Missing Ground

[Bob Landry]

My G3 & trailer are salt water babies, and I'm gradually getting all the issues under control. A buddy picked my boat and trailer up a week or so ago to do a carb job on the motor and as he was pulling off, I noticed one of the trailer lights wasn't working. I went out yesterday and was going to change light bulbs, but both light assemblies were eaten up with corrosion, so off to my local trailer shop I go. I replaced both light assemblies and tried to test them and had no lights at all, license plate, turn, brake...
Looking back, I plugged the harness into the truck's plug without having the trailer hooked to the truck. With everything dead, I assume I'm missing a ground somewhere, so my question for the trailer/electrical gurus, is it a usual practice to not have ground hard wired to the trailer frame and depend on picking it up through the hitch? I'm going to go back tomorrow and hard wire a ground from the plug to the trailer frame.

 

[richg99]

" is it a usual practice to not have ground hard wired to the trailer frame and depend on picking it up through the hitch? "

Not all that unusual, unfortunately. You may have a white wire coming out of the connection at the front of the trailer. See if the "loose" end is grounded solidly to your frame, first. R

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

Is it a tilt trailer? The tilt can interfere with the proper grounding.
I like running a white ground wire to each light.

 

[Bob Landry]

No, it's not a tilt trailer. I wired the light assemblies that way they were and the ground wire on each light is held against the frame which is galvanized. That doesn't look like the best grounding system. I'll go out tomorrow and fish wires back to the lights and do a proper connection. I used butt connectors and put silicone on them to seal against moisture, but I don't like hat either. I'll redo them with soler and heat shrink. I needed a project for tomorrow anyway. I do a lot of marine wiring and I've never seen a setup done like this. I've never been a fan of depending on a metal chassis to provide a reliable ground.