Trailer blows the fuse.

[DopeVibeGT]

Ok, I had my trailer hooked up for the first time and took my 4 wheeler to get it washed. I stopped and got gas, the trailer lights were working fine. So, I'm taking it back and a cop pulls me over. He informs me my trailer lights arent working, so I checked the harness and it's fine, then I notice the car parking lights arent working. Turns out to be a blown fuse. So, my question is, how can I use a trailer without blowing the fuse, and why did it in the first place? On a side note, who ever designed the fuse panel under the dash was an idiot.

[Jahntassa]

You should probably add an external relay to the parking lights. The fuse built into the parking lights is probably only large enough to handle those on the car itself.Get a small relay, should be about $10, run a wire directly to a battery with a fuse at least less than 18" from the battery itself. Feed the relay with this, and have it switch with the parking lights in the rear.Let us know if you need further direction on this!

[Altus]

Sounds like the lights on the trailer are drawing too much current for your fuses.I've towed our trailer (has 2 brake lights and 4 marker lights) many times without a seperate power relay and never blown a fuse.Another thing to look into is the electrical connectors on the trailer -- they're notorious for corroding and causing problems. Also look for corroded wires etc... that may be causing a short.The relay's a good idea, but just to throw out other ideas -- if you change the lights on the trailer to LED's, the current draw drops to near zero, and the fuse problem will go away.

[DopeVibeGT]

It's only a small trailer, 2 brake and 2 marker lights. The harness on the car is new. I never had trouble with my Grand Am with the trailer. I'll check for bad wires or something on the trailer.

[cohocarl]

We moved last fall after being in our old house about 16 years, so we had ALOT of stuff to move to our new house about 10 miles away. I put many, many miles on the Vibe with the trailer on it with no problems. I'd double check the wiring on the trailer, but I'd also take a look at the wiring in the car to see if everything looks ok.Good luck. Hope it's something simple. Wiring problems can be a PIA. Ever try to track down a wiring problem on a C4 Vette????

[Stang2Vibe]

Quote, originally posted by DopeVibeGT »Ok, I had my trailer hooked up for the first time and took my 4 wheeler to get it washed. Just read thru this thread twice and this caught my eye. Is there any chance that you got water inside the connector on the trailer harness? That could easily cause a short and blow the fuse.

[DopeVibeGT]

I thought of that too. It may be a remote possibility. I'm going to check all the trailer wires and such and try again.