Troubleshooting Ground Problem On Trailer

Question:

Hello, i ran a new wire harness bought new lights, ran the green and brown down the right side the yellow and red down the left side, color matched my wires to harness from the light and secured, my trailer is aluminum my ground wire white is secured to the tongue which is steel. my trailer lights i attached to a steel bracket and fastened securely to wood top frame. I turn my hazards or blinkers on and they are really dim on the left side and nothing on the right side. then just trying to figure it out i put a steel plate from the plate the light is attached to to the aluminum frame and the light goes super bright and works properly but nothing on the right, i do the same thing to the right and nothing works either. what in the heck am i doing wrong...........

asked by: Tim

Expert Reply:

What you describe sounds an awful lot like a ground problem. Aluminum trailers are sometimes finicky about the ground connections, and because you're going from steel to aluminum to wood back to the steel bracket the fact that it doesn't sound like you have a good continuous ground ls likely your problem. In addition to grounding the trailer lamps to the frame, I'd run a continuous jumper back to the main ground on the trailer tongue. This way, everything is tied together for certain. I'll link you to a couple of our trailer wiring help articles.

expert reply by: Mike L