Hi everyone,
I am a proud owner of a new Scamp that I inherited from my in-laws. It's a beautiful trailer but has not been good to me since arriving in my driveway. Here is what's going on:
I got a new 7pin RV harness installed on my FJ Cruiser this past week. When connected to the trailer, no lights turn on when turning on the exterior road lights nor do the brake lights or turn signal lights. There is no light functionality what so ever when I connect the trailer 7pin to the FJ's 7pin. HOWEVER, when I connect the Scamp's 15amp cord to my garage outlet, the lights DO come on and DO work as they should. AKA, I have the scamp connected to my garage via the 15amp cord, and the 7pin connected to the FJ while trying brakes, turn signals, etc. They function correctly when the 15amp cord is plugged in, and do not come on at all when not connected to the garage outlet. Hopefully that all makes sense.
My dad loaned me a 7pin harness tester and it showed to be working. It only tests the functionality of the dashboard lights (lights for at night, idk what they are called), blinkers, and brake lights, which all were shown to be working correctly.
I have no power when disconnected from shore OR from the FJ. No lights work on the interior or exterior when not connected to any other power source than the battery.
I took the battery cover off today and the positive terminal was gummed up to all get out. I cleaned it up, installed a new terminal onto the positive side of the wiring, and had no luck still.
I am at wits end. I don't know what else to test and the whole "working while connected to shore, dead when not" is really ticking me off.
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance!
If I understand correctly, your running lights do NOT work when connected to the tow vehicle but do work when connected to the tow vehicle AND to shore power at the same time. AND, while on shore power and connected to the tow vehicle, the marker lights DO turn ON and OFF with the switch in the tow vehicle. AND the turn signals and brake lights come on and off when the turn signal is on or off, and the brake pedal is pressed. If this is all correct then you have a major wiring problem.
The running lights (marker, tail, brake and turn signal lights) are separate from the other wiring on the trailer. They are powered by the battery and alternator on the tow vehicle and do not require even require a battery to be installed on the trailer. A relatively minor wiring error could explain the marker lights coming on when on shore power by getting power from the converter. This is something people sometimes do on purpose to have the marker lights on when parked at a campsite (and thereby annoy their neighbors). Or the brake light or turn signals could be on all the time. BUT if the lights are still being controlled by the tow vehicle's switch(es) but only work when on shore power then that is very strange indeed.
First I would verify the new 7-pin on the tow vehicle is OK. Is a trailer lights converter in the tow vehicle required for the additional power load of the trailer's lights. Was it installed? Your tester is likely correct but it draws much less power then the entire trailer does. I would double check. A few options.. 1. Hook it up to a different trailer with the same config, or 2. Get your voltmeter (multi-meter) and check each pin on the tow vehicle connection one at a time while someone else activates the turn signal, brake and marker lights switch in the vehicle (being careful not to short out any “hot” pin to a ground or negative connection).
Then I would check the trailer’s lights. Disconnect the house battery, tow vehicle and shore power. Using an alternate 12 volt power supply or battery (or the house battery with the connections to the trailer removed), find the ground connection on the trailer umbilical cord plug (#2 on this diagram) and connect the negative on the power supply, alternate battery. Then one at a time apply positive voltage to the appropriate pins and see if the right lights come on.
If any of those checks fail, then see if the cord is wired correctly to the trailer’s wiring by finding where the umbilical cord connects to the trailer’s wiring. That may be in the front bench area with the wires connected with wire nuts. Usually the wire colors will match up but you can’t assume that means its is correct. So, connect the same alternate power supply’s negative to the (usually white) ground wire and then undo the other wire nuts one at a time, matching the wire colors to the appropriate lights. Apply the positive side of the 12 volt supply to the bare wires and see if the lights work, and if the proper lights are the only ones that come on.
If any of these checks fail to illuminate the right lights, then remove all bulbs and check for continuity at the bulb socket, ground to ground and positive to positive starting at the umbilical cord pins and / or the wire nut connections. If you find that any of connections do not show the continuity that they should, then the wiring problem maybe be in areas under the wall finishing or otherwise so difficult to find that it might be easier to just rewire the faulty part.
If it were only a case of the lights not working, then another check is to see if the bulbs are OK and the sockets are clean and not corroded.
It takes a methodical trial and error procedure.
It also sounds like you have a bad house battery, and / or blown fuse(s). But that should be a separate issue from the running lights issue. Unless you have good experience and knowledge of lead acid batteries (and maybe a hydrometer), its easier to just take the battery to an auto parts store that will do a load test on it, usually for free. There should be a fuse near the battery and the holder might be corroded and due for replacement. Another fuse maybe in the rat’s nest of wiring near where the power comes into the camper. And the converter and / or fuse block should be checked also.
Hi Boums. I just picked up my Scamp 13 a couple months ago. I don't know if this has anything to do with your problem but I mention it because it fooled me and the mechanic that first looked at it. I had trouble with one tail light that wouldn't blink. I have a 2003 Tahoe and the fuse box is under the hood with the engine. All fuses looked good. In short there was a 2nd fuse box that had an access panel on the side of the dash that you could only open when the door was open. totally camouflaged. The owners manual clued me in. The fuse in there was bad. That got the trailer tail light problem fixed.
Another problem I had was I noticed that the camper was drawing all its power from the camper battery and only charging that battery when on shore power. I had to keep a bag of ice in the fridge for the way home as the draw from the fridge on electrical power would draw the camper battery all the way down. That problem was that the auxiliary power pin on the 7-pin hookup from the TV wasn't doing anything. Turned out that the fuse for it on the TV was a dummy fuse and I had to get a real 40A fuse for it. The dummy fuse is from the factory. Just a piece of plastic shaped to look just like the fuse that was needed. (Thanks GM). Anyway, I don't know if any of that helps but I hope it does.
Oh, one last thing. The guy at Scamp told me that if i ever did have trouble with power to check the inline fuse that's in the camper's battery box. He said that's a typical fail.
R.
This may be totally unrelated and may not apply to your vehicle. I had the dealership install a factory hitch and brake controller on my 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee. When I first hitched up my 2015 16-footer, nothing worked. We checked fuses at a local service station and the like. I eventually took it to another dealer, and they looked at it for a couple of hours without figuring it out. Then a more experienced mechanic at the dealership took a peek, and decided that the vehicle computer had not been updated to reflect the addition of the 7-pin hitch. They did the update and that was all it took. Of course that should have been done with the original install, but fell through the crack.
Good luck!