Scary wiring...

[Chainslap]

Picked up the new to me 03 Eagle this weekend. All went well and I am surprised how little it sagged in the back and handled. I'm glad I had Jeff Deaver build me some springs back in 04. I had him set them up to carry 500lbs on a regular basis (was carrying two dirtbikes and gear a lot). I also lowered the front Kings down to stock-ish height so it's sitting pretty level.

On to the main issue though, and that is the hack job wiring done by previous owner I would presume. The camper didn't come with a aux battery from the factory, so it looks like the guy just tapped in straight from the truck harness with NO fuse whatsoever...

When I saw a big wad of electrical tape over these wires I knew it wouldn't be good, and it wasn't.

So I had tried plugging in the camper to the 110 previously and it instantly popped the GFI. Wires could have been touching (knew I should have looked first. Not sure I even want to try again even with the wires cut off...

Terry sent me the wiring diagram from truck to aux battery, only thing I am unsure about is the wiring to the inverter. Is that just a positive line to the inverter? This whole thing is getting rewired asap...

 

[Stan@FourWheel]

The FWC campers usually don't have a power inverter installed ?


General wiring tips:

White Camper Wire = Positive (+)

Black Camper Wire = Ground (-)


If you cut off all of that old wiring, plug your camper into shore power (110/120v electricity), the GFCI should not "pop" if everything is hooked up correctly and the previous buyer didn't monkey around with any of the other camper wiring.

If something is that bad or shorting out, usually the fuse in the 30amp power "converter" will pop first.

If the converter fuse pops, the converter will no longer work until you replace the fuse, but you should still have power at house outlet installed in the front of the kitchen cabinets.

If your GFCI keeps popping, check to make sure the extension cord you are using is good, and then you can check the outlet with a simple wire tester to see where the error might be ?

Just let me know what you find as you check through it further.

The more infomation I have, the better I can help you trouble shoot it.

Thanks

: )




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[Ted]

Yowser! Scary indeed.

 

[Mark W. Ingalls]

Yowser! Scary indeed.


We perhaps now know the cause of the mysterious yellow stain.

 

[Chainslap]

Power converter for shore power, not inverter. My bad.

Garage outlet and extension cord are good. It's an Elixir ELX-30 converter. Doesn't look like he ever monkeyed with it or anything else but still a no go on shore power. Cut off all the old wiring.

Hoping this doesn't turn into a big project. At least the fridge and range work great, ha...Will work on this weekend when I have more time.

 

[Chainslap]

This be the converter:

 

[Jamesiam]

Some people are funny. When I purchased my Ranger II the only way I could get the heater to work was to hook up the black to +, and the white to -; which Stan informed me was incorrect. I traced the wires through the camper and sure enough found a clump of electrical tape in line. I undid the electrical tape and was surprised that someone had extended the wiring but for some unknown reason put the camper black - wire to the extra white wire and camper white wire + to the extra black wire. I don’t know much about wiring but feel that almost anyone would consider using the same color wire when rewiring something.

 

[Stan@FourWheel]

* sighs *




The bad news ...

We only used those converters for about 6 months.

Sorry that you ended up with one.

They were a total piece of junk compared to what we are using these days.

Quite a few ended up going bad over the years.


The good news ...

We haven't used those for the last 7 years, or so, and we will never use them again (we got screwed by the vendor on that one) Live & Learn.

And other good news ... there are still companies that sell a "plug & play" replacement for those Elixer Converters if you wanted to switch it out.

Might cost you $ 100.00 - $ 150.00 for the part on-line.

Just depends on how important it is for you to be able to plug the camper in to shore power ?

Sample links here ...


http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-30-amp-RV-Elixir-Power-Converter-Charger-Trailer-/320679099878?pt=Motors_RV_Trailer_Camper_Parts_Accessories&hash=item4aa9f6bde6&vxp=mtr


http://www.rvandvansurplus.com/converter.asp?Vehicletype=RV


http://www.bestconverter.com/Elixir-Replacement-Converter_c_76.html


Hope this helps.

_____________________________________________________________


... It's an Elixir ELX-30 converter. Doesn't look like he ever monkeyed with it or anything else but still a no go on shore power. Cut off all the old wiring.




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[Chainslap]

Thanks Stan! I did a little digging around and saw that a lot of other people were replacing them with the WFCO 8735 so I will probably do that at some point. But I don't need shore power really.

Do you have any wiring diagrams of the camper wiring? I'm still a little unsure of how to wire in the aux battery with the truck battery and converter...Won't I need to go from the aux battery to the converter?

 

[pods8]

Do you have any wiring diagrams of the camper wiring? I'm still a little unsure of how to wire in the aux battery with the truck battery and converter...Won't I need to go from the aux battery to the converter?


Different wires, unrelated. Wire from the truck directly to the battery, nothing to do with the convertor. Wire directly from the convertor to the battery if you have one. Same with solar, etc. wire directly to the battery. So if you were connected to the truck, solar, and convertor you'd have 3 separate wires tying into each battery terminal.

 

[Chainslap]

Different wires, unrelated. Wire from the truck directly to the battery, nothing to do with the convertor. Wire directly from the convertor to the battery if you have one. Same with solar, etc. wire directly to the battery. So if you were connected to the truck, solar, and convertor you'd have 3 separate wires tying into each battery terminal.


That makes sense. Thanks!

 

[Stan@FourWheel]

Here are some "general" details on wiring things up.

These are just some generic pictures to give you different ideas.

As you can see there are several different ways you can go about connecting the camper to the truck.



If you are in Nor Cal, free free to stop by our factory and we can show you the basic details for hooking things up.





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[MarkBC]

Here are some "general" details on wiring things up.

These are just some generic pictures to give you different ideas.

As you can see there are several different ways you can go about connecting the camper to the truck.


Very handy, Stan, very clear -- thanks. I don't need to do a project like this right now myself, but it's something to file away for future reference.

 

[Stan@FourWheel]

Atwood Camper to Truck Plug Wiring:


“BLACK Atwood Marine Plug Wire hooks up to the BLACK FWC camper wire”

“YELLOW Atwood Marine Plug Wire hooks up to the WHITE FWC camper wire”


“LIGHT BLUE Atwood Marine Plug Wire hooks up to the GREEN FWC camper wire” (if applicable)

The 3rd wire won't relly apply to you with the older Eagle.


Then just make sure you have the wiring color code correct when you are hooking things up to the truck and camper battery.


See attwood link here ...

http://www.attwoodmarine.com/store/product/electrical-female-connector




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[Chainslap]

Well an update...

Still no working electrical. Put a WFCO converter in, still no good on shore power. Even with breakers off it still trips the GFCI instantly.

Also tried hooking up the camper wires to my aux battery, nothing works.

On the plus side, the Blue Sea ACR I wired in works like a charm and charges my aux batt at 14 volts.

At this point I don't know what to check. All the wiring to the converter looked fine, didn't look like anything was shorting or crossed up with the neutral. Something must be shorted somewhere??? Really don't want to start taking cabinets apart.

Getting frustrated, I must say. Inaugural trip is still slated for next weekend in Ely, Nevada where I'm doing a mountain bike race. Would like my water pump and lights to work...

 

[craig333]

If you were closer I'd lend a hand. I'm pretty good with that stuff in person, just can't picture it well from a post.

 

[pods8]

If you were closer I'd lend a hand.

Ditto. Probably best to pop open the cabinet to see whats up.

 

[Stan@FourWheel]

This might sound silly, but does your camper have a small "mystery switch" on the front of the kitchen cabinets ?

(see picture attached)

If it does, that switch needs to be "ON" beofre the interior lights will work.


Do you have the "White" camper wire hooked up to the + positive terminal on your 12v deep cycle battery?

Do you have the "Black" camper wire hooked up to the - negative terminal on your 12v deep cycle battery?


Have you changed out thoese 4 small fuses in your power converter / fuse panel.

15amp 15amp 15amp 30amp

(see attached picture)

If you haven't, Just Do It.

Sometimes the fuses will look OK, but they are not.

Such an easy thing to check, so just switch them out.


Always best to try & check the easy stuff first !





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[Chainslap]

This might sound silly, but does your camper have a small "mystery switch" on the front of the kitchen cabinets ?

(see picture attached)

If it does, that switch needs to be "ON" beofre the interior lights will work.


Do you have the "White" camper wire hooked up to the + positive terminal on your 12v deep cycle battery?

Do you have the "Black" camper wire hooked up to the - negative terminal on your 12v deep cycle battery?


Have you changed out thoese 4 small fuses in your power converter / fuse panel.

15amp 15amp 15amp 30amp

(see attached picture)

If you haven't, Just Do It.

Sometimes the fuses will look OK, but they are not.

Such an easy thing to check, so just switch them out.


Always best to try & check the easy stuff first !





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Yes on the mystery switch. Having that flipped on or off didn't seem to make any difference. I figured that switch turned on the lights? But I'll double check...

White is hooked up to batt positive, with a 30amp fuse.
Black is hooked up to batt negative, also fused.

All fuses on the converter are also brand new.

I'll bet it's something simple that I've overlooked. I'll get some pics up of the setup soon in case someone spots something.

 

[Stan@FourWheel]

sounds good

yes, pictures, more pictures



I can look through them to see if I can help point anything else out to you.


Have you tried poking a simple 12 volt wire tester to the fuse holding spots, to see if the fuses are even getting any 12 volt power ?

(ground the tester aligator clip wire to something in the camper, pull one fuse out a time, and then poke the tip of the tester in both sides of the fuse holder to see if you have any power coming in)

Simple wire testers like this are only a few bucks, and although they are not fancy, they will at least light up to give you an idea if you have any power coming to the fuse block, or not.

If you don't have any power to the fuses, you will need to see where the "White" + camper wire is attaching to that fuse block.

The "White" camper wiring coming off of your 12v deep cycle battery would be attached up to the 12v fuse block somewhere to provide the 12v camper power for lights, water pump, etc.

More pictures please ...






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