You should never do electrical work on a vehicle without disconnecting the battery. Saying that, if you are making these connections correctly you will not blow a fuse. You are doing something wrong.
There are separate fuses for trailer signal lights in main fuse panel
If the truck and trailer are not equiped with air brakes. If the truck and trailer are not comercial vehicals.
yes
Try the tractor with a different trailer, the pig tail is most likely not connecting properly.
Hitch the trailer. Connect the lights. Start your car or truck. Turn the turn signal on. Get out and go behind the trailer. See if they blink. Repeat for the other side.
You'll need a truck that's heavy enough to pull the trailer, equipped with a trailer ball hitch to attach the trailer. You also need to make sure the horse trailer has operating turn signal and brake lights.
That's called a "bobtail".
Take a light tester and check the pins at the truck side trailer plug. With the truck set for running lights check for power at the pins. If there is power then there is a loose or bad wire on the trailer side. If there is no power then there is a power problem on the truck side.
A bobtail truck is a truck that is not carrying anything. It has no trailer or chassis connected. It is usually the tractor part of a semi truck without the trailer. It can also refer to a truck where all of the axles are connected to the same chassis.
If the Avalanche came with the factory trailering package, the trailer lights are separately fused from the other truck lights. Check your fuse panel layout for a 10-amp fuse for left side and a separate fuse for right side turn signal/brake light on the trailer.
This year of truck has a separate circuit for the trailer turn/barke/tail lights. Look under the hood, under the fuse box. Look for the trailer fuses on the fuse directory
It's called a bobtail.