. Oh well, I had a nice new quality wiring job when I was done. I couldn't believe that the lights didn't work when I was finished. That's when I pulled the covers off the lights and found the root cause (Duh, the bulbs). What was I thinking? Lessons learned hard are lessons learned long and that day I learned to keep it simple and check all the little things first, no matter what I "think" it "should be".
Let us know what you find and congrats on the fishing. Sounds like you were way ahead of average.
Hey, now you know how those Utah fishermen feel when they hold up the ramp at Twin Lakes [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]
Having problems at the ramp with out of state plates anywhere is a recipe for heated tempers...
I'm glad you came through it o.k.

Snapset · 04-21-2003, 01:50 PM

The first thing to check in a situation like this is oxidization on the battery terminals.

Fishplay · 04-21-2003, 09:44 PM

Pilar, if your planning on upgrading trailer lights, don't consider anything but sealed beam lights. No bulbs needing replaced, no sockets rusting, and if you seal your butt connections on the wires correctly ..........No problems EVER.

I haven't unpluged my lights when launching in 4 years. I Love'em.

id. painter · 04-21-2003, 11:36 PM

Thanks for the input guys. The information you are giving helps. I will start with battery, trailer wireing, and go from there.
I had two days of fishing left when this happened , so, i have already started to establish the habit of unpluging the trailer lights before putting in or taking out. I will continue this for ever.
I was putting in at the wind river boat launch 5:20 A.M.. I was in the boat ,my friend was backing and parking the rig. For several days everything went great, then this. I felt badfor causing a delay and was getting lots of evil eyed looks and some negative comments . The truck was stuck right in the way. All fisherman were in too much of a hurry to help , they would rather get angry i guess.
I finally got the boy who was taking launch fees to go get a car and try to jumpstart my truck.
Ive seen lots of things happen at a boat ramp.This is the first time i was the dummy holding up progress.I didnt like it . I guess it could have been worse, we only cost about 20 minutes of down time at the ramp. There was still one side of the ramp open, so,it could have been worse. id. p.

id. painter · 04-22-2003, 06:33 AM

Thanks again guys ,,, and thanks for the encouragement.
Yes i think having Idaho plates made the guys i was holding up even more angry.
I do know how they feel , i live close to Utah.... Ha , ha.
My younger brother has a good friend who is a river guide, and spends many days fishing the Wind.
He called me last night and told me that the day after i left the fish came in and fishing is getting real good. Sunday he got his clients limits by 11:oo A.m., and yesterday he got thier limit by 7:30 A.M.. Oh well , missed it by one day. I fished Sat. morninig with out a strike. Thats how the ball bounces. Next year!!!
id. p.

Miss B Haven · 04-22-2003, 06:39 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Fishplay:
Pilar, if your planning on upgrading trailer lights, don't consider anything but sealed beam lights. No bulbs needing replaced, no sockets rusting, and if you seal your butt connections on the wires correctly ..........No problems EVER.

I haven't unpluged my lights when launching in 4 years. I Love'em.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helv">I've converted two trailers to these selaed beams. I can't believe they don't all come stock with them. Pilar- you can buy them at Napa Stores!