TimC wrote:Im really interested in the answers to John's question. I don't understand why someone would ground to the chassis on a teardrop.
I get it on a boat trailer for brake/turn/tail lights. Saves the manufacturers copper running one less wire to all the lights. But most of the lights are mounted on or near a metal frame.
I'm with you Tim: We didn't ground either our 12 house battery system or our road safety light system to the trailer frame. For both of those, we ran separate negative wires back to the battery. I believe the systems are more reliable that way.
For 120 vac (shore power), it's a safety issue and the frame should be grounded to that system.
John, if you are using the frame as a return on your 12 volt battery system, the shunt should go before the frame ground, as was state above (by Benno). The shunt is measuring the electrons going into and out of the battery to keep track of its charge, and so it needs to "see" everything including any lights, etc. using the frame as a return. (Hope that makes sense.)
Tom