I have a double wide skidoo trailer, and the lights are connected to the truck with a 4-pin connector. (I use an adapter to the round plug just because it's easier to connect and disconnect). I understand the white wire is the ground, and the 3 other coloured ones operate light functions.

My question is - does the trailer rely on grounding through the ball hitch? Some people are saying yes, others are saying all grounding is through the white wire.

I was having some flickering issues, and just sanding out the inside of the tongue over the ball helped out immensely. Still getting the odd flicker over bumps, etc.

 

It is grounded through the wire. It should be connected to the frame of the trailer somewhere. Mine is grounded on the tongue

 

If you want to be completely positive about the ground, you could hook the wires to the trailer and not have the the hitch touching the truck.

Canadianscrew probably has it right though. Dunking your lights when you launch the seadoo could dirty up the connections. Maybe just clean and tighten up all of them. Might also want to check your connector adapter for something loose inside.

 

Yes, mine is also grounded to the tongue. Maybe that ground isn't functioning properly, and the hitch is picking up its slack?

Jgger - it's a snowmobile trailer, so it doesn't see submerging.

 

I don't think the hitch would do a very good job because of the paint/rust. Check the connection to the tongue. I had a problem with the ground on my trailer. Turned out that the wire was broken off just inside the crimp ring.

 

Main ground is through the wire connector (should be attached to the frame at or near the tongue) but it also recives a ground through the hitch as well (admitidlly not a very good one). Easiest way I have found to test trailer lights (without the truck hitched up) is to use a 12 volt battery and 2 wires, hook one up to ground and the other to whatever light plug you want to test.

 

Publick edakashun, reeding comprehension issues. Shoulda read better Skidoo, not Seadoo.

But if you did dunk it, that would bad.

 

So I confirmed what I was suspecting - I hooked up the lights to the truck without hitching it on, and the lights did not work. I then lowered the tongue onto the ball (that's what she said) and the lights came on. So it was receiving the ground through the hitch alone! Now I have to figure out this grounding wire problem...