My electrical stupidity!

[statdoc]

I have a personal watercraft that I tow to launch with my X5. The lights on the trailer stopped working. I found that the power to the hitch outlet was fine, but the bulbs would not light on the trailer. I decided I would replace the lights (didn't really like the old ones, anyway), but the new ones didn't work, either. I struggled with a voltmeter, bought a new wiring harness, and all sorts of efforts, all to no avail.

Then, a guy doing some handyman work at my house walked up and asked what I was doing. I revealed my frustration. He then said, "Isn't this ground wire supposed to be attached to something?"

They work fine now. Sometimes it helps to have a new set of eyes look at a problem.

[rayxi]

Many things that are "mysteriously" broken have a very simple solution. The hard part isn't fixing it, it's finding what's broken.

[PersonaNonGrata]

I have often "fixed" many a problem with brute force when a simple solution would have sufficed. Pry bar, hammer, drill, blow torch, duct tape: problem solved.