trailer wiring

I am going to replace the lights and wiring of my old trailer. The existing wiring is still good except the plug in is gone. I was wondering if it might be better to use this old wiring as a ground versus using the trailer body as a ground. Most trailer lighting issues occur due to a bad ground, so wouldn’t a direct ground be better? Thoughts?

Thanks

Yes, yes, yes. Absolutely! I’ve always ran a designated “ground” wire right back to the light assemblies and that has eliminated a lot of problems over the years. Good idea and worth the effort.

Rootski

Solder and heat shrink every connection. I’m so paranoid that I even solder my crimp on terminals. Unless a critter gets in and chews off the insulation, I very-very seldom have a wiring problem jerr

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Solder and heat shrink every connection. I’m so paranoid that I even solder my crimp on terminals. Unless a critter gets in and chews off the insulation, I very-very seldom have a wiring problem jerr

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I always seem to have problems with soldering wiring. Any tricks and any particular method to soldering?

Always use a really hot iron, the right size for the job, and always tin your wires first. Tinning rusty or corroded wires is difficult so if you’re having issues tinning you may need new wire.

All purpose solder should be fine for trailer wiring.

And don’t forget to slide the heat shrink on before soldering… been there, done that.

It helps to clean the wires up first. Either scrape them with a knife or use sand paper and get them shiny. As mentioned above, use enough heat. And finally DON’T use acid core flux. Acid is fine for plumbing but not for wiring. Use rosin core.