Need help understanding the 69 wiring diagram

[fesser]

I am working on a 68 8' NCO. It came with a pigtail that only has the 110 duplex outlet plug on one end and the standard, round, 4 pin plug on the other end. My camper has an identical 4 pin plug mounted just to the right of the 110 plug.

I am not interested in hooking up any 110/AC at this time. I do want to be able to drive with the clearance lights on, and to be able to use the interior lights and the rear "porch" light.

I have been looking at the 69 Owners manual in the stickies area until my brain and eyeballs hurt. I feel like I sort of understand all the different configurations, but for the life of me I can't read all of the hand written notes on the wiring diagram and I feel like those notes are what I want to know.

Questions:

1. If I don't intend to run on AC, is the four pin plug mounted in the camper's side the only thing I need to deal with (meaning, can I put the pigtail away for now)?

2. If the above is correct, can I make a long pigtail that goes to the flat four trailer plug already mounted on my truck?

3. If I can, what pins get what as far as wiring?

Looking at the upper right diagram in the 69 owners manual posted on this site, it looks like the top left of the four pins gets grounded, the top right gets hot from the "headlights" wire from the flat four connector, and then the bottom left one is where I can't really read what it says due to the "drag the crosshairs" overprinting. It looks like it might be for the porch light and interior lights, but I can't be sure. Also, after thinking about it, if it is for those lights, then it would need a constant hot from the truck battery which the flat four doesn't provide. I suppose I could wire off of the bigger (7 pin, I think) plug mounted on the truck.

Thanks much. I hope I am not the only one who doesn't clearly understand the wiring on these. I haven't even looked at the wiring on the two 10' NCO's that I somehow acquired. Baby steps.

 

[fesser]

42 views, and no one can clear up the wiring diagram I refered to. I guess that means that I may not be the only one who can't read it. I will do the old standby, and try to give Brian a call on Monday. I really hate to do that. The guy is trying to run a business that relies on new sales. I would love to buy a new one but I can't, so I will be wasting his time. I just want to know what wire goes on each of the four terminals. If I should be asking this type of question on a different forum, please let me know.

 

[Argonaut20]

Look at this page for wiring color codes:

https://www.easternmarine.com/tech-info/trailer-lighting-wiring#wiring

 

[Argonaut20]

I may be wrong, but the pigtail in the owners manual looks to be 12V only, powered from the truck connector. The small connector is for clearance lights, the large connector is for interior lights. You can use the page I referenced above to figure out which wire is ground and which wire you can use to power the clearance lights with a 4 wire harness to the trailer connector on the truck. The problem I see is that, without a battery in the camper, the 4 wire trailer connector you have won't power the interior lights unless the truck lights are on. It looks to me like the Alaskan in the 1960's was dependent on the truck battery and the truck connector was tied to the battery for the top two slots so the interior lights were live when the truck wasn't running and lights were off. A wire was run to the running lights of the truck for the supply for clearance lights on the camper so they were controlled by the truck's light switch. That circuit was carried in the bottom two slots, sharing a ground with the interior light circuit. You can figure out which wire does what in the pigtail by using a 12V battery and a 12V bulb with wires to make a circuit if you don't have a continuity tester. Free advice: Connect to the truck battery and running light circuit of the truck, run a 12 or 14 ga romex along with a 12 or 14 gauge wire for the clearance lights back to the bed of the truck and put a good 4 wire connector on the end with a mate for the connector as a replacement for the truck connector on the pigtail.

 

[PackRat]

There is the FOUR pin connector on the pig-tail that plugs into the truck. It sends a GROUND, RUNNING LIGHTS, and 12-volt power to the camper.
When the Edison plug on the pig-tail is plugged in, it sends 12-volt power to the interior lights and you need 12-volt bulbs in the interior fixtures to make that work.
It also allows for the TWO pin male connector as shown in the schematic to send power to the RUNNING LIGHTS and 12-volt power to the porch light and to the cab-over reading light and fan if so equipped.
When you arrive at your campsite, if it has AC, you just have to unplug the pig-tail Edison plug and plug in an extension cord AFTER you have removed the interior lighting 12-volt bulbs and have installed 40-watt/110 volt bulbs.
Keep in mind that even with the external AC powering your camper, you still have a 12-volt feed to the cab-over reading light and the porch light and fan if so equipped so they are drawing down your truck battery!

Your pig-tail has been altered and your socket on the side of the camper that should be a two-pin has been replaced with a four-pin. The schematic shows a TWO PIN end which goes into the camper and the FOUR PIN end that goes into your correctly wired truck.

The truck will supply a constant 12-volt feed and a feed from the light switch to feed the clearance/running lights as well as a ground from the truck to facilitate the use of the truck battery. The lower left FOUR PIN socket in the diagram identifies the three feeds that the cable in the pig-tail will carry.

 

[fesser]

Thank you gentlemen. Your posts have made it quite a bit clearer. Now that I know the small plug is not stock, I suppose I should pull it just to see what has been changed inside the wall. I did get both interior lights lit by plugging into AC. Now I just have to get them to light with DC since I am mostly going to be dry camping.

 

[PackRat]

Sourcing the 12-volt bulbs shouldn't be too difficult.

You will probably find TWO wires connected to that replacement/standard four pin connector. Finding an original Alaskan TWO pin to install in its place is another thing all together.

However, I would recommend you have some way to avoid running the clearance and interior and porch light off the truck battery. Depending on how long your trips are, you can just buy a decent Marine 12-volt battery and run off of that. You can put it in the truck bed out of the way behind one of the wheel wells. That can then run the lighting but you will still need some way to switch on/off the clearance lights to keep them from draining it even faster. Maybe you can charge it with a solar panel out in the boonies.

If you limit your useage, avoid powering a refrigerator, keep the solar panel set up in use....you MIGHT get by without any problems.

 

[DaniCa]

I bought the round-4-pin connector for $11 on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/CURT-58671-Vehicle-Side-Trailer-Side-Connectors/dp/B001EOV3MU

 

[Bos_Trok]

Hey Fesser,

You make any progress on your quest for light? Like PackRat said, you would be best off finding some sort of battery to put in your camper so your campsite does not become your forever home 12V bulbs with A19/E26 bases are plenty easy to find, but
draining your starting battery to run interior lights probably isn't the greatest idea. Perhaps a lantern would suit your needs better if you don't want to have some sort of house battery.

I do understand the wiring on these old campers and it's pretty much worthless. No reason to have any of those pigtails and plugs except for powering the running lights on the outside of the camper while the truck lights are on.

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Pick up a Luci light as a temporary solution.