So today, I pulled into my parking spot at work, and a guy followed up behind me and told me my drivers brake light wasn't working. I thanked him, especially since I've been pulled over 2 times in the last month for stupid things like that... so on my way home, I bought all new stop/turn signal bulbs. replaced them all... still no brake light.

<Scratch head>

swap bulb socket for the one that works out of the other tail light.. still not working

<More head scratching>

I knew someone had wired this up to pull behind a camper at one point.. so I pulled up the spliced wires going to the tail light and there is some sort of box..

<AHA! Moment..>

Removed box, spliced original wires back together and pulled all the wires out that were run for the pull behind...

What a mess. And yes, that IS an extension cord they used..But, the problem is resolved and I wont be getting a ticket!

 

I thought I had seen it all when I saw a trailer wired up with electrical wire from a house.....

 

Leave it to 'self engineering' to come up with some pretty innovative solutions. So far that's the only one I've seen on here, except for the tow bracket that is WELDED to the bumper brackets. One day I will get that taken care of too...until then I figure it's just extra protection or a good pull point if I get stuck or pulling someone out.

 

@mvoss, Have you figured out what the little black box is? A light controller maybe? I know when you add trailer lights the flasher has to be replaced with a heavy duty,Maybe it's an electronic soution?
Oh, btw..good catch....

 

That's NICE! It is probably one of those "universal" switching systems from Hoppy or some other company that was used before they decided to switch to the plug and play units. I remember my distributor tried to sell me one of those kits when I put a hitch and wiring on my wifes 2010 Liberty so we could attempt to pull one of our boats with it. I reluctantly said no due to these "failure" components and nonetheless, the Liberty didn't have the power to pull the boat anyways. But I have to admit... I have pulled "extension cords" out of a number of cars including one of late that they used to power a 1000 watt mono block amplifier!

 

Nope, I have no idea what it was.. and at this point, I don't care. It's out of the Durango and not causing anymore problems. I'm sure it was some sort of relay or something.

Thanks!

 

the little black box is probally your standard trailer light controler to take seperate brake and signal lights and have it combined to work from one bulb.

 

The Durangos have a seperate turn signal bulb and brake bulb. Trailers and some cars use the same bulb for turning and braking. That is what this box is for, it combines the turn signal and brakes into one unit without disturbing anything on the Durango.

 

Yeah, I get it. Leave the Durango lights alone and let the controller run the trailer
stop/turn combo...