Why are my brake lights so dim?

[balrgn]

The brake lights on our '75 Trade Wind are extremely dim?

I removed the lens’s and cleaned the plastic. Looked at the bulbs, they are fine.

I found that the outside, 1156 (dual element) socket not to be wired with both legs going to power. The inside light (1157 single element) shoed fairly bright but, not very with the lens on. I spliced power to the outside element to the via the inside slice, however this reduced the light to near nothing????

Any ideas?

[Tinsel Loaf]

Do you you have 12 volts at the socket? If so a bad connection could cause a vlotage drop under a load. Check the voltage at the tow vehicle plug for the rear lights under load it should be 12 volts. If you have 12 volts at the lamps but they are dim you may have a bad ground.

[scf31]

I had the same problem with my 77 Caravanner, I took the lens off and checked the power and had full power, still was dim, so I took the lens off my car and compaired them, they were the same brightness with just the bulb hangin out,still didnt have that warm and fuzzy feeling,so I painted the inside of the bulb holder white,still not the best results,,,,,,,, so I went to Carquest and bought LEDs for boat trailers for $49.00 did some fancy fileing and they look awesome!!!! its the only way to go , total of $100.00 and I feel so much better about putting on the brakes,

[balrgn]

Originally Posted by Tinsel Loaf

Do you you have 12 volts at the socket? If so a bad connection could cause a vlotage drop under a load. Check the voltage at the tow vehicle plug for the rear lights under load it should be 12 volts. If you have 12 volts at the lamps but they are dim you may have a bad ground.

Hmmm That could be, it is old wiring, some of it may be corrosion, I'll have to dig out my multi meter I think, thanks, that din't even occur to me!

[john hd]

balgrn

make sure you check the ground connection on your tow vehicle.

everything on your trailer could be in perfect order, a bad ground at your tow vehicle plug could cause the problem.

a quick and dirty way to check would be to apply 12v to your clearance light circuit. do this at the cord on your trailer. just jumper between the battery charge line pin and the clearance light pin.

if they light up as they should start looking at your tow vehicle. if they do not get brighter the problem is in the trailer itself.

john