Trillium trailer 12V wiring

[Rick G]

Originally Posted by Rodre

Hi Rick,

Picture is awesome, as they say: worth a thousand words! Thanks for that. It looks like they may have just spliced into the cable at the factory. I may consider doing the same thing and wrapping everything in that automotive cable wrap.

I guess if I add a ground to the trailer frame at the battery I my not need the second 12v ground. Would haveing two 12v grounds hurt anything? I am going to have to see how they made the ground of the existing cabling.

~Rodre

If it was a house, then only 1 ground point should be used, because there might be a different ground potential between the two grounding points (which are actually metal stakes driven into the ground) which could create a current flow in the ground path, which is a bad thing. If you ever have diagonal black bars across your TV screen or a hum in your stereo, that is often a result of having two (or no) ground paths in the circuit. Conventional wisdom would suggest that it is better to have only one ground path on your trailer for the 12V. However, given that it is a solid metal frame and the two ground points are only a few feet apart, I would expect that having two ground points for 12V on your trailer frame would be perfectly safe. However, I would still make it just one ground point for 12V, near the battery, because then in the future you won't have to remember that you did something the non-standard way if you or a future owner want to make changes.

Rick G

[Rodre]

In looking at the wiring it appears that there may only be one ground point to the frame. I think I mistook the green wires from the wiring harness as the ground. I could have sworn I saw a second ground point to the frame, just under where the wiring harness, but it looks like I may be wrong. I am about to pull focus on the wiring of my Trillium so I will know for sure soon.

I am missing one fo the black marrette caps. If anyone has any left over from redoing the wiring I would love to get my hands on it so I don't have to put a new one in due to the missing cap. It says "Marr M92" on it with the CSA logo at the top. It looks like this:

[Rodre]

Yes, only one ground point to the frame and it is coming from the 110v breaker (my Trillium doesn't have a power converter :-( ). I also miraculously found the missing cap pictured above in a crevice in the floorboards in the rear storage compartment. I couldn't beleive my eyes where I was feeling around for the wiring in that area and my hand produced the cap. Code red over :-P

[KevinWA]

sorry for the hi-jack...but this seems to be related...ihope!

our 1978 4500 does not have a battery. it has the progressive converter.

wanting to know if the fridge is powered off 12v when pluged into shore power? does the fridge get its power from the converter or does it come from the 120volt side?

someone here mentioned using a delran battery tender as a battery charger(smart) in place of the old converter............i ues 3 of these for other toys when i'm away from home for extended times, so i am fimiliar with how they work(very well!!).........if you were to do this would you complety seperate your 120volt /12 volt systems? and wire up a 120 volt home plug for your smart charger for charging the battery ?

just thinking about re-wiring and adding a battery... looking for tips? thank you

[Rodre]

Originally Posted by KevinWA

sorry for the hi-jack...but this seems to be related...ihope!

our 1978 4500 does not have a battery. it has the progressive converter.

wanting to know if the fridge is powered off 12v when pluged into shore power? does the fridge get its power from the converter or does it come from the 120volt side?

someone here mentioned using a delran battery tender as a battery charger(smart) in place of the old converter............i ues 3 of these for other toys when i'm away from home for extended times, so i am fimiliar with how they work(very well!!).........if you were to do this would you complety seperate your 120volt /12 volt systems? and wire up a 120 volt home plug for your smart charger for charging the battery ?

just thinking about re-wiring and adding a battery... looking for tips? thank you

Hi Kevin,

I think you may want to start here:

Fiberglass RV - Document Center - trillium 1300 wiring diagram

is the fridge 2 way or 3 way?

~Rod

[KevinWA]

fridge is 3 way....your are fast!! thanks

[Rodre]

Originally Posted by KevinWA

fridge is 3 way....your are fast!! thanks

Hmmm, that is a tough one for me because mine doesn't have the converter and I am not familiar with it. I started to type a big long answer but it would have only served to confuse you. The manual for my fridge, which is a Dometic RM211 states: "The polarity is not important, but the body or chassis of the automobile or trailer should not be used as a substitute for one of the wires" and "The current is 8 amps when the refrigerator is operating on 12 volts therefore the wiring from the battery to the fridge must be heavy enough to carry this load satisfactorily without voltage drop. The minimum size of wiring to be used is 14 A.W.G.".

The 12 volt wiring might connect to the power converter, so you can run the fridge on 12vdc either from the battery or when it is plugged in to 110vac and converting. Keep in mind it draws 8 amps so it may overload the converter so you may just want to connect it directly to to the battery as the manual suggests. This way it is either getting powered from 12vdc while you are driving, 110vac while at an RV park, or propane while off grid.

I think you should wait until someone who has a similar setup as yours answers.

Sorry I couldn't be much more help.

~Rodre

[Rodre]

Originally Posted by Rodre

Hmmm, that is a tough one for me because mine doesn't have the converter and I am not familiar with it. I started to type a big long answer but it would have only served to confuse you. The manual for my fridge, which is a Dometic RM211 states: "The polarity is not important, but the body or chassis of the automobile or trailer should not be used as a substitute for one of the wires" and "The current is 8 amps when the refrigerator is operating on 12 volts therefore the wiring from the battery to the fridge must be heavy enough to carry this load satisfactorily without voltage drop. The minimum size of wiring to be used is 14 A.W.G.".

The 12 volt wiring might connect to the power converter, so you can run the fridge on 12vdc either from the battery or when it is plugged in to 110vac and converting. Keep in mind it draws 8 amps so it may overload the converter so you may just want to connect it directly to to the battery as the manual suggests. This way it is either getting powered from 12vdc while you are driving, 110vac while at an RV park, or propane while off grid.

I think you should wait until someone who has a similar setup as yours answers.

Sorry I couldn't be much more help.

~Rodre

In re-reading your question the simple answer is yes, the wiring is all separate. The back of the fridge on mine has a rotary switch where you choose either 12vdc or 110vac. If you want to use propane you have to turn this switch to the off posistion so you can turn the small lever to start the propane flow (it has an interloc so you can't start electric operation if propane is already running and visa-versa).

~Rodre

[Rodre]

Originally Posted by Rodre

In re-reading your question the simple answer is yes, the wiring is all separate. The back of the fridge on mine has a rotary switch where you choose either 12vdc or 110vac. If you want to use propane you have to turn this switch to the off posistion so you can turn the small lever to start the propane flow (it has an interloc so you can't start electric operation if propane is already running and visa-versa).

~Rodre

Online version of fridge manual:

http://www.nationalserroscotty.org/r...meticRM211.pdf

~Rod

[KevinWA]

Originally Posted by Rodre

Online version of fridge manual:

http://www.nationalserroscotty.org/r...meticRM211.pdf

~Rod

very cool...many thanks!! i am having a hard time trusting the old wires and converter....last summer when we bought the camper, i found tin foil on the fuse in the pwer converter..and it would HUMM and get warm....so i went on a hunt for a new converter....after removal and close inspection, i found the fuse holder to be in poor condition.contacts inside were not great....after looking for a replacement(fuse holder) online, i found one in michigan..not worth the hassel to get it shipped accross the boader to Canada!! so i installed a new push in blade style in line fuse.........the HUMMing went away, and the new fuse holder does not get hot, and it does not blow.........yup, long story bla bla bla...........so all seems to be good, but i just wonder if it is worth redoing??

thank you for your help....now i got another project to do!!

[Rick G]

Originally Posted by KevinWA

very cool...many thanks!! i am having a hard time trusting the old wires and converter....last summer when we bought the camper, i found tin foil on the fuse in the pwer converter..and it would HUMM and get warm....so i went on a hunt for a new converter....after removal and close inspection, i found the fuse holder to be in poor condition.contacts inside were not great....after looking for a replacement(fuse holder) online, i found one in michigan..not worth the hassel to get it shipped accross the boader to Canada!! so i installed a new push in blade style in line fuse.........the HUMMing went away, and the new fuse holder does not get hot, and it does not blow.........yup, long story bla bla bla...........so all seems to be good, but i just wonder if it is worth redoing??

thank you for your help....now i got another project to do!!

Hi,

Just wanted to let you know that the RM211 fridge has an internal fuse on the 12V line (the grey wire) which is stuffed down inside the electrical controls box on the back of the fridge. I couldn’t figure out why my fridge would not work on the 12V setting when it worked great on 110V. I checked the wiring and the heater element, and everything seemed ok. Then I noticed the fuse on the electrical diagram in my owners manual, and fished it out of the wiring box on the fridge. It was an open circuit, and the fuse holder was melted and deformed so that it could not be opened to change the fuse. I cut it off and tied the wires together with a Marrette connector. I had already installed a fuse in my fuse block for the fridge 12V wiring, so that internal fuse was not necessary. Now it works correctly.

If you have no battery, perhaps you should just run the fridge on the 110V setting? The 8 or so amps the fridge draws on 12V (mine draws 8.3 amps) will use up most of your 10 amps available from the stock converter.

Rick G.

[KevinWA]

i printed a copy read it twice.........i think i understand how the elec sides of the fridge works now...thank you. i will file it away in the camper to read again some rainy evening.