electrical ground ?

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trailertrashneil

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Jan 7, 2011
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Hello everyone,
I am new to here,but have been reading quite a bit on here and decided to try and tap into some of the know how and experience that I see on here. I have recently gotten a truck camper and am trying to get it going , I plan to install a couple of batteries and an inverter while I am familiar with inverters a little I have no idea of where one would ground the inverter, or for that matter the whole camper unit, does it depend on the plug in connection for it's ground? Do I need to drop a wire to the truck or how does that work
Thanks
 
Normally the devices are grounded to the chassis of the RV and thus should be grounded to the frame of the truck camper. But since the truck camper is removable from the truck, the quetion of ground contact etween TC and truck can be problematic. In most cases the mechanical tie downs to the truck should provide a ground path as long as there is continuous metal-to-metal contact. However, a separate ground wire is a "good thing".  You probably are making an 12v electrical connection to the truck anyway, and there should be a ground wire as part of that plug. Make sure it is clean and the ground wire on either side of the plug/recaptacle is firmly attached to the truck and TC frame, respectively.
 
Thanks for the reply, now I just have to chase down where the ground wire off the plug is and work backwards
 
If you are installing batteries and an inverter in the TC you will want all the big grounds from the inverter to go to the battery directly.  You should basically make the TC a self-contained unit electrically and the ground from the truck should only have to carry current that comes from the truck on the Aux 12V line.
 
Just to be clear,Neil, when you say "ground the inverter", are you talking about earth ground (green wire AC) or DC ground?
 
On all the inverters that we installed in our semi's there was a chassis ground that had to be connected to a suitable ground  and we would go to the frame with it but the tc has no metal frame to ground to so I was wondering how they were grounded.
 
I think of campers as a separate electrical system from the truck.  In a camper, one of your grounds is carried in the third wire of your 110 volt wiring.  In your 12 volt system, the negative
battery terminal is considered ground.  Since 12 volts is not as dangerous as 110 volts, two-wire 12 volt systems are common.  On the truck, your ground is also the negative battery terminal, but since the negative terminal is bonded to the chassis and engine, you only need to run one wire to most things that are attached to the ground.
 
If I were installing this, I would do as boatbuilder mentioned... Two separate systems. The TC would have everything wired as a house would where the ground wire is concerned. I would also have a main harness that connected the TC to the truck, and it would have a heavy ground wire as well as a 12V+ wire that charged the batteries. Make sure the 12V+ feed from the truck comes from a circuit that is disconnected when the truck is off. That way you cannot drain the truck battery to a point where the truck cannot be started.

That being said, some consideration might want to be used when choosing wire for the 12V+. A dead battery will draw more current and a smaller wire could get pretty warm. I personally would have 4 or 6 gauge wire to feed the TC charge circuit and ground.

Bottom line, make sure there is no voltage potential between the TC and truck when everything is on (inverter running and truck charging) by using a multimeter to read from the TC chassis to the truck. Check both AC and DC.

Joe
 
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