Trailer Wiring - White wire

[schinkr1]

I just started having problems with all my lights not staying on...coming on when I hit a bump, then going out, etc. All the posts I read on here say to check the white wire (ground).

My white wire is coiled around the plug and not connected to anything. It has always been that way. Never had a problem and always thought it was just for an extra accessory. Does that make any sense at all? I would think it would never work. Checked every place the wires go through the frame and they all look great, but still having intermittent problems.

[21XDC]

You need to hook the white wire up like the diagram... Right now your trailer is trying to ground through the ball hitch. Thats not good enough.

[mt72916]

The white wire is to insure that you have a good ground. It should be connected to the truck frame on the truck side and to the trailer frame on the trailer side. Some people fail to hook the white up ad depend on the trailer ball to make the ground connection to the truck which sometimes causes problems. If you still have troubles after repairing that try cleaning the corrosion from the light receptacles and connections and make sure that you do not have a intermittant filliment connection inside the light bulb.

[schinkr1]

Great info. Will definetly hook it up and thanks for explaining why it was working before. I was 99% sure it was never attached, but started to doubt myself thinking it couldn't work without the ground.

Thanks!