how does one ground a trailer

Anything electric, AC or DC

how does one ground a trailer

Postby Ron Dickey » Wed Dec 01, 2004 2:46 pm

I hear the frame but are there others ... has anyone attached a wire that is sheathed and stuck it in the ground where it is parked ....I guess you would need a flag to remember it is there. Or attach it to one of the stabelizer jack

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Postby Chuck Craven » Wed Dec 01, 2004 6:16 pm

Trailer grounding is an electrical ground to the frame of the trailer. For the AC power coming from shore power the green ground wire should go to the frame as well as to all the outlets or equipment being powered. But some thing that are portable like coffee pots and frying pans do not need a three pin power plug but the outlets do have to be ground common and GFI protected.
For the 12v battery, the negative lead of the battery should go to the trailer frame.
Some people will wire the negative lead and the negative side of every thing that runs off the battery to the frame. As they use the frame to shorten up the wiring. But if you run all the negative wires to one junction point that point should have a wire going to the frame also. It is for safety. You do not have to pound a ground rod in and connect it to the frame. Some Ham Radio operators that run radios out of there campers / motor homes do hammer in a 3 to 5 foot ground rod but it is for the RF transmitted signal and lighting protection for the antennas that they are using. Do I have you :?

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Postby mikeschn » Thu Dec 02, 2004 4:10 pm

In a word... "run the black wire from the battery to the trailer" Attach it with a screw, and you are grounded!!! , yea, just like Chuck said up there!!!

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Postby Ron Dickey » Thu Dec 02, 2004 8:53 pm

Dumb to dumber question ....

Let us say that we find a electric frying pan in a garage sale .... She is cooking eggs it shortsout just as lazy Ron is getting up ..... puts his feet on the ground as he leans of the metal fender :oops:

shouldn't something be touching the ground a draging copper wire :? so it reduces the possiblies

How do I make these emoticons picture appear on the script all I see is oop and a ? do I need to click on disable smiles? ... Oh it showed up after I hit submit
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Postby Chuck Craven » Thu Dec 02, 2004 9:13 pm

Ron Dickey wrote:Dumb to dumber question ....

Let us say that we find a electric frying pan in a garage sale .... She is cooking eggs it shortsout just as lazy Ron turns in to tost.


:lol: Well Ron's not so lazy now. I beat he is moving real fast!
:x
That is what the GFI outlet is for. It stops the flow of electricity when there is current in the ground circuit.

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Postby Big Guy with a Little Guy » Thu Dec 02, 2004 10:35 pm

Ron:

Grounding in this case refers strictly to completing the circuit to the negative battery terminal. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Earth.

Now, if you are talking about grounding A/C appliances that are plugged into commercial power, that's a different matter, but it still has nothing to do with the Earth, at least as far as your trailer is concerned. The A/C power source should be properly grounded, but that's the concern of the contractor who installed the power outlet.
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If you want to be sure

Postby David Alston » Thu Mar 17, 2005 12:37 pm

I have a device that tests the electrical circuit to make sure it is grounded. I bought it at home depot for very little money. It has 3 LED's that light up in a pattern to show if you have an open ground, an open neutral an open hot, reversed hot and ground, a reversed hot and neutral. You just plug it into an outlet on the trailer after you've hooked up the shore power and it tells you if it's okay.
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Postby mikeschn » Thu Mar 17, 2005 12:50 pm

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