Do 12 Volt Lights that Get Added to Trailer Interior Need to be Grounded

Updated 05/22/2018 | Published 05/19/2018

Question:

I have a 110 volt kit in my enclosed trailer, with 110 volt outlets. I am adding a car battery that I will have hooked up to a trickle charger/maintainer to keep my battery charged while the trailer is sitting during the winter. I am adding a 12volt led light bar to cabinets I am installing to the nose, that will be wired to the battery. This way I have a few lights when camping off the grid. Do I need to ground the 12 system I am installing, as it is new and not part of the oem system? The led lights only have 2 wires in the wire harness. The trickle charger is hooked up to a outlet that is grounded, along with the rest of the 110 volt system. Would that do the trick?

asked by: Joshua C

Expert Reply:

The 12 volt lights that you plan to install will need to be grounded in order to function. You can do this by attaching the ground wire of the lights to the frame of the trailer or you can run them back to the negative post of the battery. Either way though they have to be grounded to function properly.

expert reply by: Jameson C