Trailer troubles

[Graham W]

My 13-pin lighting board has exactly the same lights (including reversing and rear fog) on both sides, so I’m fairly sure that in this instance at least, it doesn’t matter which side of the road your car drives on.  And as far as I can see from Google, there’s an unvarying international wiring standard for 13-pin trailer plugs.  It may be different for some of the cheap and very poor quality 7-pin lighting boards that are on sale in the UK - a perfect match for UK trailers!

The side lighting requirement explains Tobias’s weird and wonderful multiple cabling system.  My 2010 trailer predates this requirement but I have some nifty waterproof and battery-powered LED strip lights that I stick to each side of my boat at night to banish potential t-bone misery.

As Andrew says, if the lighting board and its associated wiring is at fault, whoever supplied it (CLH again??) should sort out the problem at their expense.

In case anyone wants to splash the cash, this is the lighting board that I use https://www.autoleisure.co.uk/caravan-electrics/led-lighting-board-5ft-x10m-cable-13-pin-plug-12-24v.  Because my VW Golf is elderly, I had to wire a ballast load resistor to each indicator circuit.

[Tobias L]

Thank you very much for the numerous answers.
@ Graham
The way you describe it was with my previous trailer.
The lighting cable was plugged directly into a 13-pin socket next to the trailer coupling , without any other plugs or cables in between, and it works fine.
The light for the side lighting is tapped into the intermediate plug C.
Plug B, which is plugged in here, has power only for the light strip. And plugging this connector B directly into the car does not match the assignment. Unfortunately, I can't test whether plugging this plug B into the adapter C will work with the car because the pins of plug D are too thick. 

Kind regards
Tobias

[Tobias L]

@ Simon

New boat? yes BRe New CLH trailer?

I had a very nice trailer from VanClaes from 2016 and a trailer hitch from VW with probably the 13 pin "Euro" electrics mentioned. Works so far and also with my replacement cable with LED lights that I can magnetically attach to any trailer.
It is not to be confused with UK 7 v Euro 13 plugs/sockets.

There is the intermediate lead fitted orignal by CLH, probably for the LED side lights as described in my previous post.
Here is my signature that I still register in the forum from the boat register.

[Sea Simon]

From what I can see in your last photo, plug D appears to be a UK 7 pin? They have bigger pins than Euro 13.

We have a VanClaes agent near here, very nice trailers!

You may be aware, that unlike Europe we in the UK have no trailer registration system, nor annual roadworthiness test (we call this MOT on vehicles).
This is not always a good thing!

By forum signature, I  mean the details automatically added, below the line, after each post.
Accessed for each individual  user via forum settings.

[Tobias L]

@ Simon this is a good idea.

As my photo did not show this clearly. I went to have another look. No plug D has 13 poles but they really look like they are from an old plug.

When testing plug A directly on the car plug D is not only different on the left or right, which would be easy to fix, but on the right all lights are glaring and on the left correcly the indicator.
After the posts I suspect it depends on the "newer" electric system of my car.

I will now take my mobile lights for the trailer and connect them to the lighting board. I can plug the cable into my VW T5 and drive off. Only the side lights will not work. When the boat is no longer on the trailer, I can go to a specialist workshop and see how it works.

Many thanks for the suggestions

[RogerLennard]

I went to try and sort out the trailer arm today. Here is a low res video and its contents are shown below:

The arm cannot simply be pushed all the way in.
The location of the obstruction can be seen when the other free arm is laid on top of the first. It is clearly the rivets.
A lump hammer and piece of wood are not enough to be able to force the arm past the obstruction.
Finally I did manage to knock the arm out. You can see where the rivets have marked the arm.

I took a chisel and knocked down the area that had been marked by rivets. This enabled me to slide the arm in all the way.

I simply cannot believe CLH's claims that they check the arms have full movement before they are dispatched.

[Graham W]

The photo below shows where CLH’s origins lie.  Nine out of ten sheep, when questioned, expressed a preference for Ifor Williams trailers.

[Sea Simon]

Seems like a poor job by CLH?

Are both sides the same?

Likely the rivets are too long, or maybe the pop stems are still in there?
They do come in several lengths at any given diameter.

Those rivets, need drilling out, imho. Start fairly small dia,  then step up gradually until rivets "breaks out". Always hard to get the debris out. I often use a well greased stick to fish at it.

Are they alloy pop rivets? Perhaps Monel seeing the beating you've had to give them!

If alloy, not hard to do...and they wouldn't have lasted long anyway. Poor design/manufacture? Need Nother way to attach those pesky lighting brackets.

That still leaves you with the damaged lighting arm, which at least can be sorted "remotely" by CLH sending you new.

[Ape Ears]

I appreciate the collective wisdom in response to posters who have problems with their purchases. I think it is important to consider the relevant legislation when things go wrong. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 has overtaken the Sale of Goods Act 1979.

The Act requires goods to be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose, as described, and last for a reasonable time.

Your rights under the Consumer Rights Act are against the Retailer, the Company that sold you the product,
NOT the Manufacturer.

Customers may lose the right to a refund if an item is damaged by trying to repair it themselves, or getting someone else to do it. (There may remain a right to a repair, partial refund or replacement.)

I would reiterate my suggestion to contact The Retailer who was contracted to supply the boat/trailer/lighting board. If they were supplied from new, this is likely to be Swallow Yachts. I consider it an essential step to ensure contractual obligations are observed, and to highlight quality issues which can then be addressed.

[RogerLennard]

Good news! I have now had my boat out on the water twice. I am on a learning curve but am using my experience of dinghy and yacht sailing to help. The CLH trailer has been excellent for launch and recovery. I had to do very little for launch or recovery, once the bottom of the tires were submerged by a few centimetres. Recovery (singlehanded) with a bit of a crosswind was a doddle and the swinging arm took up the bow very neatly, while straightening the boat up.

I will doubtless be asking lots more questions over the coming weeks as I gain experience.