Swing Hitch Electrical Ground

[tentcamper]

Does anyone have a ground jumper between the swing part of the hitch and the battery or trailer frame?

Today I brought TM out of the garage. I had the camper setup high on the 4 stabs and the hitch swang back. So had to do a lot of jacking to lower it. When I swang the hitch back to the travel position and pinned it in place the elec jack would work for but for a second or two. After getting the meter out I determined the issue was a poor ground.

At least on my TM with the swing hitch, the only ground connection from elec jack is through the jack frame, through the frame to the battery. The electricity return needs to travel through the 2 pins that hold the swing hitch. But since there was no upward force from the jack. The pins and frame were not pinching together and supplying a connection.

I ended up installing a ground wire from one of the jack mounting bolts to the battery neg post.

[Kidkraz]

Art, I had to add an extra ground wire because my TM did the samething. Once I added the direct ground, I’ve not had any problems.

[ThePair]

Third. I had swapped out the jack for a different brand, and the new one seems far more sensitive to the ground than the old one. So, I wired in the ground and had no issues since.

[tentcamper]

Seeing the issue spans some years and other trailers. It seems it's not isolated to my camper; and the ground is an electrical flaw with the with the swing hitch design??

[TrailManorMan]

Yep, mine does loose ground under certain conditions also

[ThePair]

Originally Posted by tentcamper

Seeing the issue spans some years and other trailers. It seems it's not isolated to my camper; and the ground is an electrical flaw with the with the swing hitch design??

For sure. There's a little give across the frame hinges where they pivot (with the washer in there) and if the pressure isn't enough to hold the unpainted surfaces together, that break will break the ground. I just put a wire from the bolt holding the jack plate, and ran the wire to the grounding bolt for the breakaway switch. Took me longer to find a piece of wire than it did to actually connect. You just need a good metal-to-metal connection, and you're gold.

[tentcamper]

that's about what I did, except I put it on the neg battery post.