I've almost got my new (very used) campner ready for the road but have discovered another small problem with the wiring. I've heard that Lance uses a differing hookup and thought that someone may recognize the problem and save me a lot of tracing time.
Here's the problem. The fuse for my parking lights keeps blowing when the camper is plugged in (whether or not the camper battery is hooked up). Brake and signal lights are working but the running lights aren't working so I'm thinking I've got a short somewhere. But maybe something wasn't wired right. Has anyone experienced this fuse blowing?
Sure appreciate help. Want to get using this thing.
Holding the plug on the camper, looking into the female terminals, with the plug "notch" at 12 o'clock:
1:00 = not used
3:00 = right turn
5:00 = left turn
7:00 = positive 12 volt (+ battery)
9:00 = back-up
11:00 = running lights (parking lights)
center = negative 12 volt (ground)
Or:
RL NU
BU -12V RT
+12V LT
So the plug in the truck bed is the mirror image.
Holding the truck bed plug, looking at the male terminals, with the plug "notch" at 12 o'clock:
1:00 = green (14 ga) - running lights (parking lights)
3:00 = yellow (16 ga) - back-up
5:00 = black (10 ga) - positive 12 volt (+ battery)
7:00 = red (16 ga) - left turn
9:00 = brown (16 ga) - right turn
11:00 = not used
center = white (10 ga) - negative 12 volt (ground)
Well I sure hope your problem isn't the same as mine was. When I first bought this camper, every time I would turn on the lights the fuse between the truck and camper would blow.
After many frustrating hours of searching I found a screw had been run into a wire shorting it out.
When we bought the camper, the people had just had the roof resealed. The place that resealed it put a new cap on one of the plumbing vents on the roof, and had run the screw into the wire.
If you have added any new stuff to your camper, you might want to check to see that you haven't done the same.
Check ALL of your marker lights and tail lights for broken bulbs, broken sockets, corrosion, and broken wires. The marker lights take a beating from tree limbs etc. and can short out. They also leak rainwater quite a bit, so the sockets corrode also. Good idea to seal the lenses up with silicon when you put them back together.
Best bet would be to get inside the cabinet that the camper plug goes into, identify which wire is for the camper parking lights, then see if it splits or has a terminal strip nearby to feed front or rear lights, or left or right side. Take the split apart, and touch one wire at a time to the feed wire to see which leg has the short in it. That will narrow down your search somewhat...
Good luck! Electrical gremlins are a pain in the ...
Thanks for the great tips. That wiring diagram is wildly different from the standard trailering 7-pole plug. I had a shop wire this up and since everything is running except the running lights, they must have adapted the wiring to suit the camper. Also, some running lights were working before I replaced a few while resealing everything. I did replace the rear driver side jack but was very careful not to touch the wiring harness which passes through near there.
I will check the split, and also the running lights. Thanks again everyone.
The only reason I can think of for Lance to use this special plug instead of a normal 7-pin RV plug is they get to sell you the $50 bed plug that matches up to it. I really think that it is high time for Lance to do their customers a favor and start using the standard 7-pin plug.
Not to bring up a dead topic, but...
My Lance dealer charged me $185 to install the "standard Lance" plug into my bed. Of course the previous owner of my Lance 480 had long ago removed that plug and did his own thing. He used an extension back to the trailer connection on the back of the truck with a couple of "standard" six pin connectors on the way.
So I'm not using the plug installed in the bed at all, which kind of irritates me. After a recent long trip to Utah I've decided to get rid of all the previous owners junk and set things right. I'd love to replace the jack in the truck with a 7 pin connector (as I have all the hardware to do the install and would rather not pay lance $50 for a cable) but the installer left about 3 inches of play, and the jack is obviously pre-molded. I'm reluctant to cut it off. Has anyone used a 7-way standard plug in the bed, and had any success/failure with respect to clearance, etc?
Woa Brad, that's ugly. Just the fact that the ground's on a terminal that is normally backup makes me shudder. If you can't count on Ground, things could go pretty crazy!
PS - Lucky they have a different plug to make you think.
vanbikehorse wrote: Woa Brad, that's ugly. Just the fact that the ground's on a terminal that is normally backup makes me shudder. If you can't count on Ground, things could go pretty crazy!
PS - Lucky they have a different plug to make you think.
The only reason I can think of for Lance to use this special plug instead of a normal 7-pin RV plug is they get to sell you the $50 bed plug that matches up to it. I really think that it is high time for Lance to do their customers a favor and start using the standard 7-pin plug.
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