trailer grounding

-
M

moe7404

moe7404
Joined
Dec 14, 2012
Messages
688
Reaction score
106
Location
wichita, ks
after seeing smittys post on grounding it reminded me of my grounding trouble on a trailer. have a trailer with a big box. and 14 or 16 lights. with a 4 wire connector. and taking 100 hours putting the lights on, it seemed like. side note here, why on earth some one uses a white wire as a ground wire? anyway, with it hooked to the truck they was not bright enough. so you have 3 16 ga wires going to 14-16 lights. and the white ground ( return ) is 16 ga to. yep you figured it out. so a separate 12 ga wire fixed the trouble. gronding truck frame to the trailer frame, in addtion to the 3 wire setup. the big hint was that a good 6 amp battery charger isolating the truck volts and ground, did not fix the trouble.
 
Guess you don't do much "house wiring" LOL. White is nearly always neutral, not hot. Black is never ground.

You have 'lectric brakes? No surprise, that no 16 is too small
 
well all of the auto grounding and most other things i have seen is black. my RC cars, the battery. so why is trailer wired like a house? i have done electronics , computer, network ect school 2 year. i guess some people want their system like they want it. after all remember the electrons do know the wire color. LOL LOL LOL. but what color is the BIT BUCKET should be? LOL LOL LOL.
 
It's actually not really wired like a house, but an RV. (close though)
Pretty much all motorhomes, campers and trailers use that color code.
 
Well there are plenty of automotive factory harnesses where black ain't ground LOL

I guess the point I was trying for is "don't take things for granted."
 
TrailBeast said:
It's actually not really wired like a house, but an RV. (close though)
Pretty much all motorhomes, campers and trailers use that color code.
Click to expand...

True, true... But why they don't differentiate between 12v systems and 110v systems is beyond me. My Lance camper has white and black wires going to the battery and that is about the dumbest thing I had ever seen. Black to hot on a 12v system??? Never.

Once you get used to it... it still sucks :D
 
ab7fh said:
True, true... But why they don't differentiate between 12v systems and 110v systems is beyond me. My Lance camper has white and black wires going to the battery and that is about the dumbest thing I had ever seen. Black to hot on a 12v system??? Never.

Once you get used to it... it still sucks :D
Click to expand...

I almost mentioned that black is positive in RV's and trailers, but figured I'd let it go.:D
And yes, it does suck.
 
Personally I'd like to see this "standardized" across the board. Seems to me that since houses pretty much outlast vehicles (most of the time) it would make more sense to lean towards the house wiring standard

Let's talk about RV's and trailers.........why would you want to run into a 120/ 240 circuit, not realizing that "the rest of the rig" uses black for the 12V ground? That might be an "enLIGHTening" experience LOL
 
65cuda360 said:
Most trailers will ground through the hitch.
Click to expand...

They do, but if you want a good reliable lighting system or are charging anything (Like RV batteries in a fifth wheel or toy hauler while driving) you have to have a good solid ground system.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top