"New to Me" Grandby owner with questions....

[Mikeb]

I just purchased a mint 2001 Grandby. I have a few questions that I was hoping someone could answer.

1. I have one standard roof vent aft. Is it pre-wired for a Fantastic Fan?

2. The unit does not have a house battery. If I install one, where is the best place to put it?

3. If I install a converter/charger, where is the best place to put it.

4. Are wiring diagrams available for these older units?

Thanks

Mike

 

[Barko1]

I just purchased a mint 2001 Grandby. I have a few questions that I was hoping someone could answer.

1. I have one standard roof vent aft. Is it pre-wired for a Fantastic Fan?

My 98 was, I would say yes.

2. The unit does not have a house battery. If I install one, where is the best place to put it?

There is another current thread on this, first question is inside or out, in the engine compartment, in the bed, etc. In my 98 Grandby I have two located under the front cross bed, but I have also raised the bed a couple inches.

3. If I install a converter/charger, where is the best place to put it.

No expert but I would think closed to the batteries is better??? That is where I put my inverter but I am also lazy and it was easier to install that way.

4. Are wiring diagrams available for these older units?

Don't know. On the battery question you also need to assess whether you would want 2 batteries. All depends on what sort of 12v draw you plan on and how frequent batteries would get charged either from driving, plugging or solar.

Soak up all of the plentiful info found here. Congrats on the new purchase.

Thanks

Mike

 

[pods8]

Install the battery wherever you see fit, lots of pros/cons for different places. No "best" place.

In my 99' hawk I had a space in the front of the camper where the counter ended but still had the truck step that I stuck a charger in with a little platform above it so I could still stack stuff there (see pic below). I just when with a straight charger and not a converter combo, the converter keeps the batteries topped off when plugged in and they supply the 12V to the camper.

On mine the wiring was pretty basic, a 12V line entered the front drivers corner of the camper and went through the wall to the area where the water tank is, then came out to feed the basic fuse block (6 or 8 fuses if I recall). As for individual wires running through the walls one could make some educated guesses where certain lines are based on features if you're thinking something specific.

 

[K6ON]

Congrats on the new camper..

A 2001 should be prewired for a fantastic fan. When you pull the standard vent out, the wires should be on the kitchen side of the vent.

Mount your battery under the front bench seat and the converter can be mounted close by in the same place. You'll probably have to run 110v from the power panel, but it's an easy run. I added 2 batteries and a converter charger
to my '96. If you need pictures of how to run the 110 power to the converter PM me with an email address and I'll send them to you.

Generally, wiring diagrams are not available for the campers, but the wiring is very simple and shouldn't be difficult to
figure out.

 

[Stan@FourWheel]

Nice looking camper Mike !

That is a 2002, or new camper.

The 2001 Grandby Models had a "white" interior wall look.

The 2002, or new have the wood grain walls like yours.

Yes, the camper should be pre-wired for the fan.

Most people put an extra battery under the couch in a plastic battery box. They will take the exterior camper wire (grey wire usually on the front / driver's side corner - this has the white & black wire sticking out of it, or a plug), drill a small hole in the lower grey wood portion of the camper base, feed the exterior camper wire back inside the camper (under the front couch area) to the battery box you just installed, connect it to new camper battery, and then run a new similar wire back out another hole you can drill in the camper base (just next to the other one you made). Once the wire is outside you can add a truck to camper plug for it and finish up some camper wiring.

The White camper wire is POSITIVE +

The Black camper wire is NEGATIVE -

If you e-mail me directly at ... stan@fourwh.com I can e-mail you the older installation manual that should help guide you through it.



I'm not totally sure, but I'm 99% sure your camper should already have a power converter installed ??

We were installing them right about that time on all models.

Look under the kitchen sink for a small silver box with some wires sticking out of it. See sample picture attached.

Hope this helps get you started.

Welcome to the FWC family !





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I just purchased a mint 2001 Grandby. I have a few questions that I was hoping someone could answer.

1. I have one standard roof vent aft. Is it pre-wired for a Fantastic Fan?

2. The unit does not have a house battery. If I install one, where is the best place to put it?

3. If I install a converter/charger, where is the best place to put it.

4. Are wiring diagrams available for these older units?




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[Mikeb]

Guys...thank you for all the tips. It is reassuring to know there are more experienced guys out there that have "been there done that" so us newbies don't have to make the mistakes!

Stan...I looked and double checked. No charger under the sink. My SN is 20531-G

 

[Stan@FourWheel]

Yep, you were right.

You camper was finished & installed on 10/29/2001.

So it is actually a 2001 model.

It must have been one one the very first few to have the newer wood grain interior walls at that time.

But just early enough to miss the standard power converter we started installing in the campers at the beginning of 2002.

You can install a power converter in the kitchen cabinets if you are good with RV / 12volt wiring, but you might want to read through some of the WTW forum threads first (do some searches on the topic) and get some advice from others here that have done it too. Some of the used FWC buyers / owners instead installed a battery charger / smart charger inside the camper (instead of the power converter) mostly for installation simplicity reasons.

I try and watch the forums and will chime in to answer more questions as time allows.




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My SN is 20531-G



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