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Replacing Trailer Lights is EASIER than you think! For campers, boat trailers and utility trailers
May 22, 2024
This video is about how to change lights on a trailer. Simon has done many DIY camper and trailer projects, and shares the few simple steps you need to take to swap trailer lights, with tools you probably already have.
Gear up:
Butyl Tape - https://amzn.to/3LgHfnN
Trailer Lights - https://amzn.to/3uvzFjf
In this video:
0:00 - Overview
1:10 - What tools you need
2:25 - Remove the old fixture
7:16 - The new fixture
8:48 - Wire stripping
10:38 - Sealant
14:30 - Wiring it up
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0:00
What's up everybody it's Simon from LightCub. Today we're gonna be talking
0:03
about how to replace any light on any trailer. It's really simple, the parts are
0:10
cheap, the tools you probably already have. Let's get to work. Before we do
0:16
anything we're gonna disconnect the battery. Now I have this handy dandy
0:21
little fuse right here so I'm just gonna pull my fuse, that breaks the circuit
0:25
because we will be tying wires and you don't want to get zapped. Yeah you can
0:32
see here my beautiful duct tape rig to keep the weather out of this thing while
0:37
we are on the road because I broke my lens. So now I need to replace my light
0:45
fixture. So the bulb was broken and everything this is an incandescent bulb and I'm replacing it with modern LED light. As you can see these things are
0:55
really simple. If the lens was still on here you pop the lens off you can just
1:00
get a screwdriver under there or sometimes you just squeeze right here on either side and pop that lens off. They come off really easily. Then it's two
1:08
screws and some sealant. Before we get started let's talk about the tools. So
1:15
screwdrivers, flathead, Phillips. Don't need flathead because my lens is already gone. I will need a Phillips to get these screws out right here and put the new
1:25
ones in. Wire strippers, probably need these, may or may not actually need them
1:32
we'll see. Electrical tape and the sealant. In this case I'm using butyl tape
1:40
Butyl tape is the kind of putty, it feels like plumber's putty is what it
1:46
really feels like. So this is the putty that we're gonna put around the
1:49
outside. It's the old putty that we're gonna scrape off and it's really
1:54
easy to use just kind of sticky and messy a little bit but it's pretty
1:58
straightforward how you use it and in my opinion it's easier than caulking
2:02
anyway. So even if you're gonna caulk the outside you still want to put a bead of
2:07
butyl tape to press up against the body of your camper or your trailer. And
2:14
finally you need something to scrape the old tape off with. I like just a good old
2:20
putty knife. You can use a blade, whatever you have handy. So let's get started by
2:26
unscrewing the screws on the old fixture. You can see they're short wood
2:37
screws probably because it's going straight into plywood. So let's get started scraping the old tape off. I'm gonna try to get away with not having to
2:45
use a blade to score it with but I have it just in case. I'm gonna see if I can
2:50
break into it with just this putty knife. Now I like using the older putty
2:54
knife that's well worn on the corners because it doesn't have that corner and
2:58
it won't scrape or gouge the aluminum body of the camper. So I'm just gonna
3:02
start on the bottom just because of leverage. See if we can get it going. I'm
3:07
just kind of rocking back and forth. Feels like, feels like we can get it going. So I
3:12
don't think we need a score in this case. It's really just gonna be old and
3:16
crusty on the outside and it'll still be probably pretty gooey on the inside. So I
3:20
got it around that side. I'm gonna work it around the bottom. And you don't want
3:29
to go all the way through because there's gonna be wires back behind here
3:32
And there's gonna be a socket right here too where the old bulb was. That is with
3:37
incandescent bulbs rather than LEDs. Keep going around the corners. Once I get all
3:43
the corners free that's pretty much it. We can start working the thing out. Since
3:49
it's not screwed in anymore then it ought to just pull out. Now you don't
3:55
want to pull it out hard because we have to detach the wires. You want to just
4:00
pull it out and let it dangle. I'm gonna get under this tape here. Try to get as
4:10
much off the body as we can because the less old stuff we have on there the
4:15
better the new stuff will adhere to the body of the camper or the trailer. I mean
4:21
this can work for utility trailers, boat trailers, whatever kind of trailer you
4:25
have. All the lights are the same. Tail lights, running lights, they're just
4:30
bigger fixtures. But they all go in and out the same and hook up the same. Might
4:41
be more wires but they're all pretty much the same. All right now I think we
4:48
can we can work this thing off. You might need to get a screwdriver in here. So
4:55
there's kind of a foam back to it it looks like. This is a factory light but
5:03
they're all pretty similar. You can get these things online. I'll put a link down
5:08
below for you know some of the some of the best easiest places to get them
5:15
inexpensively. But retail stores sometimes you know even Walmart, Northern Tool, places like that will have trailer lights. So you can get a little bit of
5:31
leverage back here. Yeah there's a looks like there's some foam adhesive foam
5:41
backing to this one. And I'm gonna break this because I don't care about saving
5:47
it. There we go. So you can see that there's this kind of adhesive layered
5:53
backing to it. So there wasn't actually any butyl tape. That's why I'm kind of
5:58
fighting it a little bit. Which is fine now I know what I'm up against. So I can
6:02
go all the way to the socket all the way around and it should pull out. If it was
6:11
tape, if it was butyl tape, then usually once you kind of break that outer crust
6:15
then it's it gets really easy really fast. There we go. Well that didn't help me because I need to pull that socket out
6:27
still. So this one's gonna be a little bit of a bear to pull out because all
6:31
the putty is kind of jammed in there. And so it's really really sticky and it's a
6:36
fragile little socket. So we'll see what we can do. So that was more work than you usually have to do just to get this piece out
7:06
Usually this comes out with this. And then you'd end up with everything
7:11
dangling like this. So that you can rewire the new ones. So I grabbed some
7:17
dikes. I could just use my blade to cut these wires off. But you want to make
7:23
sure that when you when you do snip them that they're not gonna pull back in into
7:29
the hole. That would be that'd be a chore. That'd be a really unnecessary chore. So
7:35
here's our new fixture. The lens is already half off. This is not an LED. This
7:43
is incandescent. I thought about an LED bulb. Gives you the option to go through
7:47
right here. But because of where I'm going back into the camper, in my case
7:51
I'm just gonna make it work and go right through here through the middle
7:55
Alright so this is interesting. This is not what I expected. But on this light
8:00
you can see I took the the plate and the bulb out. There's only one connection for
8:06
a wire. And that is because the other one grounds to this plate. This plate is
8:13
where you put the screw through. I think that they're assuming that the screw
8:18
will go into metal and ground it like say a utility trailer or maybe even a
8:23
boat trailer. But in this case this is not a ground on my camper. So what I'm
8:29
gonna have to do is take one of the wires and what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna
8:36
put it underneath this plate. So that'll complete the circuit. The plate touches
8:42
this brass connector right here. And then that will complete the circuit
8:47
through the light bulb. We'll do that. So we'll start here by snipping the wires as close as I can to the old
9:06
fixture. I'm gonna do some wire stripping. That one almost went in. That kind of
9:12
scared me a little bit. You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna get a clamp. I'm gonna
9:19
strip the wire on the new one and the old ones just enough to twist together
10:06
All right. A little awkward with that clamp there but we got her done. I think
10:18
what I'm gonna do first is run these through here, put the tape on
10:22
and then stick it. And then we can work with everything on this side of the fixture
10:37
All righty. Now we'll take our tape. Now it comes off the paper really clean but
10:48
it gets messy really fast if you start messing with it. So you want to
10:52
get it from the paper onto your back here as clean and quick as possible
10:56
Before I do that I'm just gonna scrape the remaining bits. Make sure we get a
11:01
really good seal here. All right. Happy with that. So I found that it's better than trying to do one
11:20
piece all the way around to just cut each length. And you can kind of be
11:26
approximate here. So we'll do two of those just like that. Stick those on and
11:44
then probably do two short little little pieces here for the middle. It's
11:57
just paper backing so you can just get started with the knife and rip the rest
12:01
See that where that takes us. Alrighty. So peel it off. It's a cold day today
12:08
That helps too. If it's hot the stuff gets really stretchy and stringy. I'll
12:12
tear up a corner just so you can kind of see. Yeah it's it's cold enough today
12:16
today to really be easy to work with because otherwise it'll string like
12:21
silly putty. All right. Put this just kind of stick it to the body of the
12:32
camper with my finger. Same thing on the bottom
12:44
I may only need just a little tiny bit in the middle. See if I can split this in
13:05
half. Make sure you get around that screw hole. You want the screw to go through
13:13
the tape. There we go. Happy with that. Let's see how that's gonna sit on here
13:31
I may just I may just run the screws in right now. I'm just gonna reuse these
13:44
screws. Run them back in there. Nice and tight. Secure. Now we're gonna plug all
13:56
these gaps around the outside. Just some bulb up beetle tape. Time to wire it up. Everyone's probably got their own way of hooking up wires
14:32
but with these kind of low voltage you know lighter gauge wires what I like to
14:40
do is tape them together or take a little zip tie or something like that
14:46
Tape them together facing the same direction and tie it off real secure so
14:50
that they don't pull apart at all and then tape up around the outside. So
14:55
that's what I'm gonna do. Now I'm gonna twist the wires together. I'll run
15:05
another piece of tape from below that to all the way to the end. Excuse the road
15:17
noise. We are in my garage. Kind of fold it over the end. Make sure the weather
15:24
can't get in. Make sure no wires are gonna be bare and able to touch anything
15:29
else. Shorten you out and blow a fuse. Now again I would just if there was
15:36
another connection here I would just wire it up here. In this case I'm gonna
15:40
make a ground. There we go. Screw back in. I'm good with that. This just presses back on. We're
16:16
good to go. If we ever need to pop this back off again there's a little slot on the side. Flathead screwdriver. Turn it sideways. Pops it loose. That's it folks
16:25
Any trailer light that you want to do. Camper, boat trailer, utility trailer
16:32
whatever you have. It's really not that hard. A few simple tools and the right
16:37
sealant will get the job done. I'll put a list of gear below so you can just click
16:41
and buy at the best price that we can find. I'm Simon from Lakehove and we'll see you next time
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#Cargo Trucks & Trailers