The lights on my boat trailer are messed up.   (original lights - 2002 era trailer)   Turn signals work - brake lights work - normal running lights don't work.  Took it to one of the few guys in my neighborhood who will work on trailers.  Anyway - he told me that the bulbs were burnt out and it was a sealed unit and you had to buy a new part.  He'd be doing the work now, except he left for vacation yesterday and won't be back until August 2.   That's ok - I've got some surgery scheduled in early August and what with time off from work - recovery and whatnot, I won't be fishing and I won't be able to afford new trailer lights until the later part of August.  My question - what is a reasonable amount of money to spend for new trailer lights?  I'm looking for options/opinions here.  My trailer has worked perfectly for such a long time that I've got no clue what is reasonable or unreasonable for trailer lighting expenses.

 

I'm thinking about upgrading to LED's.  Good idea or bad idea or unnecessary idea?

You can get submersible led trailer light kits online for about $50 or so. It has a tag bracket with it. Super simple to install. Maybe look into it.

LED lights are about as good an investment as you can make when it comes to boating. For less than a tank of gas you will save a lot of headaches.

Trailers lights only work in the driveway

If you have a Northern Tool, you can pick those sealed lights for about $10 each.  I tried LED's for a couple years a while back and they gave me way more problems than the sealed lights so I went back to them.  I usually get a couple years or more out of those.

 

Catt is right, trailer lights usually work in the driveway, and never work when you are driving through some small town where the cops have nothing to do but pull you over.

I upgraded to led's for I believe just over $40. Before you replace them though, I'd look at the fuses on your vehicle first. I believe I had the same issue on my old trailer and it turned out to be a fuse.

It's easy enough to check, the parking lights are the brown wire if it's properly wired. At the back near the tail lights on the trailer, stick a pin through the center of the wire, turn the parking lights on and use a volt meter between the pin and the frame (make sure you are on bare metal). If you have 12 VDC at the pin, everything to that point is good. There's nothing but the light left. You can use a test light also and see if it burns bright, I just don't use test lights because I want to know the voltage.

Don't let the pin make contact with the frame or it will blow the fuse.

I switch out the lights to LED on any trailer I have.

 

In my experience.....the LED lights are brighter.....more defined. That is what I want in the dark