So I have a very small, borderline makeshift motorcycle trailer I use to pull my sportbike to the track. I bought it off of a close friend and never had an issue with it all this year. This past Saturday I went to help a friend haul something and all the sudden, no lights. Everyone I asked kept saying "Check the ground"--I checked everything and it all looked ok, then just to be safe I took my test light to the plug coming from the car--I had a good ground on the frame underneath and got nothing when I checked the trailer plug--finally it started down pouring and I left it right there.

 

Later I called the motorcycle dealer who still has my bike for a recall and asked him about it--he said he'd fix it but he's almost positive I blew a fuse. Just find the fuse, it should say "trailer fuse" and replace it. So I look around under neath and find that triangular fuse box--and find everything BUT the trailer fuse!!  

 

Any idea where it's allocation is?? This is driving me nuts--converted my streetbike to a full race bike, can't fix trailer lights. Unbelievable. 

I've never heard of a "trailer fuse"

 

Ussually....the trailer lighting is run through a box to convert the seperate Brake/turn signals of the car into the combined bright filament of the trailer lighting..

 

Basically a relay and diode set to isolate the 2 circuits and prevent the cars amber turnsignals from lighting with the brakes.

 

Now, since the late 90's Subaru has gone one better and installed SEPERATELY powered converters......that require a "hot" wire to the box and on;y use the lighting circuits as a trigger.  There could be a Fuse for that wire that has gone out.

 

That box itself should be plugged into the harness ussually behind the driver side tail light.  You could check it to make sure it's connected still.

 

I would check in the owners manual for fuse location and trailer infomation. 

 

*note* if your hitch and converter are not from subaru but u-haul or somewhere else......the info above will be inaccurate....those places ussually install a simple converter without it's own power......those suck as they overload the stock lighting cicuits....and the longer the trailer the dimmer the lights will be due to the volt drop of the long circuit.

Thanks for the info. Yes I had the hitch installed by a 3rd party trailer place and it's definitely not Subaru genuine. THAT is my only mistake leasing this car, totally skipped my mind to have that done by them when I picked up the car. I should have worked that into the price and had it done when I left the dealer. 

 

I haven't noticed any light dimming or anything but the longest it ever goes is less than 3 hrs. I guess being it's a lease I will bring it to service and see what they can do before I get in there and fiddle around. Maybe I will even see what it costs for them to due a proper wiring harness.

 

I gotta think that's the problem and not the trailer since I'm not getting a sign of life from the test light on the plug of the harness connected to the car.

I mean dimming from a longer wiring distance length, not time.

 

If the trailer is 8 ft long......the wiring distance that the electricity has to travel through becomes a 40+ long circuit....to get back to the battery.

 

The longer the wire, the more resistance, the more the volt drop. 

 

The factory subaru converter box will just plug in to the wiring for the tailights....and has a seperately powered cicuit fromt eh battery......still long circuit but it's built with a heavier gauge wire so there is less resistance and it doesn't draw extra power through the cars tailight/turn/brake cicuits.

 

You should be fine to keep the aftermarket hitch....but I would go to subaru and buy their converter box....you should be able to install it yourself easily.

 

However....I am not positive......haven't actually looked at a Crosstreks trailer setup just going off of subaru's typical setup.