How to Install LED Boat Trailer Lights

 Switch­ing your old trail­er lights for some snazzy new LED ones not only makes your trail­er look cool­er, but they’re also a whole lot more reli­able. So, let’s roll up our sleeves, grab some tools, and jump right into the process of how to install LED boat trail­er lights.

How to Install LED Boat Trailer Lights

You will need to iden­ti­fy the trail­er wiring har­ness for the trail­er and locate the appro­pri­ate con­nec­tors for the LED lights. You will also need to dis­con­nect the exist­ing wiring and con­nect the wiring using heat shrink con­nec­tors and elec­tri­cal tape. After that, you will need to mount the LED lights onto the trail­er and con­nect the wiring to the trail­er’s bat­tery.

While I’m gonna give you a good run-down of the gen­er­al process, make sure you also check any instruc­tions that came with your lights.

1. Remove Old Lights: Start by dis­con­nect­ing your trail­er from your vehi­cle (we don’t want any sparks fly­ing here), then unscrew or unbolt your old lights and dis­con­nect the wires.
2. Check Your Wiring: Give your exist­ing trail­er wiring a once-over. Look for any signs of wear, fray­ing, or cor­ro­sion. If it’s look­ing a lit­tle worse for wear, now’s a great time to replace it.
3. Attach New Lights: Now it’s time to attach your new LED lights. They’ll either screw or bolt into place, usu­al­ly in the same spot your old lights were. Make sure they’re nice and secure.
4. Wire Up: Con­nect your LED lights to your trail­er’s wiring sys­tem. Most lights will have a ground wire (usu­al­ly white) that needs to be attached to the trail­er, as well as wires for the tail lights and turn sig­nals (usu­al­ly brown, yel­low, and green).
5. Test Your Lights: Before you get too excit­ed and head out, make sure you test your lights. Recon­nect your trail­er to your vehi­cle, turn on your vehi­cle’s lights and have some­one stand behind to check if every­thing is glow­ing as it should.
6. Wrap it Up: If all lights are bright and shiny, you’re good to go! Wrap up any loose wires with elec­tri­cal tape or cable ties to keep things neat and tidy.

Once all the wiring is done, turn on the LED lights to make sure they’re work­ing prop­er­ly. If all is good, secure the wiring with zip ties or elec­tri­cal tape and you’re ready to hit the road.

Do LED trailer lights need special wiring

Yes, LED trail­er lights do require spe­cial wiring. Unlike tra­di­tion­al trail­er lights, LED trail­er lights have a low­er wattage and use a dif­fer­ent type of cur­rent. There­fore, in order to ensure prop­er oper­a­tion of the LED lights, spe­cial wiring is need­ed. Check also best elec­tric trail­er dol­lies.

What You’ll Need for Installation

If You are won­der­ing how to install LED boat trail­er lights, you will need a drill, mount­ing hard­ware, wire cut­ters and strip­pers, elec­tri­cal tape, water­proof con­nec­tors, and a wiring har­ness. You may need a cir­cuit tester to make sure you have a good con­nec­tion between the lights and the wiring har­ness. Before begin­ning the instal­la­tion process, it is impor­tant to make sure you have all the nec­es­sary mate­ri­als and tools. You should also have a detailed plan for how you want the lights to be installed, as well as the route you will take for the wiring which can also be help­ful for drain plug led lights. It is also impor­tant that you are famil­iar with the wiring require­ments for your boat trail­er, as well as any rel­e­vant safe­ty codes

• LED Trail­er Light Kit: Look for a kit that includes tail lights, side mark­er lights, wiring, and license plate brack­et. Make sure they’re water­proof and suit­ed for your trail­er’s size.
• Wire Crimpers and Strip­pers: These tools will help you con­nect and secure your wiring.
• Crimp­ing Con­nec­tors: To ensure secure elec­tri­cal con­nec­tions.
• Heat Shrink Tub­ing: This will pro­vide a water­proof seal for your con­nec­tions.
• Screw­driv­er or Drill: For mount­ing your lights and license plate brack­et.
• Elec­tri­cal Tape: To keep wires tidy and pre­vent them from mov­ing around.
• Cable Zip Ties: To secure any loose wiring to the trail­er frame.

Once you’ve got your toolk­it ready, it’s time to get those hands dirty (or, you know, just slight­ly greasy). Equip­ping your­self with the right tools and mate­ri­als is a cru­cial first step in the process of installing LED boat trail­er lights.

Here’s your shop­ping list of mate­ri­als:

• LED Trail­er Lights: Make sure they’re marine-grade, water­proof, and the right size for your trail­er. Most kits will include both left and right lights.
• Trail­er Wire Kit: It should at least be a four-way wire sys­tem, but if your LED lights have extra fea­tures like reverse lights, you’ll need a five- or sev­en-way sys­tem.
• Wire Crimpers/Strippers: Essen­tial for prepar­ing and con­nect­ing the wires.
• Wire Con­nec­tors: Choose water­proof ones to pre­vent cor­ro­sion.
• Drill with Bits: You’ll need this for mount­ing the lights and pos­si­bly rout­ing the wiring.
• Screws/Bolts: These should come with the light kit, but always check to be sure.
• Elec­tri­cal Tape and Cable Ties: For secur­ing the wiring along the trail­er frame.
• Mul­ti­me­ter or Test Light: For test­ing the con­nec­tions.

And remem­ber, while you may be keen to set sail into this project, safe­ty should be your first port of call. Always dis­con­nect the trail­er from the pow­er source before you begin and take care to avoid sharp edges when rout­ing wiring.

Choose Your Lights

The first step in installing boat trail­er lights is to choose the lights you want to install. You’ll need to choose lights that are designed for boats and trail­ers, as reg­u­lar auto­mo­tive lights won’t be as bright or durable. You’ll also want to make sure the lights you choose are com­pat­i­ble with the wiring har­ness you have.

Choose the Right Type

When it comes to LED boat trail­er lights, there are sev­er­al dif­fer­ent types avail­able. You can choose from LED stop lights, tail lights, side mark­er lights, clear­ance lights, and license plate lights. Depend­ing on the size of your boat and trail­er, you may need more than one type of light.

Choose the Right Size

In addi­tion to choos­ing the right type of LED boat trail­er lights, you’ll also need to choose the right size. LED lights come in a vari­ety of sizes, so make sure you mea­sure the area you plan to install your lights before you buy.

Prepare the Wiring

You’ll first want to dis­con­nect your old trail­er lights. Don’t be too hasty and yank them off, though. Make sure you take a good look (maybe even snap a few pho­tos) to remem­ber which wire goes where. This will be your guide for con­nect­ing the new lights.

Check the con­di­tion of your wiring. Look for any signs of fray­ing, cor­ro­sion, or dam­age. If you spot any, it’s best to replace the wiring alto­geth­er. But if every­thing’s look­ing ship­shape (pun intend­ed), you can use the same wires for your new LED lights.

And remem­ber, while the col­ors of the wires should fol­low a stan­dard trail­er wiring col­or code, don’t rely on col­or alone. Always con­firm the func­tion of each wire using a cir­cuit tester or mul­ti­me­ter. You’re cer­tain you’re hook­ing up your shiny new LEDs cor­rect­ly, and they won’t end up blink­ing like Christ­mas lights when you hit the brakes.

Connect the Wiring Harness

The first step in prepar­ing the wiring is to con­nect the wiring har­ness to the trail­er. This involves con­nect­ing the wiring har­ness to the trailer’s brakes, tail lights, and oth­er elec­tri­cal com­po­nents. Make sure the wiring har­ness is secure­ly con­nect­ed and that all the wires are con­nect­ed cor­rect­ly.

Run the Wires

Once the wiring har­ness is con­nect­ed, you’ll need to run the wires through the trail­er. Start by run­ning the wires through the frame of the trail­er and then up to the loca­tion of the lights. Make sure to leave some extra wire so you have enough to make all the con­nec­tions.

Test the Connections

Once the wiring is run, you’ll need to test the con­nec­tions. This is done by using a volt­meter to make sure the wiring is con­nect­ed cor­rect­ly and that there are no shorts or oth­er prob­lems. Once you’ve test­ed the wiring and it’s work­ing cor­rect­ly, you can move on to the next step.

Install the Lights

The next step in installing LED boat trail­er lights is to install the lights them­selves. This involves mount­ing the lights to the trail­er and mak­ing the nec­es­sary con­nec­tions.

Mount the Lights

The first step in installing the lights is to mount them to the trail­er. Depend­ing on the type of light you’re installing, you may need to drill holes in the trail­er frame to mount the lights. Make sure the lights are secure­ly mount­ed and that all the con­nec­tions are tight.

Make the Connections

Once the lights are mount­ed, you’ll need to make the nec­es­sary con­nec­tions. This involves con­nect­ing the wiring har­ness to the lights and mak­ing sure all the con­nec­tions are secure. Make sure to use the appro­pri­ate wire con­nec­tors and crimpers to make sure the con­nec­tions are secure.

Test the Lights

Once the lights are installed and con­nect­ed, you’ll need to test them. This is done by turn­ing on the lights and mak­ing sure they are work­ing cor­rect­ly. You should also test the brakes and turn sig­nals to make sure they are work­ing cor­rect­ly.

Final Touches

Once the lights are installed and work­ing cor­rect­ly, you’ll need to make sure all the con­nec­tions are secure and that the wiring is rout­ed cor­rect­ly. This involves mak­ing sure all the con­nec­tions are tight, that the wiring is rout­ed cor­rect­ly, and that the lights are mount­ed cor­rect­ly.

Check the Connections

The first step in mak­ing sure the con­nec­tions are secure is to check the con­nec­tions. Make sure all the con­nec­tions are tight and that there are no loose wires.

Route the Wiring

Once the con­nec­tions are secure, you’ll need to make sure the wiring is rout­ed cor­rect­ly. Make sure the wiring is rout­ed away from any mov­ing parts or sharp edges and that it is secured prop­er­ly.

Mount the Lights

You’ll need to make sure the lights are mount­ed cor­rect­ly. Make sure the lights are secure­ly mount­ed and that they are posi­tioned cor­rect­ly.

Can you replace regular trailer lights with LED

Yes, you can replace reg­u­lar trail­er lights with LED lights. LED lights are more ener­gy effi­cient, last longer, and are brighter than reg­u­lar trail­er lights. The process of replac­ing reg­u­lar trail­er lights with LED lights is gen­er­al­ly the same as replac­ing any oth­er trail­er light. Before replac­ing reg­u­lar trail­er lights with LED lights, it is impor­tant to make sure the wiring is com­pat­i­ble.

They require less pow­er than reg­u­lar trail­er lights, so the wiring may need to be updat­ed to accom­mo­date the low­er pow­er require­ments. Some of them are designed to be water resis­tant, while oth­ers are not. If the trail­er lights will be exposed to mois­ture, make sure to select those that are designed to be water resis­tant.

How to Replace Bulb Sealed Trailer Light

Sealed trail­er lights are just that – sealed. They’re designed to keep water and debris out, which is great for longevi­ty but not so great when the bulb inside decides to call it quits.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Remove the Old Unit: Start by unscrew­ing the old light from your trail­er. There will usu­al­ly be two screws hold­ing it in place.
2. Dis­con­nect the Wiring: The light should be con­nect­ed to the trail­er’s wiring using either a plug or hard­wired con­nec­tions. If it’s a plug, you can sim­ply unplug it. If it’s hard­wired, you’ll need to cut the wires or dis­con­nect them using a screw­driv­er.
3. Con­nect the New Light: Now it’s time to con­nect your new light. If it’s a plug-in design, you can sim­ply plug it in. If it’s hard­wired, con­nect the wires using water­proof butt con­nec­tors or heat shrink tub­ing to ensure a water­tight con­nec­tion.
4. Screw in the New Light: Once the wiring is secure, all that’s left is to screw the new light into place.

Here’s the real­i­ty check — most of the time, you can’t replace just the bulb in a sealed trail­er light. The whole unit is a sin­gle piece, so if the bulb goes out, you’ll usu­al­ly need to replace the entire light. I know, it feels like a curve­ball, but that’s just how these things roll.

FAQs

Conclusion

Installing LED boat trail­er lights is a great way to make sure you are seen while tow­ing your boat. This guide will help you learn how to install LED boat trail­er lights so you can stay safe and legal on the road. With the right mate­ri­als and tools on hand, you can eas­i­ly install LED boat trail­er lights and keep your­self safe.