New (to me) Grandby

[ACom]

We'll the Grandby I was hoping to get a few weeks ago did not pan out but by a stroke of luck I ended up securing a deal on a fully loaded 2000 Grandby yesterday that is 1100km closer to home and in my own country. My wife said it was fate and that I needed to buy the camper

Anyway, I'm off to pick it up in about a week and I have already asked a few questions regarding installation here on the forum and will be prepping the truck this weekend. I do need to build a 2" platform to raise the camper as my truck is newer and was wondering what the thoughts would be to use DOW High Load rigid foam. Saw the idea here www.stuver.com/trips/2006-04-01%20Outfitter%20Apex/ and seems like a great way to save some weight and provide some insulation to the camper floor. Spec sheet say this stuff can handle 60 psi impact so a fully loaded camper should not be a problem at less than 0.5 psi dead load.

I am also wondering how to run the electrical from the truck to the camper? Would it be best to just have an RV shop take care of or is it pretty easy to do myself? My truck has an OEM towing package and trailer hitch but the wiring harness is still in the glove box and needs to be installed. Could I run power from the hitch location and into the camper somehow? Any pics would be appreciated.

Thought I throw up a pic of the camper on the current owners truck but will provide some action shots once its on mine.

Cheers,
Anthony

 

[Mark W. Ingalls]

Hi, Anthony--

The foam should be fine. It has the added benefit of insulating the floor.

I tapped into the wiring harness that went back to the 7 pin connector and T-ed off (using wire nuts and lots of waterproof tape) the + and - to the house battery.

That way, the battery was automatically isolated from the trucks 12V system when truck is shut off. My trailer package wiring diagram showed a 40A relay was included from the factory.

Congrats on your recent acquisition.

 

[ACom]

I never thought of just tee-ing off the line between the truck battery and the 7 pin connector but that should be pretty easy and work out just fine.

Thanks!

 

[Star152]

Acom welcome, I installed the factory hook up and it was simple to do Stan sent the kit and it took me about 2 hrs. the one thing I would do over is place the female truck scoket 10 inches back so that I could unplug it from inside the camper with out reaching.

 

[ACom]

Star,

Hopefully the previous owner will let me just rip the entire kit out of his truck as he is selling it as well. If not, i'll probably just order one from FWC.

Thanks

 

[cabezon23]

Wiring is easy

When Ben from ATC installed my camper it took him not even an hour for the wiring. But I guess it wasn't his first time.

In essence it's two wires with fuses (he used fuses on both wires) connected to the battery, down the firewall to the frame and back up into the truck bed.

There he connected the plug with enough play to handle it easily with or without the camper installed.

On the camper side is the male plug, battery isolator and the camper battery.

Now. if you don't have a camper battery I would recommend a battery protector like this one:

http://www.performanceproducts4trucks.com/productpage.aspx?pid=105113&cid=11&sid=98

I bet Ben or one of the FWC guys can give you a list of all the parts needed.

If you need some pics, just let me know and I email them directly to you, or post them here as soon as I get back home in about 10 days.

 

[Sam]

I spliced into the factory trailer wiring on my truck as well, it's been working well for about a year now. I followed the wire loom from the hitch up to just below the front of the truck bed, then spliced in there, not simple but easy enough. If you have a West Marine store in your area they carry the Marinco plug that FWC uses, it's a 3 pronged twist lock. I think it is sold as a trolling motor connector.

I installed the female end of the plug in the bed based on photos I saw on the FWC site. Once I got the camper on I realized the access door in the camper and the plug in the bed did not really line up well. I guess all trucks and campers are different but for me installing the plug just in front of the wheel well would be perfect.

Good luck, nice camper, post photos when you get it home.

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/producte/10001/-1/10001/54647/377%20710/0/marinco/Primary%20Search/mode%20matchallpartial/40/0?N=377%20710&Ne=0&Ntt=marinco&Ntk=Primary%20Search&Ntx=mode%20matchallpartial&Nao=40&Ns=0&keyword=marinco&isLTokenURL=true&storeNum=5002&subdeptNum=9&classNum=316