# How to ground trailer lights



## BigTerp (Jul 30, 2014)

So I finally bit the bullet and bought a complete set of LED lights for my trailer. My old incandescents always seemed to give me fits. From advice in another thread I've decided to run dedicated grounds to each taillight. From what I gathered in that thread I run the white wire from my harness directly to the ground of each taillight and do not attach it to the trailer (like it currently is) and use the trailer for ground. Instead I use my tow vehicles harness for ground. I understand all of this, but got my lights in today and cannot find a ground wire on the lights. I was expecting to see a white wire coming from each light. Where do I connect my ground wire from the harness to?

Back of my lights. Only brown and green/yellow wires. No ground wires






Inside of taillight. I don't think I use any of these for ground either.


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## JoshKeller (Jul 30, 2014)

its grounded through the studs.. Ive always grounded my lights into the trailer, then drilled a hole in the trailer frame, and grounded the boat side of the connector's white wire directly to the hole in the trailer. never had any issues.


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## lckstckn2smknbrls (Jul 30, 2014)

Buy a package of ring terminals that fit the wire your using for the ground and the mounting stud of the light and some more nuts. After you mount the light put the ring terminal with the wire crimped on onto the stud and another nut.


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## BigTerp (Jul 30, 2014)

Thanks!!

So if I want to ground directly to my lights i'll need to run my ground (white) write from the harness directly to one of the mounting studs on each light?

I


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## rusty503 (Jul 30, 2014)

Yes


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## BigTerp (Jul 31, 2014)

HA!! Thanks again Rusty!!


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## PSG-1 (Aug 2, 2014)

You don't have to run all the way up to the white wire of your harness. Just a long enough piece of wire to go from the light mounting stud to a nearby part of your trailer frame that is grounded. Put a large ring terminal at one end for the stud, and then a smaller one at the other end for a screw to attach to your trailer frame. BTW, instead of trying to drill the trailer frame with a drill bit .....self-drilling hex-head screws along with a cordless drill are real nice for making these 2 holes!


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## riverbud55 (Aug 2, 2014)

Run a ground wire from the plug to each light along with the other 2 wires for each side, want to save some wire could also run the ground from one light to the other as you could the running light wire ,,,, make no sense to why would a person not just run $2s worth of wire and then spend the time drilling holes, installing nuts and bolts all to fail in time,,, just a half bass way of doing something IMO,,, twist the wires together and solder the joint,, then seal it up with liquid tape,, and then shrink tape.....I have built many a trailer for myself https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=32006 and customers and repaired many more and wouldn't do it any other way cuz I only want to do it once...........seams every time I get a boat/trailer its the same problem with the lights,,, the ground

I luv lites,,lots of them and all problem free


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## riverbud55 (Aug 4, 2014)

look n at the pic see what ya got now,,,,,,take ur grd wire and solder a lug (like used on the inside) on it to go over the hold down mounting bolts,, not the best but will do,,, put a lite grease on the connection ,, helps to keep the water off of it, mite do the same on the inside of all the wire connections


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## BigTerp (Aug 4, 2014)

[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=362238#p362238 said:


> riverbud55 » 10 minutes ago[/url]"]look n at the pic see what ya got now,,,,,,take ur grd wire and solder a lug (like used on the inside) on it to go over the hold down mounting bolts,, not the best but will do,,, put a lite grease on the connection ,, helps to keep the water off of it, mite do the same on the inside of all the wire connections



I think I get what your saying. I have left over tinned, heat shrink w/glue butt connectors and lugs from when I wired my boat. Plan to use those when I can, and solder anywhere else. I plan to take the ground (white wire) from my harness directly back to each light. Using the lug I'll attach the ground wire to the mounting stud of each light. 

Just waiting on my 18AWG tinned wire for my ground to come in.


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## BigTerp (Aug 6, 2014)

Got everything rewired last night. Not to bad of a job. Having tinned, heat shrink connectors with adhesive makes the job easier. Once everything was done I hooked my truck up and only got blinker lights :evil: Checked all my connections and then tested the truck end and no tail lights. Took awhile to figure out which fuse was for my towing tail lights, but I finally found it and it was blown. Picking up a 20amp replacement fuse today and hoping all will be good. The LED stop/turn lights are very bright!! Excited to see how it looks once the marker/tail lights are working.


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## Timtactical (Aug 13, 2014)

I believe that your trailer is grounded so that if one of your feed (12+) wires contacts the trailer with will short the system and pop the fuse. If your trailer is not grounded you will be energizing your trailer with 12-14v of current.


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## BigTerp (Aug 14, 2014)

Thanks. All seems to be good now after replacing 2 fuses. One for my trailer tail lights and one for my passenger side break light. I was having similar problems before I installed the LEDs, so I'm assumming the fuses were already blown. I have both tail lights grounded directly to the white wire of the harness. Hopefully this will be a long term fix. Sick of dealing with trailer light issues!!


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## crazyrwe (Aug 31, 2014)

Yes, I have seen trailers grounding through the ball hitch as well.


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## BigTerp (Sep 2, 2014)

So far so good. Have had the boat out a few times since upgrading the lights. Nice not having to unplug at the ramp. The LEDs are BRIGHT also!!!


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## JoshKeller (Sep 10, 2014)

biggest problem with the old style bulb lights is the bulb gets hot, then dunked into cooler water, then bursts, sometimes popping the fuse as well. LEDS solve just about all light problems if you wire them up properly


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## huntinfool (Sep 11, 2014)

Sounds like you did it all right. Should be worry free for years.


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