Can a Stainless Steel Stud be Used as the Ground Stud on Optronics LED Clearance Light

Updated 06/17/2020 | Published 05/12/2015

Question:

I have installed the LED Marker Lights on my boat trailer. These lights ground through the mounting stud. One of the lights stopped working and I then broke the mounting stud trying to snug it up tighter. I replaced the mounting stud with a stainless steel stud and I cannot get it to work. Do the properties of a stainless steel stud inhibit it from providing a good ground? Should I use some other type of metal stud for grounding?

asked by: Conor G

Helpful Expert Reply:

Using stainless steel instead of regular steel for the stud on clearance light # MCL95RB would be fine. But what you can do to help the ground is attach a wire with ring terminal between the stud and where it makes contact with the trailer frame and then run the other end of that wire to the main trailer connector ground location. And if that doesn't work then there may be something internally wrong with the light.

expert reply by: Michael H

Scott M.

6/14/2020

I'm mounting work light to a stainless steel bracket. The previous lights were not on the bracket. Now the LED lights aren't working I attached a ground to the mounting bolt. Still no power could this be due to the ground making contact with the stainless

Chris R.

6/17/2020

Stainless steel should provide a good enough ground, but it wouldn't hurt to try and run the ground further up the trailer to a different bare metal surface to see if this resolves the issue. Let me know if the light still doesn't work and we can keep troubleshooting.