82' 16ft Scamp battery wiring

[Stephen Krueger]

I recently purchased a 1982 16' Scamp and it has a seperate plug for the onboard battery, the wires are Red, Black and a Orange/Yellow.

At first I thought the orange was a ground wire, but it got a little warm with it was in contact with the frame, so I am thinking it must have to do with the converter.

Where does the orange wire go, not to the battery, or does it???

STEVE K

[Brian B-P]

There is a Wiring Schematic - Scamp Trailer in the FiberglassRV Document Center.

It doesn't really show specific connectors, but it does show that on at least some of their trailers Scamp uses a yellow wire to supply power to the water pump... although I have no idea why that would be combined with some sort of battery connector.

There is also a yellow wire in the lighting circuits... this is normally a backup light, or a stop (brake) light when separate turn signals are used. Again, it makes no sense to me to combine this with battery connections.

Finally, the diagram shows black and white wires used for the positive and negative battery connections, which is normal for RVs. Red and black (as positive and negative, respectively) are conventional for battery connections in motor vehicles. Is this plug really a battery connection?

So my question: where is this plug? Is it a connection to the tow vehicle, in addition to a four-pin plug for the lights, or is it on the trailer, connecting the battery to other stuff on the trailer?

[Stephen Krueger]

This is on the front of the trailer and is in addition to the tow wiring. This is just for the battery. It is possible that it was set up for two batteries and this is something to do with a second. or a trickle charge while it is plugged into 120V.

[Roy in TO]

One end is on the front of the trailer and is in addition to the tow wiring. This is just for the battery.
and
Where does the orange wire go, not to the battery, or does it???

STEVE K

(Italics above were added for clarity)

That is my question Steve, where does the other end of the orange (or is a Orange/Yellow) wire go? Have you tried following it through the trailer?

Roy

[Pete Dumbleton]

You're definitely going to have to chase the wiring down. Scamp factory puts all the wires on one connector, based on the options like battery charge and brakes. AFAIK, all Scamp 16' come w/brakes.

I'm going to stick my neck out and take an educated guess that the other connector is a Flat-4, just for lights, that someone added when they didn't care about battery or brakes and then someone else else added the second connector for battery and perhaps brakes (and perhaps somehow there is 12VDC on the orange wire to the brakes, hence the heat) -- Is there a breakaway-brake switch (black box mounted on inside of A-frame)? Is it activated (pull-pin missing) or shorted? An activated breakaway switch will put egg 12VDC on the entire brake wire, regardless of being connected to TV or not).

[Stephen Krueger]

I will have to take a picture. It is definitly a three wire plug, and the orange is putting out 12 Volts. I have only owned the trailer for 24 hours, so I am learning fast.

It would appear that the orange wire is coming off of the converter inside at 12 Volts power, is this to charge the batter while hooked up to 120V?

[Brian B-P]

The coming photos will help, but it's really starting to look like the best plan - in my opinion - will be to discard both existing connectors to the tug, and replace them (and their cables into the trailer) with a standard and fully functional 7-pin connector.

For the 7-pin I would use the "Bargman" or "RV" style with a round body containing 6 flat pins surrounding one round pin. The connector goes on the end of a 7-wire cable made just for this purpose, with all the right colours and appropriate wire sizes. This would support all of the connections needed for lights, battery charging, and brakes; it would make switching between tow vehicles much more practical, and (just in case) be the best setup for later resale value.

The existing wiring would still need to be traced to find the points to which the wires of the new cable would be connected.

[Pete Dumbleton]

There is usually a connection between the trailer battery and the converter for the purpose of sharing 12VDC to the 12V appliances/lights in the trailer and incidentally for charging the battery when plugged into shore power (120VAC). Dunno why that wire would be going to tow vehicle separately...

Brian's suggestion to replace the connectors with a 7-Way is right on, but first find out where that wire goes.

[Stephen Krueger]

I have a seven way back to the tow vehicle, this is totally seperate and goes to the battery. I will take pics this evening. Sorry for the delay on the pics.