Ground Wire Question

[Capebuild]

Attached is a photo of a junction box in the cabin. These are the wire that come from the tow vehicle via the 7 pin connector. The wires on the bottom come from the TV. The wires on the top travel up through the ceiling in the cabin and will supply the connections to the travel lights (tail lights, marker lights, 3rd brake light, license plate light). The white wire on the right in the photo is the ground wire. When this white wire exits through the ceiling my intent was to run various branches off this ground wire to the various lighting fixtures providing them with the ground. My question is ... is this an "okay" practice, to use this one ground wire, tap into it where necessary to split off to the various lighting fixtures? Or is it better to run individual ground wires from each fixture and run those ground wires back to the junction box. A lot more wiring and work, but if that is a preferred way to do it, I'll do it. I just don't have a feel for this sort of thing.

thank you for the help.

John

[TimC]

John, it sounds like your ground would go to another junction box point where it branches to individual lights. If that point is accessible after finishing your build I would say it is an acceptable method. If not accessible then it might cause problems down the road. Doubtful if you make good connections but possible.

IMO, running dedicated grounds from fixtures to your pictured junction box would be just as reliable as a remote branching point. But it might be a little more messy getting five or six terminals stuffed into that junction box.

[tony.latham]

John:

I'm scratching my head on this one. (Since it's a bit out of the norm.)

Normally, it isn't done this way since the cabin and chassis lights are two different electrical systems.

Assuming your chassis light ground is also connected to your house battery –- and the ground wire is heavy enough to take the combined amp load-- it should work.

I assume all these cabin circuits are fused?

As you may know, each of my electrical appliances are powered by two-wire color-coded cable coming off a fuse box --there's no question the wire gauge size is able to handle the load.





Tony

[Socal Tom]

I used 14G speaker wire for my runs, so both wires ran together. I set a ground junction near the fuse panel to gang those together. Then one wire went from there to the battery. The Battery is also grounded to the frame. The TV ground runs to the frame and the battery. I've grounded a couple of clearance lights to the frame, but other wise everything is ground through a ground point connected to the battery directly

[Capebuild]

I suppose I should have been a bit more clear. All the wiring shown in the junction box in my original post is just from the tow vehicle. all that wiring is basically an extension coming from the 7 pin connector. It is just for powering the exterior lights (tail lights, marker and license plate, etc.). All of the cabin lights and other electrical needs come from a different source (the on board battery) and basically all run on the opposite side of the trailer. The two systems are separate and have no intermingling between the two. Tony, yes the house wiring is all fused.

My original question just has to do with using the single white ground wire in the junction box and whether I can branch off that wire to make contact with the individual exterior lighting fixtures. I did install an extra contact lug up and to the left of the one shown in the photo, in case I needed an extra post with more room for additional ground wiring (I could run a jumper from the original ground wire lug) just in case it's better to run individual ground wires.
Hope all that all is understandable.

Thanks again for the help.

John

[dmdc411]

I used led lights for the tow lights. And, I daisy chained running lights as needed. That's as in; both tail, right side markers, left side markers. And having one junction box for troubleshooting and if ever needed, pulling new wire for whatever reason. The key is, keeping an access point for all connections.

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