Wiring Comments for Trailers

[fzsk4p]

One comment I`d like to make. Bad grounds are the root of electrical evil.

In most cases a trailer has 1 ground wire that all the lights get spliced into.

When I wired up my trailer I ran a separate ground wire for EACH light, tail and side markers. 4 ground wires. These 4 wires were bundled up at the tongue and then a single wire to the harness connector.

In addition GM Weather Pack connectors were used at each light. Solid, waterproof connection. I also use Weather Paks for on board power connections, lights etc.

Weather Pak can be had at a GOOD auto parts store. Napa has them. The chain auto parts stores will not. Ebay, WayTek Wire or online.

Anything you need to wire and connect can use the Weather Paks.

Example.
http://www.weatherpack.com/
http://order.waytekwire.com/cgi-bin...50+FUNCPARMS+WEBCMP(S0020):01+WEBID(S0020):01

Another handy item is the Cooper Busmann power center.
http://www.bussmann.com/library/news/RTMR.PDF

 

[nat]

Those are some good websites, thanks!

 

[INSAYN]

When I wired up my trailer this spring I focused hard on keeping the grounds from being an easy weak link.

I first ran my wires through the one of the V arms of the tongue and doesn't exit until it is under the body of the trailer, on top of the V, and clearly out of harms way. In the 3rd picture below, you can just see where the left side V extends under the nose of the box and is visible about a foot in front of the fender.

This is also where all the wires come out of the V arm and transfer from there to the main 2"x3" boxed frame. The wire protrusions are protected with rubber accordion grommets that I pulled from the door jams of a small car in the junk yard.

The main ground wire exits the V and is now attached to the frame a this point this far back on the trailer, and the stop/turn/tail wires continue back into the frame. I didn't want to have the ground wire attachment anywhere near the busy tongue area, as it would surely get broken more than once.

Now to secure the ground to the frame, I merely welded a bolt upside down to the frame, added a SS washer, copper washer, the wire terminal, copper washer, SS lock washer, and a SS Nyloc nut. All of this was generously coated with dielectric grease before tightening it all down. This is the ONLY exposed ground connection on the trailer.

The tail lights are LED and I did the same thing with their ground wires, only I welded said bolt inside each of the light buckets. The light buckets themselves are fully welded to the frame sealing them at that end. The frame is fully welded closed as well. No holes were made in the frame anywhere to attach anything to it. It was either welded directly on, or the part is bolted to a gusset that is welded to the frame itself. I wanted to preserve the integrity of the frame without making it a pin cushion.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of individual details. This part of my trailer build got lost when my computer hard drive died this summer.

The trailer is still a work in progress. :coffeedrink:

 

[STREGA]

So true. Back when I was a motorcycle mechanic I saw thousands of dollars of damaged done because of bad grounds. The first thing to always look for when there is a electrical issue is if there is a good ground.