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silverleeper · 04-02-2010, 12:55 PM

If I was in your shoes I would get a stab light or volt meter and verify that what is coming out of the Chevy matches up with the Airstream. Good luck!

toastie · 04-02-2010, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silverleeper

If I was in your shoes I would get a stab light or volt meter and verify that what is coming out of the Chevy matches up with the Airstream. Good luck!

The Chevy works find with our other Airstream........

silverleeper · 04-02-2010, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by toastie

The Chevy works find with our other Airstream........

Do you know for sure that the two Airstreams are wired the same?

Ahzmyrah · 04-02-2010, 03:27 PM

As far as I know the hot (positive) side no matter what color of wire other than white goes directly to the lights, brakes or battery. If there is a white wire (the common ground negative) It is attached to the body somewhere somehow and does not travel all the way back to the connector from the individual lights except through the body ground. For example the running lights generally have the green attached to the base of lamp socket and the light fixture itself is screwed to the body as the ground. The yellow wire is the center wire in the connector it is an auxiliary wire generally used for back up lights if you have them. DC current is affected by long wire runs and size of the wire. I have checked voltages in the connector at our TV at over 12 volts and have 9.5 t0 10 volts at the running lights farthest from the TV. Still think you have some kind of a ground problem. Try checking voltages and grounds at the lights without the TV plugged in and the individual light circuits jumped to the black wire at the 11 o'clock position on the trailer connector. Then plug the TV in and check the for voltage and ground with and without the turn signals on. Might give you a lead on the problem.

toastie · 04-02-2010, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ahzmyrah

As far as I know the hot (positive) side no matter what color of wire other than white goes directly to the lights, brakes or battery. If there is a white wire (the common ground negative) It is attached to the body somewhere somehow and does not travel all the way back to the connector from the individual lights except through the body ground. For example the running lights generally have the green attached to the base of lamp socket and the light fixture itself is screwed to the body as the ground. The yellow wire is the center wire in the connector it is an auxiliary wire generally used for back up lights if you have them. DC current is affected by long wire runs and size of the wire. I have checked voltages in the connector at our TV at over 12 volts and have 9.5 t0 10 volts at the running lights farthest from the TV. Still think you have some kind of a ground problem. Try checking voltages and grounds at the lights without the TV plugged in and the individual light circuits jumped to the black wire at the 11 o'clock position on the trailer connector. Then plug the TV in and check the for voltage and ground with and without the turn signals on. Might give you a lead on the problem.

What I did was take my volt meter and with the left turn signal turned on, touched the bargman red wire (left stop & turn signal) and the bargman white common ground wire and was getting 13.4V and approx 2V (between signals) then did the same for the brown wire which is the right stop & turn signal with same results. Everything work, emergency, brake and turn signals. So that tells me that I had it right in the first place. So I'm back to my original problem with the running lights.

Ahzmyrah · 04-02-2010, 08:35 PM

Did you try connecting one lead of your voltmeter or continuity tester to the red wire or brown wire at the light socket and the other lead to the body of the trailer? If you have a ground problem your continuity tester will not light or light dimly or your voltmeter will show low voltage or reverse polarity.

toastie · 04-03-2010, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ahzmyrah

Did you try connecting one lead of your voltmeter or continuity tester to the red wire or brown wire at the light socket and the other lead to the body of the trailer? If you have a ground problem your continuity tester will not light or light dimly or your voltmeter will show low voltage or reverse polarity.

I know that I have my left stop & turn signal and right stop & turn signal right, the emergency, brake and turn signals working properly as described above with 13.4V and approx 2V (between signals). But now comes the strange part, when hooking up the running lights and the tail & license light to the bargman green wire all lights come on, even the bulbs to the L/R turn signal.

TG Twinkie · 04-03-2010, 08:03 PM

Check all of the bulbs to make sure they are the right ones for the socket. Also check all the sockets, if someone replaced a single filament socket with a double there could be some kind of cross feed going on when you have the tail lights on.
I would start by removing all of the marker light bulbs as well as the tail light bulbs (if they are seperate from the brake light bulbs). Then connect the running light wire and install one bulb at a time to see when the problem arises. Start with the tail lights. If the brake and tail light element both come on with one bulb in place you are probably looking at a short between the tail and brake light wiring. Melted insulation or wire chafing or a wiring error. You may be able to locate the problem by disconnecting the wiring at the tail/brake lights one at a time, reconnect each one before going to the next if the problem does not go away.
Good Luck

Ahzmyrah · 04-03-2010, 08:52 PM

Quote:

when hooking up the running lights and the tail & license light to the bargman green wire all lights come on, even the bulbs to the L/R turn signal.

Ahh! now we have something. You have power being sent to the turn signals from the running lights or license plate light, which means the green wire is somehow in contact with the skin. Probably at one of the marker lights because thats where the breaks in the wire would be. As the previous poster suggested it could be a bad bulb, socket or bare wire. You are going to have to do a lot of walking unless you have an assistant tell you what is happening at the back of the trailer as you check each and everyone of the marker lights. The good news is that it will definetely be the last one you have to look at. Hope this solves the dilema for you. Electrical probs are really frustrating.

toastie · 04-04-2010, 08:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TG Twinkie

Check all of the bulbs to make sure they are the right ones for the socket. Also check all the sockets, if someone replaced a single filament socket with a double there could be some kind of cross feed going on when you have the tail lights on.
I would start by removing all of the marker light bulbs as well as the tail light bulbs (if they are seperate from the brake light bulbs). Then connect the running light wire and install one bulb at a time to see when the problem arises. Start with the tail lights. If the brake and tail light element both come on with one bulb in place you are probably looking at a short between the tail and brake light wiring. Melted insulation or wire chafing or a wiring error. You may be able to locate the problem by disconnecting the wiring at the tail/brake lights one at a time, reconnect each one before going to the next if the problem does not go away.
Good Luck

After working all day on my lights, back and forth from TV to back of trailer with no good results, decided to go talk to my airstreamer neighbor. And in less then 10 seconds he drew a perfect little diagram that makes perfect sense to me.

TG Twinkie · 04-05-2010, 07:35 AM

So! Did you find the problem?

toastie · 04-06-2010, 12:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TG Twinkie

So! Did you find the problem?

Yep, the problem was me, but I did figured it out. When testing, I would back up the TV, attach cable without attaching the trailer to the TV, plus, didn't have the bargman common ground wire, grounded to the frame. A grounding problem.

toastie · 04-07-2010, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TG Twinkie

So! Did you find the problem?

Have a question, what is the best way to ground a trailer, I was thinking
about grounding the shell and frame to my bargman white common ground wire.

Ahzmyrah · 04-07-2010, 05:15 PM

Don't think it is necessary to run a ground wire to both the frame and shell although it can be easily done. The body is attached to the frame at many places making the frame and body one huge common connector. Glad you solved your problem. I just had a similar problem with a lawn tractor and I did not have a wiring diagram for it. Took hours to trace all the circuits and then turn out to be a bad switch which I could have checked first.

toastie · 04-11-2010, 06:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ahzmyrah

Don't think it is necessary to run a ground wire to both the frame and shell although it can be easily done. The body is attached to the frame at many places making the frame and body one huge common connector. Glad you solved your problem. I just had a similar problem with a lawn tractor and I did not have a wiring diagram for it. Took hours to trace all the circuits and then turn out to be a bad switch which I could have checked first.

This is how I grounded my trailer http://www.airforums.com/forums/f36/...-38289-31.html