Trailer ground question

VortecJeep

VortecJeep

Powered by Uranium-235
Joined
Aug 24, 2005
Location
Concord, NC
Last fall my lights and brakes on the trailer wouldn’t work. I found 2 bad grounds, one at a light and one at the breakaway battery box. So I took the grinder and removed paint, used a new screw and a new ring lug in both locations, and it worked great. I hit it with spray paint so it wouldn’t rust. Now I have the same issue again with lights and brakes.

What is the best way to run the wiring to ground on a trailer and it not crap out after a few months?
 
Coat it all with dialectic grease instead of paint then try to put a little rubber boot over the end of the cable?
 
The bets and permanent solution is a true electrical ground instead of a chassis ground.
 
VortecJeep said:
As in run back to battery negative on the truck?
Click to expand...
Yes.
If you think about an automotive dc circuit the standard config:
is a positive wire off the battery ran to loads.
A negative wire off the battery tied to the frame.
The negative side of the loads tied into the frame.
You are dependent on 2 connections to the frame and then have the potential for umpteen different inputs to alter the path.

If instead you run two wires from the battery to the load. Then you are not dependent on the groudn connections or mounting screws or rust or all sorts of other BS.
On a trailer its more complex. Lots of times the (-) on the trailer is dependent on the ball to coupler. Or the trailer side of the 7 pin being grounded to the trailer frame.

What I do on my trailers is run the (-) from the 7 pin not only to the frame but also to a sealed terminal strip inside a box and then run a true electrical ground from that terminal strip to my loads. Just have to be careful if you buy replacement lights and get wone with an actual pigtail and not that uses the body as the (-) connection
 
Back
Top