I FINALLY realized what I did!!! .
As trailer lights always fail sooner or later, I wanted to keep these new lights out of the water, I did not mount them in their usual spot.
Yeah, so finally ,, late last night...it dawned on me (as this should have been very simple, it was CONSTANTLY on my mind). The ground on the truck was rock solid, the ground on the trailer behind the hitch was SOLID.........BUT, I neglected to ground the tail-lights.
I took for granted that the tail-lights when mounted in their normal location receive their ground from the mounting screws..(when you actually screw them onto the trailer)...but seeing as how they were not mounted to the trailer...there was,,......
no ground....
Because I had purchased all-new trailer lights and wiring, I foolishly placed my worries on my truck as I had not trailer-ed anything with it yet, the lights did intermittently work...and all the stuff was new.....so I thought my truck was hosing me up.
Nothing like a good K.I.S.S. to whack you up side the head.
Thanks for all your replies - hope this is helpful to someone else sometime.
__________________________________________________ __
Keeping on track with "Lights"....
Is it true that because my boat has a motor...I still have to have running lights on it? The red/green combo as well as the 18" sky-light?.....even if it's only 13 feet????.....fireXting, flares, yada, yada....dang, and I thought I'd be exempt from all that stuff.....where am I going to put all my FISH now????????