Wiring Question - Female Plug

[Ruck_and_Roll]

So, I now have a used FWC Hawk '08. I purchased the "install kit" from FWC. I have gotten through most steps. The Atwood female plug they sent me has 3 wires, Black, Yellow, and Blue. Black is connected to black going to the car battery terminal and yellow is connected to white heading to the thermal fuse breaker and then to ground/negative on the battery. I get that part.

Per step 11 on the instructions:

"Connect a 3rd wire (usually a small green wire) [came with kit] to the "Light Blue" wire on the back of the female atwood plug you are going to install inside the truck bed, and then hook this in to your rear truck tail lighting somewhere. This "small green wire" will be on hooked up to the wire that is "hot" when your truck's head lights are turned on. So, when the truck's head lights are "ON" the small LED marker lights on the outside of the camper will automatically come on."

Well, I don't see any LED marker lights on my camper. I have two rear flood lights and rear orange light that is operated by a switch on the rear. Is this step even necessary for me? Any suggestions on what to do with the blue wire coming from the female plug? Just cap it?

Thanks,

Luke

 

[Old Crow]

I see marker lights in the photos of a 2008 Hawk in this thread so I'd think your 08 Hawk would also have them.

They're the small lights at the corners (above the reflectors) in post 1. And in posts 3 and 4 we can see the marker-light bars centered on the front and rear ends of the camper.

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[camelracer]

My '06 Granby doesn't have marker lights. I'm not sure when FWC started installing them.

 

[larryqp]

My 2014 FWC Eagle shell doesn't have clearance or marker lights. Just reflective tape. When I did my install I just ignored the third wire.

 

[Old Crow]

Looks like I should have looked around some more. There's another 08 with the lights in this thread. And another here on ExPo (you may have to be logged on to ExPo to see photos there). But this other one on Expo doesn't have them. Nor this Expo one. This 08 Hawk on WtW doesn't even have reflectors.

I wonder how that worked. I guess the marker lights could have been an option but I thought they were put on because of the Federal vehicle safety law requiring them on campers over 80" wide. I can't find when that went into effect. That would have been a significant change for manufacturers so it was probably phased in and perhaps that explains why we see some with, some without.

In any case, if the camper doesn't have marker lights, the blue wire in the Attwood connector isn't needed as that's its only purpose. It would only be powered if a (green) wire connects that (blue) lead wire to the truck's parking-lights circuit so it doesn't have to be capped for safety.

I know there's also a two-wire version of the Attwood marine (trolling motor) connector but I don't think FWC used/uses them (on installs of campers under 80" wide and therefore without marker lights). I believe they still use the three-wire one even though they don't need the third wire. I imagine they just connect the other two wires then bundle all three together and wrap the bundle with electrical tape or perhaps heat-shrink tubing. Can anyone verify?

The other thing that would concern me about the Attwood connector in the post 1 photo is the yellow-to-white connection. What's the connection under that tape? Crimped-on butt-splice? Soldered?

Also-- Hopefully there's a matching Attwood male connector on your 2008 camper. FWC used Marinco marine connectors before switching to Attwood ones. And I see Stan tells us in this post that the switchover was done about a year and a half prior to his May, 2012 post.
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[Ruck_and_Roll]

Thanks all.

@Old Crow - Connection is butt-spliced, wrapped tightly in electrical tape. I actually re-wrapped after this photo because it looked a little loose/sloppy.

Thankfully, there is a matching connector already on the camper!

Best,

Luke

 

[OffTheGridMaps]

I've got an 05 Eagle with the 2-wire Marineco female adapter. I just got the camper this spring and haven't got it hooked up, but it's just a black and white wire set.