Can All Trailer Wiring Functions Ground to Same Location

Updated 09/18/2019 | Published 09/17/2019

Question:

I had trouble getting my new lights to work on a hand-me-down, old tilt trailer so to quickly determine if it was a grounding issue, I connected the trailer light ground wire directly to the harness ground wire. In result, only the brake lights work and blink when the brake pedal is not depressed. So my question is, is it OK to directly connect the light system ground from the trailer to the trailer side wiring harness ground? Or should they be grounded separately?

asked by: Brandon

Expert Reply:

Hey Brandon, so it's perfectly okay to ground all of the trailer lighting functions to the same place. Most of the time to the frame is fine, but on a dump trailer like yours we find that you have to run a wire from the lights to the main ground of the harness as the frame connection isn't as solid due to the dump mechanism/hinge.

Let me know if that works and also if you are still having issues with the blinkers only working when the brake is not depressed.

I also attached a help article on trailer wiring troubleshooting for you to check out as well.

expert reply by: Jameson C