Forum Discussion

Dan_Diego's avatar
Dan_Diego
Explorer
Mar 11, 2018

Attitude toy hauler wiring problem

The last time I had pulled my travel trailer, I was shocked (pun intended) that with my truck running, and my 7-way trailer cable hooked to it, I was feeling a pulse of voltage when I touched the trailer door handle. I was literally escaping desert sand storm at that moment so I spent no time troubleshooting then and there. The truck was running and that was good enough for the moment. Fast forward to the current (again: pun intended), most if not all of the 7-way pins test like they are shorted to ground using my multimeter. I have three cables to the positive post of my trailer battery. One to the generator, one to the electric trailer jack, and one to the power distribution for the trailer. The positive cables to the power jack and the generator both are "open" when checking continuity between battery connector to ground. That is what I would expect. The cable from the battery to the trailer distribution reads about 350 ohms between the connector and ground. My suspicion is that this cable is grounding resulting in the shock that I felt and also showing the 7-way pins to be shorting to ground. I intend to trace the cable today best I can. I would love to know if anyone has experienced this sort of problem or any advice. Thanks in advance.
  • enblethen's avatar
    enblethen
    Nomad
    Mar 11, 2018
    Do you have an inverter? Is it turned on?
    Doubt whether battery voltage would be felt.
    I would pull fuses in 12 volt DC distribution panel to see if some device could be failing.
  • greende's avatar
    greende
    Explorer II
    Mar 11, 2018
    If you do not have an inverter, it is unlikely that you would feel 12VDC. Have you felt the shocks since that time? It is possible that if you were that close to a sand storm that there was some static charge built up sort of like what you see at the science museum with the big VanDegraff generators. Just a thought.....
  • Dan_Diego's avatar
    Dan_Diego
    Explorer
    Mar 11, 2018
    Thank you for the replies. I went through the trailer today and was unable to find a problem. The only time I experienced the problem was squarely in a sand storm in the Southern California desert, Ocotilla Wells. I have never been in a sand storm before let alone with a trailer. I have to conclude at this point that the electrical pulses I was feeling was a result of static electricity as a result of the storm as suggested in a previous post. I know that it was more than mind games as my truck also threw a check engine light with something to do the the ignition coils (truck is a v10 gasser). I cleared the errors and they have not returned on the truck. Trailer appears to be fine. Thanks for your help.

    And yes, I have an inverter.
  • enblethen's avatar
    enblethen
    Nomad
    Mar 11, 2018
    If the inverter is on and has a bad ground you could get a slight shock. You could get one of the small receptacle tester to show whether you have an open ground on inverter.
    Sounds more like the storm was the issue.

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