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So I worked on trailer lights last week and then (Friday) was deathly ill and stayed in bed all day. Saturday I got up and did an hour of trailer lights in the morning and then went back to bed all day so that on Sunday I could... go ride my horse on the mountain for like four hours. Because that's the sort of sane adult decision-making we go for in these parts.
The trailer junction box came on Thursday as per the Amazon shipping estimate. It was fine. I bought some titanium bits to drill small mounting holes for it in the trailer. That went... I snapped off one of the titanium bits. Oops. It was totally user error, too. The bit ginked in the hole and I didn't have the wrist strength to keep the power screwdriver from jerking sideways and that was that.
After repeated failboat on getting the provided sheet metal screws to work in mounting the junction box, I gave up and mounted the trailer junction box thusly: I drilled small holes through the vertical front wall of the front tack compartment. I put a small piece of 3/4" board on inside of front wall of tack compartment, up against the aforementioned holes, and had a helper hold it there. I put the junction box on the OUTSIDE of the front wall of tack compartment, under the gooseneck, lined up with the drilled holes. I screwed deck screws THROUGH the junction box mounting brackets, then THROUGH the drilled holes in the front wall of tack compartment and then firmly into the 3/4" board but not into the hands of my helper. Et voila.
I measured and cut the 7 strand wire and fed it into the junction box. I hooked up the pertinent (for now) wires: white (for ground), yellow (for left turn), green (for right turn), brown (for running lights), blue (for brakes). The remaining two wires I bent back upon themselves and taped as they go to "12 v power" and "reverse lights" neither of which is used on my trailer.
At that point, I went around and pried off the existing trailer lights that were (a) mismatched (b) not-LED and (c) frequently hanging by one sad pop-rivet. I retained the rear group of 3 red running lights because they were not easy to remove and looked like they might actually work. I drilled holes and mounted all the new LED lights save the rear group of three red running lights.
Next, I installed a ground wire on the trailer and fed it into the junction box to the "ground" post.
Then, I hooked up the yellow and green wires from the taillights to the junction box. And I tested them. Yay Turn Signals! That worked as advertised. Hooray!
I hooked up the brown (running lights) wire to the running lights, all of them, and tested that. Blown fuse. FML.
The brown wire goes to... front group of three amber, 2 side amber lights, 2 side red lights, rear group of three red, taillights.
So I disconnected all of that and started over (I have a packet of like twenty appropriate fuses for when I blow a fuse.) with JUST the taillights hooked to the brown wire. That was OK.
I added in the side amber lights, one at a time. That went OK.
I added in the side red lights, one at a time. That went OK.
I added in the front group-of-three. Fuse. One of the three modular plastic LED trailer lights in the front grouping didn't seat correctly when I was assembling it and I may have, er, hit it a bit too hard. This is, I suspect, where the fuse problem is coming from.
Now, any time I need more parts or something, it's an hour trip (twenty or so minutes in to town, park, shop, checkout, twenty or so minutes home from town, loss of enthusiasm, great frustration, etc.) so I was done at this point for the time being. I was only doing a daylight trip on Sunday so the running lights were, basically, optional to get fixed.
I went home to bed. At this point, the trailer has working brake lights and working turn signals and working red & amber running lights on the sides BUT it does not have the rear group of three red ones OR the front group of three amber ones. I did buy a replacement amber light for the one that is probably broken, so I can work on that this weekend, deus volent.
Sunday I got up and organized. I loaded my somewhat distrustful horse on this New and Different Trailer (which has two rear doors instead of one big swinging door that opens up the whole rear of the thing) without much fuss. I hustled my ass over to the New Boarder Barn (lesson barn has migrated from original location to New Boarder Barn property which instructor fairly recently purchased and we will nevermore be at original location) to arrive at 9AM so's to be ready for a prompt departure from thence to the Trail Venue for the aforementioned Trail Ride Event.
L.
O.
L.
I really should have known better. At 9:20 I gave up on the prompt departure and unloaded my horse so he could eat grass while we were waiting. We departed at 10, which is kind of par for the course given the wrangling of chillies and ponies and so forth.
Despite lead truck-n-trailer's best efforts to ditch me en route to trail venue (we lost sight of them multiple times because they were hellin' down the road. I cannot be hellin' in my horse trailer. Sir loads like a trooper into anything I ask him to get into, but also I DRIVE NICE so that I have a horse who loads like a trooper. He's not stupid. I throw him around back there too much and he's never going to get in a goddamn trailer ever again.) we arrived at Trail Venue, got organized, and set out on the trails. At 10:30.
As we were hitting the trail, quite early on, we were followed by Remy and his mom, a twenty-something who had loaned Remy to the lesson program while she... did college/found herself/faffed about.
Remy is... I do not like riding Remy. He's kind of a chonk warmblood-ish thing where that means "heavy-bodied, big-footed, stolid sort that I'd call a draft cross" and not, for example, "Trakehner" or "KWPN" or something in the 40K aisle. Remy is, however, very consistent, very sturdy, unlikely to lose balance if ridden by idiots, and churns out the same dutiful performance regardless of who is in the driver's seat. He has his place in the world of horses.
Anyway, Remy and his mom are following me and Bird. Very closely, they are following. I can hear Remy huffing like a freight train.
(We are headed steeply uphill. My horse is walking politely like a Good Boy. Remy is... rushing.) Remy has not quite got his head over Bird's tail but if Bird farts, that's the air Remy will be breathing.
Remy's Mom: "Does your horse kick?"
Me: "He has not been known to, but I expect he might, if pressed hard enough."
Remy and Remy's Mom then immediately charge past us. We aren't body-checked by them, but only because Birb does not like being run into by other horses and has carefully sideled out of the way. Bird, for his part, does not kick anyone despite pretty significant provocation.
We continue marching dutifully uphill, a progress which is nicer now that Remy is not trying to push us along.
Later at lunch, I had the following fun exchange with Remy's Mom.
Remy's Mom: "Is he part Arab?"
Me: "He's purebred, Egyptian Arab, the nutjobbiest of the nutjobs. Mostly, though, he is a good boy who tries hard."
Remy's Mom: "I don't like Arabs. Yours doesn't seem as insane as the general run of them, though."
Me: "I hear that a lot. I really like the breed, but I also don't think they're the best choice for everyone."
Remy's Mom: "I like warmbloods."
Me: "Well, Remy's definitely a Very Good Boy and an ambassador for the breed. The IEA kids love him."
(She smiled. We all agree that Remy is a Very Good Boy but also Remy's mom has no idea that you couldn't pay me to ride him. He is NOT FUN and his gaits are NOT FUN and he's fucking heavy in-hand and leans on the reins and I DO NOT LIKE HIM.)
Later, we are following Instructor and Remy's Mom at a two-horse-length distance because trail manners are not optional even if my horse is the only damn horse that has them. Up ahead of them, in front, is Tin, who used to live at the farm with Bird.
Instructor: "Did Tin always go out in front when he was at the farm?"
Me: "Nope. He followed Bird, always."
Instructor: "But Bird's following us politely. He doesn't seem like a going-in-front horse."
Me: "Well, I'm telling him how fast to walk. If I stop riding him and let him do as he prefers... " (and I stopped riding him and he stepped out, immediately. I don't have to pull on his face or fight with him to rate him in a walking trail ride. It doesn't LOOK like I'm doing much and certainly Birb is going along on a loose rein LOOKING like he's just walking along. However, he can feel me going "this much walk and no more, buddy" and he can sure as shit feel it when I turn that off to let him do as he will.)
Instructor: "Oh. I see."
Indeed.
It was basically a nice trail ride in which we got lost twice, retraced our path at least three times, and got to cross several small "Atv trail" sized bridges. Bird was Very Brave about the bridges and did a Good Job with that.
Also, the pointer sisters (Samantha May and Bailey Jo, these are dogs of the pointer variety that belong to Instructor) came along, Bailey Jo with a Dog Backpack Vest Thing that Bird spooked at... for the entire first half of the ride. Seriously, Bailey Jo would bomb out of the shrubbery ahead of us or beside us or up from behind us and Bird would spook, every damn time. Not from the "dog appearing" because he didn't do that for Samantha May (naked like dogs should be) but because of the Dog Backpack Vest. It wasn't a monster spook, but he definitely had a reaction every damn time. Instructor was all "I'm so sorry" and I'm like... "Eh. He's gonna look until he doesn't. Don't worry about it."
Honestly, if a little spooking bothers you, get a different breed. Arabs gonna spook. It's a feature.
After lunch, Bird decided he was done looking at Bailey Jo no matter what direction she came from, no matter how she bombed out of the shrubbery, no matter. He was "Ok, dog wears clothing. It's cool." and then he was done looking at her. Good boy, Birb.
So that, also was nice. Truck ran well, we got home safe, everything was fine. All in all, it was a nice outing despite Remy and Remy's Mom.
The trailer junction box came on Thursday as per the Amazon shipping estimate. It was fine. I bought some titanium bits to drill small mounting holes for it in the trailer. That went... I snapped off one of the titanium bits. Oops. It was totally user error, too. The bit ginked in the hole and I didn't have the wrist strength to keep the power screwdriver from jerking sideways and that was that.
After repeated failboat on getting the provided sheet metal screws to work in mounting the junction box, I gave up and mounted the trailer junction box thusly: I drilled small holes through the vertical front wall of the front tack compartment. I put a small piece of 3/4" board on inside of front wall of tack compartment, up against the aforementioned holes, and had a helper hold it there. I put the junction box on the OUTSIDE of the front wall of tack compartment, under the gooseneck, lined up with the drilled holes. I screwed deck screws THROUGH the junction box mounting brackets, then THROUGH the drilled holes in the front wall of tack compartment and then firmly into the 3/4" board but not into the hands of my helper. Et voila.
I measured and cut the 7 strand wire and fed it into the junction box. I hooked up the pertinent (for now) wires: white (for ground), yellow (for left turn), green (for right turn), brown (for running lights), blue (for brakes). The remaining two wires I bent back upon themselves and taped as they go to "12 v power" and "reverse lights" neither of which is used on my trailer.
At that point, I went around and pried off the existing trailer lights that were (a) mismatched (b) not-LED and (c) frequently hanging by one sad pop-rivet. I retained the rear group of 3 red running lights because they were not easy to remove and looked like they might actually work. I drilled holes and mounted all the new LED lights save the rear group of three red running lights.
Next, I installed a ground wire on the trailer and fed it into the junction box to the "ground" post.
Then, I hooked up the yellow and green wires from the taillights to the junction box. And I tested them. Yay Turn Signals! That worked as advertised. Hooray!
I hooked up the brown (running lights) wire to the running lights, all of them, and tested that. Blown fuse. FML.
The brown wire goes to... front group of three amber, 2 side amber lights, 2 side red lights, rear group of three red, taillights.
So I disconnected all of that and started over (I have a packet of like twenty appropriate fuses for when I blow a fuse.) with JUST the taillights hooked to the brown wire. That was OK.
I added in the side amber lights, one at a time. That went OK.
I added in the side red lights, one at a time. That went OK.
I added in the front group-of-three. Fuse. One of the three modular plastic LED trailer lights in the front grouping didn't seat correctly when I was assembling it and I may have, er, hit it a bit too hard. This is, I suspect, where the fuse problem is coming from.
Now, any time I need more parts or something, it's an hour trip (twenty or so minutes in to town, park, shop, checkout, twenty or so minutes home from town, loss of enthusiasm, great frustration, etc.) so I was done at this point for the time being. I was only doing a daylight trip on Sunday so the running lights were, basically, optional to get fixed.
I went home to bed. At this point, the trailer has working brake lights and working turn signals and working red & amber running lights on the sides BUT it does not have the rear group of three red ones OR the front group of three amber ones. I did buy a replacement amber light for the one that is probably broken, so I can work on that this weekend, deus volent.
Sunday I got up and organized. I loaded my somewhat distrustful horse on this New and Different Trailer (which has two rear doors instead of one big swinging door that opens up the whole rear of the thing) without much fuss. I hustled my ass over to the New Boarder Barn (lesson barn has migrated from original location to New Boarder Barn property which instructor fairly recently purchased and we will nevermore be at original location) to arrive at 9AM so's to be ready for a prompt departure from thence to the Trail Venue for the aforementioned Trail Ride Event.
L.
O.
L.
I really should have known better. At 9:20 I gave up on the prompt departure and unloaded my horse so he could eat grass while we were waiting. We departed at 10, which is kind of par for the course given the wrangling of chillies and ponies and so forth.
Despite lead truck-n-trailer's best efforts to ditch me en route to trail venue (we lost sight of them multiple times because they were hellin' down the road. I cannot be hellin' in my horse trailer. Sir loads like a trooper into anything I ask him to get into, but also I DRIVE NICE so that I have a horse who loads like a trooper. He's not stupid. I throw him around back there too much and he's never going to get in a goddamn trailer ever again.) we arrived at Trail Venue, got organized, and set out on the trails. At 10:30.
As we were hitting the trail, quite early on, we were followed by Remy and his mom, a twenty-something who had loaned Remy to the lesson program while she... did college/found herself/faffed about.
Remy is... I do not like riding Remy. He's kind of a chonk warmblood-ish thing where that means "heavy-bodied, big-footed, stolid sort that I'd call a draft cross" and not, for example, "Trakehner" or "KWPN" or something in the 40K aisle. Remy is, however, very consistent, very sturdy, unlikely to lose balance if ridden by idiots, and churns out the same dutiful performance regardless of who is in the driver's seat. He has his place in the world of horses.
Anyway, Remy and his mom are following me and Bird. Very closely, they are following. I can hear Remy huffing like a freight train.
(We are headed steeply uphill. My horse is walking politely like a Good Boy. Remy is... rushing.) Remy has not quite got his head over Bird's tail but if Bird farts, that's the air Remy will be breathing.
Remy's Mom: "Does your horse kick?"
Me: "He has not been known to, but I expect he might, if pressed hard enough."
Remy and Remy's Mom then immediately charge past us. We aren't body-checked by them, but only because Birb does not like being run into by other horses and has carefully sideled out of the way. Bird, for his part, does not kick anyone despite pretty significant provocation.
We continue marching dutifully uphill, a progress which is nicer now that Remy is not trying to push us along.
Later at lunch, I had the following fun exchange with Remy's Mom.
Remy's Mom: "Is he part Arab?"
Me: "He's purebred, Egyptian Arab, the nutjobbiest of the nutjobs. Mostly, though, he is a good boy who tries hard."
Remy's Mom: "I don't like Arabs. Yours doesn't seem as insane as the general run of them, though."
Me: "I hear that a lot. I really like the breed, but I also don't think they're the best choice for everyone."
Remy's Mom: "I like warmbloods."
Me: "Well, Remy's definitely a Very Good Boy and an ambassador for the breed. The IEA kids love him."
(She smiled. We all agree that Remy is a Very Good Boy but also Remy's mom has no idea that you couldn't pay me to ride him. He is NOT FUN and his gaits are NOT FUN and he's fucking heavy in-hand and leans on the reins and I DO NOT LIKE HIM.)
Later, we are following Instructor and Remy's Mom at a two-horse-length distance because trail manners are not optional even if my horse is the only damn horse that has them. Up ahead of them, in front, is Tin, who used to live at the farm with Bird.
Instructor: "Did Tin always go out in front when he was at the farm?"
Me: "Nope. He followed Bird, always."
Instructor: "But Bird's following us politely. He doesn't seem like a going-in-front horse."
Me: "Well, I'm telling him how fast to walk. If I stop riding him and let him do as he prefers... " (and I stopped riding him and he stepped out, immediately. I don't have to pull on his face or fight with him to rate him in a walking trail ride. It doesn't LOOK like I'm doing much and certainly Birb is going along on a loose rein LOOKING like he's just walking along. However, he can feel me going "this much walk and no more, buddy" and he can sure as shit feel it when I turn that off to let him do as he will.)
Instructor: "Oh. I see."
Indeed.
It was basically a nice trail ride in which we got lost twice, retraced our path at least three times, and got to cross several small "Atv trail" sized bridges. Bird was Very Brave about the bridges and did a Good Job with that.
Also, the pointer sisters (Samantha May and Bailey Jo, these are dogs of the pointer variety that belong to Instructor) came along, Bailey Jo with a Dog Backpack Vest Thing that Bird spooked at... for the entire first half of the ride. Seriously, Bailey Jo would bomb out of the shrubbery ahead of us or beside us or up from behind us and Bird would spook, every damn time. Not from the "dog appearing" because he didn't do that for Samantha May (naked like dogs should be) but because of the Dog Backpack Vest. It wasn't a monster spook, but he definitely had a reaction every damn time. Instructor was all "I'm so sorry" and I'm like... "Eh. He's gonna look until he doesn't. Don't worry about it."
Honestly, if a little spooking bothers you, get a different breed. Arabs gonna spook. It's a feature.
After lunch, Bird decided he was done looking at Bailey Jo no matter what direction she came from, no matter how she bombed out of the shrubbery, no matter. He was "Ok, dog wears clothing. It's cool." and then he was done looking at her. Good boy, Birb.
So that, also was nice. Truck ran well, we got home safe, everything was fine. All in all, it was a nice outing despite Remy and Remy's Mom.
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Date: 2023-06-10 03:26 am (UTC)I hate when people don't have trail manners. Last time I went, the people behind us made Tess so mad she kicked a little once.
lol Bird is right, though, dogs shouldn't wear clothes.