Why Must the RedArc Be Grounded to The Battery Rather than Grounding to Chassis?

Updated 03/30/2020 | Published 03/28/2020

Question:

Tow vehicle battery is grounded to chassis, why necessary to run quick disconnect ground all the way to battery, why not run the quick disconnect ground wire to the chassis near the trailer hitch?? And same on trailer side, just a short wire from the quick disconnect to the trailer chassis? Saves a lot of expensive 6 gauge wire?

asked by: George K

Helpful Expert Reply:

I understand the reasoning behind this and I actually installed the first one that way and didn't get the results we wanted. It makes sense to save the expense of the wire and use the chassis. The reason you must run the wire full length is so the current can free flow and give accurate readings to the Redarc In-Vehicle BCDC Battery Charger part # 331-BCDC1225D.

The RedArc products are the best in the industry at making these work everytime and to do that the BCDC needs to have dead accurate information and with there being several sources connected to the same ground (the chassis) the information will not be accurate and the system won't work optimally.

expert reply by: Randy B