brake and turn signals fuses blow

[jimTree]

Hi. I've got a 2000 Chevy, dual rear wheel drive 3500. Been hauling around a brush chipper for about the last 3 months with no problems until I had a short and blew 2 fuses a couple of weeks ago. Directionals, brakes, hazard and back-up alarm didn't work.

 

After some troubleshooting, got everything working except the hazard. Figured the hazard switch was the problem so I replaced the entire directional/4-way switch. This entailed removing the cowels, steering wheel, etc.

 

Some corrosion on the 6 point plug on the back so I replaced it as well - the trailer has a 7 point, so I run an adapter in between.

 

Everything worked on the truck for a couple weeks until I used the trailer today. 10 mile drive to the job this morning but just as I got to the site, two fuses blew; 1&16, directional and stop/haz, back up alarm...again. Disconnected the chipper and replaced the 2 fuses. Everything works on the truck now except the brake lights.

 

Haven't hooked up the chipper again and won't until I figure out what's wrong but just checking to see if someone might have had a similar problem in the past or any ideas what the trouble might be... besides my electrical skills.

 

Any insight would be appreciated!

[NEFisher11]

My father had a simialir issue with his Jeep. It wasn't anything wrong with the Jeep but his boat trailer had a short in the wiring and it kept blowing the fuses in his jeep. So i would check the wiring on the wood chipper.

[c4cruiser]

I would also agree that the problem may be in the trailer wiring. You said the truck had a 6-pin connector. Was that installed by somebody? The factory GM trailer connector should have been the 7-pin blade-style connector. I would check the truck wiring back to that connector and use a test light to verify what each pin does. Then using a 12v power supply, check each pin on the trailer connector to make sure the proper lights light up for the pin connection on the truck.

[thewhitestallion]

I had the same prob on a 18' tractor trailer. I found out that when my friend wired it he didn't do that good of a job and a wire had come out of the connector and kept touching the frame of the trailer which in turn blew my fuse everytime the wire received power. i would go to wal mart and buy a new trailer wiring kit w/ or w/out the LED lights (they are so much brighter, also double as back up lights as i could see things behind me when backing up the trailer). the kit is like $25-$35 and are easy to install. that fixed my problem and i made sure to double check all the wires.

[Diesail]

I suspect the flasher module.

 

 

[rjgvt]

I had a similar issue years ago with a boat trailer. Mice had nested inside the frame channel during the winter and chewed on the wiring harness. End result was the wires had insulation missing and everytime the harness bounced and hit the frame, a fuse would blow. I had to pull a new harness through and re-wire the lights.