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3000 miles from home no trailer lights. Help!

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by grasshopper, Jul 23, 2011.

  1. grasshopper

    grasshopper Member

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    (Sorry, can't seem to grt rid of the bold?)

    Too much info!!! I have the Camry 18308 Draw-Tite wiring harness installed on my 06 Prius that was suggested back in 06. I installed it back then and it seemed to work fine. I had little opportunities to use it until now (July 2011). Unfortunately, I find myself on the west coast (3000 miles from home) towing and the trailer lights won’t do anything right, if anything at all. So I’m reading on PriusChat to see if others have had problems and (Holy electrons Bat Man) it appears that I am over loading my electrical system.
    Everyone seems to be curing the problem in different ways. So many ways that now I’m confused as to what to do to fix it. I don’t want to change all my trailer lights unless that is the correct way to fix it. It sounds like I need to be running my trailer lights off my battery? I need a Prius Guru to tell me how to fix this correctly?


    Thanks
    John Wood

    Aka Grasshopper
     
    #1 grasshopper, Jul 23, 2011
  2. Hal W

    Hal W New Member

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    Make sure you have a good clean ground. Are the male a female connections clean. Are the Prius tail lights working? Hal
     
    #2 Hal W, Jul 23, 2011
  3. grasshopper

    grasshopper Member

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    Prius lights still working thank goodness. I worked on the problem for about 3.5 hours the other day and couldn’t get any consistent results. Very frustrated. The last time I did some testing, (yesterday) the pigtail from the car isn't doing anything. So at this time, it seems to be in the trailer wiring harness in the car. I'm reluctant to spend a bunch of time on it without a good plan. Also, if I need to replace the harness because this design has flaws in it then I need to find out what kind to replace it with and where I can get one quickly. Or will replacing the trailer lights with LED and some troubleshooting be the answer. Left Sacramento and temporarily in Reno now. Going to try to stay here until I can get this sorted out.
     
    #3 grasshopper, Jul 23, 2011
  4. Hal W

    Hal W New Member

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    Make sure you have a ground on both units. Have you checked the continuity with a multi meter? 9 times out of 10 the ground is the issue. Hal
     
    #4 Hal W, Jul 23, 2011
  5. Troyroy

    Troyroy Member

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    Have you checked the pigtail end for current.......how do you know it's working without a meter. Since your car rear lights are working, it does not appear to be the harness,,,,,unless you have somehow cut the wires running from the harness to the pigtail.

    If you don't have a way to test the pigtail for current.....check with a RV neighbor or visit a auto parts store......I'm sure that they will check it for you.....free of charge.

    I'm also in favor of checking your ground.......ON THE TRAILER....without a proper ground, nothing will work.
     
    #5 Troyroy, Jul 23, 2011
  6. grasshopper

    grasshopper Member

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    Thanks for the info; I will try to troubleshoot the problem again tonight. I’m very concerned about the problem of causing damage to my electrical system by overloading the system because of the trailer lights not being LED’s. I’ve read about this happening to others on PriusChat. Is this something that I need to be concerned with because I’m not hooked directly into the battery? Why are they saying that I’m overloading the system?
     
    #6 grasshopper, Jul 23, 2011
  7. Troyroy

    Troyroy Member

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    Who is saying that......You drove 3000 out there with lights.....then they stopped working...doesn't sound like a overload to me.

    Does your hookup have one of these circuit protected ModuLiteâ„¢ module, this could be protecting your Prius system.
     
    #7 Troyroy, Jul 23, 2011
  8. seilerts

    seilerts Battery Curmudgeon

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    It's one thing to be blowing fuses, quite another to cause real damage. Is that the problem, that fuses keep going out? It would be cheaper to install a Modulite than to replace all lights with LED every time you have to tow a different trailer. Such ought to be very straight forward, by splicing it in downstream of the T connector. Just about any place that sells trailers would have a shop and I think they'd be in the best position to help you.

    I do feel your pain, as I am rewiring a rusty 25 year old horse trailer right now. A good voltmeter is essential.
     
    #8 seilerts, Jul 24, 2011
  9. bikr357

    bikr357 Plugged in Member

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    +1 on the Ground.
    On my prior cars, particularly those with hitch receivers that didn't get used often, we would fail to get a good ground between the trailer, through the hitch and receiver, back to the car frame. I think dirt and rust were the primary culprits.

    Running a separate ground wire from the trailer tongue to the car's frame usually did the trick.
     
    #9 bikr357, Jul 24, 2011
  10. grasshopper

    grasshopper Member

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    Problem solved. Since I’m so far from home and don’t want to be trying to fix anything on the side of the road I chose to replace everything. I went to Harbor Freight and purchased a LED trailer kit for $39.95. Came with everything and completely replaced incandescent lights with the LED’s and all wiring. Then I ordered the newest wiring kit for the Prius from Draw-Tite (PN 118505). This new kit is really easy to install and it runs the lights off the 12 volt battery instead of the Prius electrical system. For me, this is the only way to fly. Love it.
     
    #10 grasshopper, Jul 29, 2011
    1 person likes this.
  11. Hal W

    Hal W New Member

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    Glad you solved your problem. Did you determine the cause? Thanks for posting your this problem. Hal
     
    #11 Hal W, Jul 29, 2011
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