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Harbor Freight magnetic base towing lights

August 17, 2012, 09:18:57 am

Last year I bought a set of magnetic base towing lights from Harbor freight. The magnetic bases weren't very powerful so I mounted the lights permanently on a bar. They have been driving me nuts!! I have tested everything seven ways from sundown and still no right side brake light. The seven point plug tests OK. The lights test OK. Everything tests OK until I plug everything together. Then, no right brake light. I even bought and installed a new 5 wire to 4 wire converter, thinking that was the problem. Same results. So, today I am off to get a set of LED taillights for the toad.
After discussion with a friend with extensive experience, both electrical and the Harbor freight lights he once had, this seems the next step in the process.
Not much hair left to pull!!

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Re: Harbor Freight magnetic base towing lights

Reply #1 – August 17, 2012, 11:15:26 am

We use the H F magnetic base LED lights on our RAV4. The magnets stick to the roof OK and the LED tail lights are pretty bright but the stop/turn seem to be a little weak. They have a thin pad under the magnets so the paint does not get scratched. After 3 years, they still work but it would be nice to have a jacket around all the wires to make it a bit neater.

Probably something internal at the lights has broken. You could use a H F test light and stick the wires at the lights. Sometimes when the wires are routed through the car, the door might damage them when it closes.

Pierce

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Re: Harbor Freight magnetic base towing lights

Reply #2 – August 17, 2012, 12:27:24 pm

Jackets for the wire are easy to find at RadioShack, electrical supply, electronic geek shop, etc. However, they might be a bit harsh on paint if allowed to chafe.

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Re: Harbor Freight magnetic base towing lights

Reply #3 – August 17, 2012, 11:05:03 pm

Have a set of lights from Harbor Freight, and was having problems.  What I found was the male flat 4 plug was very poor quality.  I have to crush the plug with pliers and cause the out of round metal pins make better connections.

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Re: Harbor Freight magnetic base towing lights

Reply #4 – August 17, 2012, 11:16:53 pm

Went and bought new lights but not LED. Wired them up and tested with my battery charger. Tested everything OK. L, R, & Tail all work. Then hooked up to the seven connector plug that plugs into the coach. Also includes the 5 to 4 wire converter (new), then checked everything with the battery charger and a probe to verify everything is OK.
Everything checks good. Connected that assembly to the light bar flat four connector. Then rechecked all lights for operation. A OK! Went to the coach, checked all outputs at the plugin with my light probe. L, R, Tail, Brake, and ground. A OK!
Plugged in seven connector plug including light bar assembly. Left turn, tail & brake work on the light bar. Right turn and brake do not work. Right tail does work.

More hair pulling!! Took everything apart AGAIN and rechecked everything AGAIN tonite. Quit for the night. Running out of ideas to try. Any ideas? I have scraped and cleaned all connections and even sprayed with contact cleaner.
Dave, I did "crush" the female connections in order to increase quality of contact.

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Re: Harbor Freight magnetic base towing lights

Reply #5 – August 17, 2012, 11:59:46 pm

Check that the pins in the back of the coach are not crushed together.  I had that issue and I just put a small screwdriver in and pushed them apart and it worked.

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Re: Harbor Freight magnetic base towing lights

Reply #6 – August 18, 2012, 12:02:37 am

Nighthawk,

Check your ground wire. Try running another wire from the chassis ground or neg on the battery to the connector that should be grounded.

Pierce

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Re: Harbor Freight magnetic base towing lights

Reply #7 – August 18, 2012, 12:06:35 am

The harbor freight wiring is really very light and my turn signals were very faint hard to tell they were flashing when the taillights were on, so I replaced the HF wiring with a heavy duty 4 way flat cable and now work as they should

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Re: Harbor Freight magnetic base towing lights

Reply #8 – August 18, 2012, 09:27:48 am

Harbor Freight stuff is GONE, GONE, GONE!! New Flat 4-wire connectors, new much heavier gage wire, scraped and sprayed all contacts with contact cleaner, used a pliers and distorted all female connectors, new 5 to 4 wire convertor, cleaned and scraped the blades in the plug on the back of the coach. Tried to spread the blades to attain better contact.
Today I am going to solder, and run, heavier ground wires to everthing. If that still does not work I am going to try to add another light & socket to each light fixture, run the wiring, eliminate the 5 to 4 converter. In effect, make my tow bar lights 5-wire, the same as the coach.
Thanks everyone for all the advice.
By the way, do NOT buy the black electrical tape, blue heat shrink tape, and cable ties from Harbor Freight. Very, very poor quality adhesive (if any), heat shrink tape doesn't, and cable ties break with a little pull.

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Re: Harbor Freight magnetic base towing lights

Reply #9 – August 18, 2012, 03:12:26 pm

YAHOO!!! I managed to find and fix the problem--all by my dumbass self!!
Turns out the brown wire going to the blade at 3 oclock in the coupler on the coach was not sending as much current as the left turn wire at 9 oclock. I ran a new wire from the coupler up to the right turn wire in the right tail light assembly and now everything works great!! All turn and brake lights bright on the tow bar. Running lights not quite as bright but where they should be.

Aganin, thanks everyone for their suggestions. I tried them all but nothing worked so the DW said to hook up one thing at a time. I did and that is when I discovered the problem!!
Love that woman!! She put up with my shouting & cursing at the problem (by staying away!)  It only cost me a NOOK at Barnes & Noble!!

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