True Ground?

[UncleWillie]

Re: True Ground?

... The 4 wire connector wasn't 4 wires, it had no white wire coming out of it. It wasn't cut off either, the connector was molded with only 3. It relied on a hitch ground, which worked marginally well at best...

Anything to save a penny!

Even if it looked like it was working while you were parked, I can just imagine all the flickering that was going on as you bounced down the road.
And, the driver would probably never know it was flickering!

 

[smokeonthewater]

Re: True Ground?

wow I look away for a few hours and all the theory mumbo jumbo comes out......... Lets save all the theory stuff for AFTER the O/P gets the prob figured out....
ps, not pointing at any one person, just wanting to keep things as simple as possible till he gets it fixed

 

[BlueLightSpecial]

Re: True Ground?

wow I look away for a few hours and all the theory mumbo jumbo comes out......... Lets save all the theory stuff for AFTER the O/P gets the prob figured out....
ps, not pointing at any one person, just wanting to keep things as simple as possible till he gets it fixed

I couldnt agree more! 9mm, personally I would use jumper cables to rule out the towed vehicle/trailer plug. If no change, then I would run wires from each light, to where you attached the whit ground wire to the trailer tongue. Some light assemblies have dedicated ground wires, some ground through the mounting stud. On assemblies that ground through the mounting stud, I would still attach a wire to the mounting stud, on each light, and run it to the white wire on the tongue. Things to remember. Always attach to clean metal, protect the connection with dielectric grease, and most trailer lighting issues are almost always a ground issue. One more piece of advice; never use scotch locks to tap in to a trailer wire. Some manufacturers will use these, and they last about a month. They dont seal for squat, and arent worth the aggrivation. Good luck, hope this helps you out.

 

[jeeperman]

Re: True Ground?

Jeeperman, I have not tested this with my meter but it does work with my other trailer and I am not going to change my set up on my vehicle to accomodiate this trailer which I will only haul 5-6 times a year.

But you can confirm if the trailer side of the connector might be bad. Or the ground socket in the connector is corroded or a tad too big. Or the white wire on that side was not properly soldered/crimped to the ground socket.
If any of the above is present, it does not matter how well you have that white wire grounded to the trailer.

 

[scrit9mm]

Re: True Ground?

fairly aggravated with this issue so I only spent a couple min on it last night, put the final coat of paint on the boat instead! I will tackle it Saturday morning, starting with the jumper cable from trailer to vehicle, then cleaning the contact for the white ground wire on the trailer, then cleaning the contacts where both the lights mount on the back of the trailer and the side marker lights.

Hopefully one or all of these will solve the problem.

 

[etracer68]

Re: True Ground?

To answer your question, Yes. If your lights dont have a white ground wire coming out with the rest of the wires, then the studs are the ground.

 

[scrit9mm]

Re: True Ground?

To answer your question, Yes. If your lights dont have a white ground wire coming out with the rest of the wires, then the studs are the ground.

There is one, single white wire coming from the plug end of the wiring harness for the trailer. It is about 12" long. That is the only white wire in the trailer wiring harness.

 

[etracer68]

Re: True Ground?

Im refering to the light assemibly its self, not the wire harness.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: True Ground?

wow I look away for a few hours and all the theory mumbo jumbo

Are you the theory mumbo jumbo police now?

 

[smokeonthewater]

Re: True Ground?

LOL.............maybe

As you well know we get this same basic question about once every week or two and the answer is just about always the same....
It's pretty much always much more simple than the O/P's think it is. Plain and simple, first we identify the path that the electricity must take and second we find the break in the path..... should not take more than a couple minutes once the problem/process is understood.

 

[scrit9mm]

Re: True Ground?

I hate to beat a dead horse with this topic but all the responses are greatly appreciated!

 

[smokeonthewater]

Re: True Ground?

Don't sweat it.... we'll get ya fixed up.

 

[cyclops2]

Re: True Ground?

Trailers DO HAVE A TOUGH ELECTRICAL life. That is proven by so many posts about them constantly.

Non of you are doing anything wrong. Especially if you get a used one.

Hell. I redo mine asbout every 10 to 15 years.............No more problems any more though. I have mounted a outdoor Aluminum box on the trailers, I run 1 piece of electrical wire from each wire of every light on the trailer to the Aluminum box. It has a water resistant gasket. I put labels on each end of the wires in the box. The grounds are all marked with white medical pieces of Adhesive Tape. The signal leads are labeled with functions.I drilled the center out of the threaded plug. Pass all the wires thru the hole. Small blob of left over GE Silicone Rubber seales the hole & spaces between wires.

I first slip on pieces of correct sized shrink wrap tubing. Then solder the wire ends together neatly. Removing all excess solder. Slide the H Shrink over the solder & heatgun them. Has lasted for years.

I also take apart ALL light assemblies SEAL ALL DRAIN HOLES and lay a thick enough bead of the GE rubber down.

They never leak again or burn out bulbs.

I solder & seal the trailer plug wires the same way in the box.

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: True Ground?

This print is as simple as it gets

 

[Texasmark]

Re: True Ground?

This is way off the original topic but Ground can be connected to the positive side of a source as well. Like I said before, ground has nothing to do with the positive or negative terminals of a power source. For example, if you had a circuit such as an amplifier that required plus and minus voltages, the supply powering the minus voltage would have its postive leads connected to ground.

Way back when there were positive ground voltage systems in some cars. Ground is just relative to other voltages and that's it.

back to the topic on hand...don't run seperate grounds to each light as one poster suggested. That creates more of a nightmare later. KISS...keep it simple stupid...also means no seperate grounds.

Well Bruce baby, things now-a-days are - referenced.....we have progressed from the Germanium Transistor.....but you knew that!!!!!!

 

[Texasmark]

Re: True Ground?

I plugged this into a thread on a tractor site with the same question.......let's get to basics!!!!!!! O kaye?

Let's say I have an "ipod" in my hand and I am a person standing on my own two feet unassisted!!!!!!!

Question asked is what is the definition of "true ground"? Well for the ipod, true ground for this portable device which you are holding in your hand happens to be nothing more than the - terminal of the battery powering it....just as the - terminal of the battery of your mobile vehicle is it's true ground.....why can't people understand that??????

Mark

 

[bruceb58]

Re: True Ground?

we have progressed from the Germanium Transistor.....but you knew that!!!!!!

Uh...whatever that is supposed to mean!

A PC power supply, for example, puts out +12, +5, +3.3 and -12V(used for serial ports). Please explain your theory about the minus side of the supply being ground when referring to the -12V source. In actuallity the postive side of the -12V supply is connected to the total power supply ground.

For some reason I thought you had a background in electronics. I guess I was mistaken.

Curious, have you heard of positive ground automobiles? Many British cars were produced that way.

 

[cyclops2]

Re: True Ground?

Germanium is a mineral only found in what country ?? 2 guesses.

It followed a Cats Whisker diode.

 

[smokeonthewater]

Re: True Ground?

Yeah because all this stuff REALLY helps the guy fix his trailer..... :facepalm:

 

[tx1961whaler]

Re: True Ground?

Uh...whatever that is supposed to mean!

A PC power supply, for example, puts out +12, +5, +3.3 and -12V(used for serial ports). Please explain your theory about the minus side of the supply being ground when referring to the -12V source. In actuallity the postive side of the -12V supply is connected to the total power supply ground.

For some reason I thought you had a background in electronics. I guess I was mistaken.

Curious, have you heard of positive ground automobiles? Many British cars were produced that way.

Telecom systems are typically a "-48 volt" system. The positive terminals of the batteries and rectifiers are connected to earth ground. Not that this has anything to do with trailer lights either....