4 replies to this topic

[Durango2]

Hi—I know this question has been posed before, and I have read several posts about it. But I still have questions.

All the fuses in the camper look good.

One issue could be that the blue wire on the truck side of the umbilical connector is connected to the truck body as if it is acting as a ground. Should it in fact go somewhere else? If so, where?

Also, I have located a coil of green wire near the fridge, above the rear driver side turnbuckle compartment. My understanding is that this green wire is used to power the marker lights. Is there something I am supposed to do with this green wire?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you have.

[Jon R]

My new Grandby had triplex 10 gage wire routed outside ending at the pigtail for a truck connector. Black for ground, white for truck battery positive connection, and green for the marker lights. That green wire is connected to what looks like 18 awg green wire within the camper. I did not see a fuse for that circuit, but there may have been one hidden in the cabinet. The green wire goes to a splitter splice and green wires go to the front and rear of the camper. The ground wires for the marker lamps run to the ground bus bar.

It sounds as though a previous owner either never hooked up the lights or just powered them from the camper. That coiled green wire may be from the original pigtail.

I would carefully test first to see if that wire powers the marker lights. If so, and if you want to connect it to the truck lights, you will need to feed it back out the hole where the charging wires come in an connect it to the truck. On mine the factory hole was plenty big. No need to drill even for my 6awg wires.

[Durango2]

Thank you for responding, Jon.

I am confused about your comment that maybe the previous owner powered the lights from the camper. Seems like they should be powered by the truck instead of the camper?

[Jon R]

Agreed you want to have the camper marker lights turn on and off with the truck marker lights, and the conventional way to do that is to connect them to the truck markers or tail light circuit. However, based on your statement that you found a coil of green wire in the cabinet, it sounded like the previous owner pulled into the camper the green marker power wire that used to go outside and up to the truck connector. They may have powered the marker lights from the camper battery, with a switch I’d assume, or they may simply have left them inactive even though they are required by DOT regulations.

You can reconnect them, but as I said the first thing I’d do is see if applying 12 volts to that green wire powers up the lights. HOWEVER, before I did that I’d disconnect the camper from the truck and disconnect the camper battery, and measure the resistance of that green wire to ground to make sure it’s not a grounded wire. Once you know you have working lights and which wire powers them, you can get into rewiring to connect to the truck.

[Durango2]

Thank you, Jon.

I called FWC and they were able to send me pretty detailed instructions. I will need help doing it, but at least I have a plan!