I think anyone towing, whether a car behind a motorhome or a trailer behind a car/truck should have one of these 4pin/7pin testers. It tells you instantly which side of the connector the problem is on, tow vehicle or towed vehicle.
Currently a 32 foot Winnebago Class C
2010 Subaru Forester
2 fur kids
With our NEW 2015 13 foot Scamp I found that the battery connection wire ends were so poorly crimped that our battery would not charge. Basically we had no 12 V system unless we were on shore power or hooked to the tow vehicle. I put new wire ends on (crimped properly) and that solved the problem.
I am not sure this would have anything to fix the problem of charging and lights, but it is worth a look. When Peggy and I bought our 16 last fall the seller told me that this had happened to him and he figured the solution out. I give him credit for good logic. By the time we got home with the Scamp it had happened to us. The converter under the side dinette has a power cord that has to be plugged in to a receptacle under there. The receptacle was impossible for me to see but sure enough the cord was unplugged. I blindly got it back in and the lights worked. I then checked for looseness and it was really tight, which makes me scratch my head as to why it comes out. Good luck
The box in the picture is the power distribution panel and houses the 120 VAC breakers and 12 VDC fuses. The gray wire in the middle is the input from the shore power connection. It was once a black wire which was one end of the shore power cord that one would pull out and plug into the power pedestal at a campsite, however I hardwired a surge protector and used the gray wire you see in the photo. After a 120 VAC circuit breaker there is a built in receptacle for the power converter (this means you can have 120 VAC power, for example for AC, but flip the breaker to turn the converter off and run 12 volt stuff off the battery and/or solar if you have it). The black plug is for the converter which of course takes 120 VAC input and the puts out ~12-13 volts to run the camper's 12 volt stuff and charge the house battery. The black and white wires in the lower right carry the 12 volts from the converter to the fuse block. The yellow wires in the photo go to the other 120 VAC outlets and items in the camper. The bare copper wire is a ground (for the 12 VDC side if I recall right).
This is how my camper is done. Some people have converters that have the breakers and/or fuses built into the same box.
Note that the power distribution panel is flush mounted so that what you see in the photo is hidden and inaccessible until you remove four screws and pull it out. Thats why I didn't want to have to do that just to put the converter plug back in someday.
We were plugged in one night last year and lost all power,finally after checking everything else out,we found the converter had shaken itself loose from the factory,or was never plugged in when new.It was a 2015 Scamp
I think anyone towing, whether a car behind a motorhome or a trailer behind a car/truck should have one of these 4pin/7pin testers. It tells you instantly which side of the connector the problem is on, tow vehicle or towed vehicle.
Currently a 32 foot Winnebago Class C
2010 Subaru Forester
2 fur kids
With our NEW 2015 13 foot Scamp I found that the battery connection wire ends were so poorly crimped that our battery would not charge. Basically we had no 12 V system unless we were on shore power or hooked to the tow vehicle. I put new wire ends on (crimped properly) and that solved the problem.
I am not sure this would have anything to fix the problem of charging and lights, but it is worth a look. When Peggy and I bought our 16 last fall the seller told me that this had happened to him and he figured the solution out. I give him credit for good logic. By the time we got home with the Scamp it had happened to us. The converter under the side dinette has a power cord that has to be plugged in to a receptacle under there. The receptacle was impossible for me to see but sure enough the cord was unplugged. I blindly got it back in and the lights worked. I then checked for looseness and it was really tight, which makes me scratch my head as to why it comes out. Good luck
Doug
That never happened to me, but when I had the power panel out for another reason, I added some wire ties to keep the plug in.
Thanks for the good advice and picture. Do you by chance know where the other end of this cord goes? Just curious.
Doug
The box in the picture is the power distribution panel and houses the 120 VAC breakers and 12 VDC fuses. The gray wire in the middle is the input from the shore power connection. It was once a black wire which was one end of the shore power cord that one would pull out and plug into the power pedestal at a campsite, however I hardwired a surge protector and used the gray wire you see in the photo. After a 120 VAC circuit breaker there is a built in receptacle for the power converter (this means you can have 120 VAC power, for example for AC, but flip the breaker to turn the converter off and run 12 volt stuff off the battery and/or solar if you have it). The black plug is for the converter which of course takes 120 VAC input and the puts out ~12-13 volts to run the camper's 12 volt stuff and charge the house battery. The black and white wires in the lower right carry the 12 volts from the converter to the fuse block. The yellow wires in the photo go to the other 120 VAC outlets and items in the camper. The bare copper wire is a ground (for the 12 VDC side if I recall right).
This is how my camper is done. Some people have converters that have the breakers and/or fuses built into the same box.
Note that the power distribution panel is flush mounted so that what you see in the photo is hidden and inaccessible until you remove four screws and pull it out. Thats why I didn't want to have to do that just to put the converter plug back in someday.
We were plugged in one night last year and lost all power,finally after checking everything else out,we found the converter had shaken itself loose from the factory,or was never plugged in when new.It was a 2015 Scamp
Launey and Earlene
Pages