How to Ground Lights When Re-Wiring Aluminum Frame Snowmobile Trailer

Question:

Rebuilding an aluminum 2 place clamshell snowmobile trailer. Think it’s around year 2001, wiring is shot, and looks like it was horribly done from the factory on top of that scotch locks, etc Bought about everything through you guys, just have the wiring left to do. Any trailer I’ve done in the past I ground in the front near the tongue with the short length of white wire that normally comes on a 4 flat plug, then the lights get grounded individually with a self tapper through an eyelet, or through the light stud, to the trailer. Is this fine on an aluminum tilt deck trailer? Didn’t think anything of it until I started reading about some people having issues on aluminum, especially tilt deck trailers, and having to run a dedicated loop of ground wire through every light back to the tongue. Is this actually necessary? Thanks, look forward to continuing business with you.

asked by: Dave

Expert Reply:

Although it may not be absolutely necessary, aluminum does not conduct well so running the ground wire to your aluminum frame is not recommended. Instead, you can use # DW02359-1 to run individual ground wires for each light up to your main ground wire at the tongue of your trailer. This will keep everything working properly and prevent the wide range of issues a bad ground can cause.

expert reply by: Robin H