97 F-150 Trailer Wires

[OcalaPop-UP]

Every time I tow anything with my truck (97 F-150) the lights on the trailer are hit or miss. They won

[AlaTex]

From your description of the original problem I would think the ground is the problem.  Most trailers (boat, utility, etc) I have seen do not have the wiring harness grounded to the frame, i.e. the white wire is often not connected.   I usually drill a small hole in the frame near the white wire from the wiring harness and attach the wire with a self tapping screw.  If the ground (white) wire is not directly attached to the frame the circuit attempts to ground to the TV via the hitch coupling, which is not good.  I would also check on the TV side.  It would not hurt, even if it looks like the TV ground is OK, to tap into the TV ground wire and make a new connection i.e. drill in to the frame or find a location on an existing bolt or screw.   Only after making sure the ground on the trailer and TV are direct connection would I suggest a re-wiring.  To answer your specific question it would be OK to tie the two white wires together and to the frame.  Both the trailer and TV need a good ground - the4 and/or 7 conector plug complet the conection.  Good Luck.

[OcalaPop-UP]

Thanks for the advice. I am going to add the 7-pin and 4- flat combo to the truck. I am cutting off the stock 4-flat plug and going to hard wire the TV wires to the new combo. (soldering and shrink-wraps). I am going to connect the white wire from the truck to the white from the new combo plug and then bolt it to the frame. this should take care of the issues on the TV. I looked on the trailer (2000 Coleman/Fleetwood SantaFe) and I could not find where the white wire is bolted to the frame.

1) Can/should I splice into the white wire in the pop-up and bolt it to the frame? The white wire will then be directly connected to the TV and bolted to the frame.
2) Is this over kill? (Taking the government motto....Why do it with one when you can do the same thing with two and cost twice as much money?)
3) Can anything bad happen if I do this?
4) I have heard that grounding loops are bad

[AlaTex]

Thanks for the advice. I am going to add the 7-pin and 4- flat combo to the truck. I am cutting off the stock 4-flat plug and going to hard wire the TV wires to the new combo. (soldering and shrink-wraps). I am going to connect the white wire from the truck to the white from the new combo plug and then bolt it to the frame. this should take care of the issues on the TV. I looked on the trailer (2000 Coleman/Fleetwood SantaFe) and I could not find where the white wire is bolted to the frame.

1) Can/should I splice into the white wire in the pop-up and bolt it to the frame? The white wire will then be directly connected to the TV and bolted to the frame.
2) Is this over kill? (Taking the government motto....Why do it with one when you can do the same thing with two and cost twice as much money?)
3) Can anything bad happen if I do this?
4) I have heard that grounding loops are bad