I plugged a trailer into my truck's rv7 connector and found the trailer lights don't work. Check out the trailer. All's OK. Checked out the truck (2003 F250 used purchase) and found the common ground spade is 700 ohms from the chassis. Seems like it should be zero ohms
If I connect the truck and trailer chassis with a jumper the trailer lights work OK.
Where does the common ground spade get connected to the chassis? Is there a harness break?
best regards Simon Shabtai Evan
no idea
why not just find that wire on the back of the truck connector and run a new ground wire to the frame ?
On my trailer, the lights aren't even grounded to the wiring anyway. They're grounded to the trailer frame, and they have to seek vehicle ground back through the ball. As a result, sometimes they do go out, but they always come back on in a fraction of a second.
I know that's not helpful if you actually need your ground spade to work. I guess I just couldn't shut up.
The hitch ball is NEVER a good ground. I think you'll find that while your lights are grounded to the frame, the frame it then grounded to a ground wire in the pigtail to the truck. AND your truck plug should include a ground to the truck frame. I'll bet I've fixed hundreds of peoples trailer light problems by putting a PROPER ground on them. To repeat, the hitch ball should NEVER be relied on to be a ground.
Steve
very bad idea
Yes. this would work. I was just hoping to restore the wiring to the factory level. Thanks all.
ah, the old 'factory-condition' vs 'what works'
while 'restoring' the wiring to 'factory spec' is a noble, nay, a gloriously blessed goal (in fact, some would have you believe that it leads to beatification, canonization, and ultimately sainthood, especially amongst the inhabitants of the 'vintage electronics' groups); one must ask oneself: if 'factory was so 'good', why doesn't it work at this point ?
or, as my dear old Dad used to say ...'Why the hell do you spend so much time in the bathr.'........no wait, that was another subject...
what he said was; 'good enough is good enough, perfect is a pain in the ass and not worth the effort; just fix the damned lights on the f*cking trailer before you take that thing on the road'
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