bcpcept5577
Colorado
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I have a 2003 Cardinal 5th wheel. All of a sudden my lights on trailer do not work. Like stop light both signals left and right and running lights do not work. I changed the plug on the 5th wheel but still not working. I checked my truck and both plug ins are working. also checked all fuses and circuit breakers on truck and trailer.
What else can I try? What could it be?
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hmknightnc
Wilmington, NC
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bad ground. go hunting for it
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pulsar
Lewisville, NC
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Moved from Forum Technical Support.
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pcm1959
home
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You don't have the year and brand of truck in your signature. IF you have a later model Dodge, there are no fuses for the trailer lights. Only the Dealer can do a "reset" in the TPMS module. I had the same thing happen to me when I owned a 2006 Dodge Ram. Good luck, Phillip
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oldbiker7
Western Colorado
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pcm1959 wrote:You don't have the year and brand of truck in your signature. IF you have a later model Dodge, there are no fuses for the trailer lights. Only the Dealer can do a "reset" in the TPMS module. I had the same thing happen to me when I owned a 2006 Dodge Ram. Good luck, Phillip
Very common problem with the Dodges (and expensive to replace the module) although mine only failed on the right turn signal. The plug on the truck tested okay since it put out enough current for the tester, but not enough to light the bulb. Does sound more like a ground issue since all lights are out.
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8ntw8tn
Southeast Iowa
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Pretty easy to check the trailer by using any 12V power source (battery or converter). Connect the negative terminal of the power source to the negativt terminal on the trailer plug then connect the positve terminal of the power source to the appropriate light terminal. If they light up your problem is with the truck; if not then start trouble shooting the trailer.
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bcpcept5577
Colorado
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hmknightnc wrote:bad ground. go hunting for it I
I don't understand go hunting for it? The ground wire is white and
part of the trailer plug. So where else would I look for it? I have never had a problem like this before. Thanks,
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farside291
Fort Worth Texas
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Could you just plug in one of the old style flasher units from under the dash into the trailer plug and make all your lights flash on the trailer (like some do at night to draw attention to themselves when waiting for visitors) this would tell you if the trailer is working, at least the running lights. But you could do the same with a jumper wire over to the brake/turn and running lights and check them the same way.
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RoyB
King George, VA
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You will need to determine which side is bad... The truck or the Trailer.
Is it possible to plug the trailer cable into another known truck that works...
A neighbor or someone you know with a trailer.
Then do the reverse of that. Plug a good trailer into your truck and see what happens...
goto etrailer.com They have alot of info on the trailer hookups and diagrams etc of the connectors etc.
They also sell a light tester that you can plug into the truck side and it will flash all the lights to show you the truck side is ok. They may also have one for the trailer side as well...
The bad thing about using a jumper cable to walk around all of the connector pins is that one of them is GROUND and when you touch 12VDC to that you gonna blow a fuse somewhere....
If you will download the pin-outs from etrailer.com then maybe you can do this without blowing a fuse somewhere.
This is kinda hard to talk someone thru this over the RV.net forum...
The other question is what did you do if anything prior to this happening. Maybe changed out the trailer cable???
This is what a 7-pin connector tester looks like. You just slip this into the truck side and then get someone to help you by doing all of the light actions while you watch the leds on the tester. Dont forget some trucks require you have the key turned on before the truck will send signal and lights voltages to the connector. My Ford is this way...
NOTE: I just removed the connector pin-outs and wire colors as they didnt agree with my hand written pin out - You need to trace that out on your connectors and confirm with etrailer.com
Hope I didnt lead you to any false info here...
This is my hand written notes for wire colors...
BLUE - ELECTRIC BRAKES
GREEN - RUNNING LIGHTS
BROWN - Right Hand SIGNAL LIGHTS
RED - LEFT HAND SIGNAL LIGHTS
YELLOW- NOT USED (FOR BACKUP LIGHT)
BLACK - POS (+)12VDC from TRAILER
WHITE - GROUND (-)12VDC from trailer
What I can't tell you is the PIN NUMBERS on the CONNECTORS. I have already read them two different ways... You will have to confirm the COLORS against the PIN numbers with etrailer.com and what you actually see holding them in your hands.
The COLOR CODES should be good to use for testing
* This post was
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edited 04/18/12 04:05pm by RoyB *
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45Ricochet
North Idaho
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oldbiker7 wrote:pcm1959 wrote:You don't have the year and brand of truck in your signature. IF you have a later model Dodge, there are no fuses for the trailer lights. Only the Dealer can do a "reset" in the TPMS module. I had the same thing happen to me when I owned a 2006 Dodge Ram. Good luck, Phillip
Very common problem with the Dodges (and expensive to replace the module) although mine only failed on the right turn signal. The plug on the truck tested okay since it put out enough current for the tester, but not enough to light the bulb. Does sound more like a ground issue since all lights are out.
Okay you two got me here. Where is this TPMS module for future reference. Guess I've been lucky so far 
Etrailer or auto parts stores sell them? Thanks
Sorry for hi jack OP.
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