External Electrical Connectors - questions

[Land-roamer]

Hi again,
I have a couple of questions about the 2 external electrical connectors on my Alaskan.
1. the 120v AC connector. Mine has a Bell metal plate with flip-up cover, with a Leviton flanged inlet receptacle attached. That receptacle is broken and I've tried everywhere locally to find an equivalent and only found one that is too long (bottoms out on the back of the electrical box recessed into the camper side). Is there a suitable replacement readily available anywhere? Have some of your replaced the box, connector and weatherproof cover with something altogether different?

2. the 4 pin connector beside it. I'm a little new to RV's and assume this attaches to the truck battery system to provide 12v to the lights and other 12v systems in the camper. Again, I have failed to find locally a suitable connector to plug into that socket, and am unsure of the wiring for it. Any help there would be appreciated.

I'd like to get these two things sorted out this winter, while the camper is in my garage.

The wiring also has a ground-fault issue that I will need to eventually trace and rectify (when plugged into house power into a GFI receptacle, it trips it the instant the extension cord is plugged into the camper).

THanks
--Robert

 

[pods8]

2. the 4 pin connector beside it. I'm a little new to RV's and assume this attaches to the truck battery system to provide 12v to the lights and other 12v systems in the camper. Again, I have failed to find locally a suitable connector to plug into that socket, and am unsure of the wiring for it. Any help there would be appreciated.


Are you looking for this type of connector?:

 

[Rusty]

Robert,

When Alaskans were first sold they installed a wired connector to the truck using the two connectors on the camper. You're entirely correct, the smaller 4 pin (mine is a 2 pin) is for the 12v connection. The idea was to have the camper connected to the truck and the truck battery would be constantly charged....didn't always happen that way. A replacement for the two pin connector with a cover is a bear to find. I've still got the broken one on my rig and I'm still looking. The closest comp is a marine fitting but it doesn't have the nice chrome cover.

I remember the first time my grandparents brought the new Alaskan home,they'd traded up to the 10 footer from the eight. Overnight it drained the battery. They had stayed in the camper overnight and left the 12v side of the refrigerator on. There were some rather interesting comments coming from the camper in the morning.

I believe that one of the pages Mike has posted on the manuals section actually has a diagram of the wire. I'll take a photo of the one I have. I think it's under glass somewhere in the house.....saved as an antique....

The Leviton cover is a replaceable item. I think I've got a link somewhere for mine. they make shallow boxes for locations as that but you may have to special order the box if it needs replacing. That would be a tough replacement as it's behind the aluminum siding.

I've ended up connecting the overhead clearance lights to the camper through a coiled cord in the rear of the camper to the rear passenger side tail light. It works pretty well for the clearance lights and it's tied to the headlamp line so it won't drain the battery. I think there's already a picture of it up somewhere.

Glad to see you're getting into the meat and potatoes of the rig.

2 pin marine

http://www.iboats.com/Seachoice-Deck-Connector/dm/cart_id.325080029--session_id.648720292--view_id.4573

The 1969 manual in the dedicated section at the top of the page has the wiring diagram for the 4 and 2 pin connectors.

Ross

 

[Desert Rancher]

Check out boat supply stores. They will have a good selection of plugs, such as:

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=92980&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&storeId=11151&storeNum=10109&subdeptNum=10540&classNum=10542

 

[Tris]

On an older camper that may have had several previous owners, it's a little risky to assume anything about the wiring. I'd want to check to see where each or the circuits on your four pin connector go before I plugged anything in. In particular, if there is a connection for recharging the camper battery via the existing wiring, you might want to consider a battery isolater to ensure that you don't have a huge surge when you connect a fully charged starting battery into a low camper battery. It is discouraging to forget to disconnect the truck and run down your starting battery on a long winter evening.

On my Alaskan, I ran all the 12V. wiring to the back and ran a multi-strand wire to the seven pin trailer connector on the truck. I replaced the exiting truck and camper wire with a huge 4 guage wire so there's almost no voltage drop between the battery isolater and the camper battery. That's probably overkill, but I got the wire for free so why not?

 

[banderswipe]

Hi Robert, Princess auto carries a four pin round to four pin flat converter. I think Canadian Tire has them to.The four pin plug is only meant to power the clearance lights the turn and break lights not charge a battery. You would need much heavier wiring,as has already been mentioned for the battery. Your 120v you might have to go to your nearest RV dealer for help.
I was thinking of changing my 120v to a modern straight 3 pin with a locking collar instead of the locking pins. These are used on all the newer RV's.The battery Isolator switch is a great idea.The orange marine ones work well.
Cheers,
Kevin.
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=112462&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&storeId=11151&storeNum=10109&subdeptNum=10548&classNum=10597

 

[Land-roamer]

Hi Robert, Princess auto carries a four pin round to four pin flat converter. I think Canadian Tire has them to.The four pin plug is only meant to power the clearance lights the turn and break lights not charge a battery. You would need much heavier wiring,as has already been mentioned for the battery. Your 120v you might have to go to your nearest RV dealer for help.
I was thinking of changing my 120v to a modern straight 3 pin with a locking collar instead of the locking pins. These are used on all the newer RV's.The battery Isolator switch is a great idea.The orange marine ones work well.
Cheers,
Kevin.
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=112462&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&storeId=11151&storeNum=10109&subdeptNum=10548&classNum=10597

Hi Kevin,
Thanks for the tip about Princess Auto. I _did_ go there and bought a 4 pin male adapter, but from what I recall it didn't quite fit (one of the 4 pin sockets on the adapter was different and smaller diameter). I'll look again for that 4 pin male to four pin flat adapter. Sometimes the stock changes and often it's hard to find what you're looking for in there...

I see, so the 4 pin plugs into your truck 12v wiring to power the clearance and brake lights (and, I presume, the few 12v light circuits in the camper). Indeed, a battery isolator switch, and a dedicated deep-cycle 12v battery, would be the way to go for powering the internal 12v circuitry.

As far as the 120v circuit, I can see that my external connector is different from yours (see attached). I've been TERRIBLY frustrated in trying to locate something equivalent locally, been to an RV place that was useless, and commercial electrical supply stores that didn't have anything like it (HOME DEPOT and RONA are no help either). That leaves the Internet, or a marine supply store as was suggested. Either that, or try to stick with what I have. I'll still need to troubleshoot the ground fault inside the camper which trips the GFI, but that will wait until Spring (I can't lift the camper in my garage to test out the two 120v outlets on either side, which is where the fault may be). I took apart the single breaker panel, and can't see anything amiss in there.



Well, Season's Greetings and a Happy New Year to all!!!

--Robert

 

[Rusty]

another electrical thread

 

[MikeDahlager]

I purchased replacement connectors at NAPA! I'll state it for the record: 99 out of a hundred times, electrical issues can be traced to a faulty ground.
In my '64 NCO the running lights were grounded to the exterior aluminum skin. Once I attached a shunt from the plug ground wire to the skin, the running lights worked. Incidentally, there was no sort of breaker or fuse in the system. I solved this problem by using an inline fuse in the line to the on-board battery as well as one in the line to the truck battery.
Mike

 

[Rusty]

nice to see the okie noggin back