Installing LED Clearance Lights With 2 Wires

Updated 01/31/2025 | Published 08/23/2018

Products Featured in This Question

Optronics LED Trailer Clearance and Side Marker Light w/ Reflex Reflector - 6 Diodes - Amber Lens

(4181)

$13.72

LED Trailer Clearance or Side Marker Light w/ Reflex Reflector - 3 Diodes - White Base - Red Lens

(4181)

$6.55

Question:

The led marker lights I just bought have 1 red wire and 1 black wire. How would these hook to standard trailer wiring?

asked by: Brian C

Expert Reply:

Two-wire LED clearance lights such as the Red # MCL32RB or the Amber # MCL44AB have one wire for the power lead and one ground wire. The wire that was attached to your old clearance lights will be spliced to the power wire of your new lights. The black is power and white is ground for these lights.

If you take a look at the video I have linked you can see how these lights are installed. I have also attached a couple of links to help articles on trailer wiring which you should find useful.

expert reply by: Kyle S

Jake

1/31/2025

I'm trying to wire a 2 wire (black/red) 6in led's as turn signals. I have them blinking but after I turn the turn signal off the led stays lit but doesn't blink. I wired the red wire to my vehicle turn signal but don't know where the black wire needs to go? HELP!!!!

Jon G.

1/31/2025

@Jake Generally, if an LED light has a red wire and a black wire one of them is for the stop/turn function and the other is for the running function. In this case the light grounds through the hardware. The only time I normally see standalone red and black wires with no traditional ground (white wire or grounding through mounting hardware) is in the case of a backup camera - and in that scenario red is power and black is ground. If you can let me know what LED light you have I can see if we have any info on what the wiring configuration is for it!

Jake

1/31/2025

@JonG Thanks Jon I'll have to go outside and see if the lights have a name on them. I may have thrown the box away thinking 2 wire connection shouldn't be that difficult

Jake

1/31/2025

@Jake the red wire is connected to the signal light and flashing but putting the black wire to ground has no effect unless it's connected to a power source like the battery which makes it stay on?