battery wiring hook up

[johne3191]

Hi ... I'm John E.

purchased a used ( really used ) 84 scamp (with bathroom ).... went to hook up a battery for it and found misc. wiring sets coming from harness... One set I figured out runs the furnace... then there are two ( factory?) sets coming out of the trailer... one set is a much heavier gage ( white - painted grey ) and another set which was black but had jumpers put on them (yellow and red) that are fused.

If I put one large gage white to the neg. and the smaller black tipped with red ..I have interior lights....

But I feel the two heavy gage white should go to the pos and neg... as a set... or are they just universal grounds... still trying to figure out the smaller black ( tipped with red) use is...( with one large white and the fused red connected to the battery...all the trailer exterior lights come on... that is not a normal sight...
need help on what the two sets do and where they should be hooked to...


Thanks... don't want to experiment farther and burn out components inside the trailer....


John E.

[gordon2]

Well, there is no telling what changes have been made so any advice given online might be dangerous. The generic Scamp wiring diagram might not be much help either, especially since it does not tell you where in the trailer the wiring is. But to what extent it helps, here it is...
http://scamp.n0kfb.org/Manual/electrical.jpg

[Carol H]

As Gordon says pretty hard for anyone here to help you as it is hard to say what the previous owners of your trailer messed around with.

What I can tell you though is on stock Scamps the Black is Positive and the White is Negative.

[johne3191]

as the "cautionary" as the advice is.. it does make sense.... I thought the heavy gage white was a ground set..had downloaded the generic wiring diagram earlier.... but as you said...does not show three sets going to the battery ... just one... I missed from the diagram.. the WHITE (ground) code...and it does make sense now..the fused black ( red tip / yellow tip ) which are fused would go to the positive.... that is why the interior lights worked with that combination....


can understand why one uses what is at hand to make a quick repair...but that only really works as long as you own and take care of it....putting together a "log" book to go with the trailer which lists all the non scamp changes and how to deal with them... now to figure out if it has electric brakes and why this is feeding into the exterior lights when that third set of wires is activated....always thought that the brakes / turn etc. were only powered by the vehicle plug in....

Thanks folks....for your help.... we got the trailer so the daughter in law ( spina bifida ) can go camping and not worry about a bathroom is the woods...or bears... or ... wild squirrels... etc.


John E.

[Borden]

how about some pictures and details, size etc.
t.

[Joe Romas]

I can think of two possible reasons for having the exterior driving and signal light wire(s) at the battery.

(1) There was a bad harness or connector at one time and it lost exterior lights
(2) They wanted to light it up at night in the camp ground.

Joe.

[RogerDat]

When I added electric brakes I added a white ground, folks that add additional battery, solar, inverter (typically heavy wire) might easily end up adding wires to the harness. There is also adding a converter if it did not have one originally or PO installed a different one.


Those are the items I can think of that might cause a person to add basic positive/negative lines. Who knows they might have considered it an advantage to use an unusual color of wire. Or could just be what was to be found in the misc. stuff in the garage.

[gordon2]

Originally Posted by RogerDat

... Who knows they might have considered it an advantage to use an unusual color of wire. Or could just be what was to be found in the misc. stuff in the garage.

That my rig.. some is white and black; but for some mods I used what I had on hand since it was the right gauge and type of insulation, except that it was red and black. That is why I will not try to guess.

[johne3191]

finally got back to this on the to-do-list...got to the point where some lights worked or didn't work if someone wiggled the plug in that goes into the truck.

figured that there were some broken? wires within the plug... but after much trying to figure out how to get it apart ..I finally cut it from end to end... found out that there were at least three wires that had come apart from the blade end. When I tried to push the end from the "shell" the blade section just came out and all wires were now unattached...i wrote down the locations from what I could see without taking the wires from the shell... the order (CCW) seems to be ( starting under the KEY).. Black, small white , blue, lg.white, red , green.... with the yellow in the center...Does this seem right? The diagram for the scamp just shows.. desending order .. black white brown red yellow green blue...


If no one has an answer... next step is to run a jumper from the truck to each of the wires to see what matches...(Black is hot.. and white being negative)...and make sure there is no direct short using these two...

Back to putting storms on the house... outboards into the basement... etc..this winter thing is starting to get old....


Thanks

John E.

[Steve L.]

Scads of web hits on 7 blade wiring drawings if that's what you're looking for. Here's one:
7 blade rv plug - Bing images


The sketch is looking at the face of the plug or socket. If you flipped the plug over as if you were inserting it into the receptacle the colors would match up.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by johne3191

figured that there were some broken? wires within the plug... but after much trying to figure out how to get it apart ..I finally cut it from end to end... found out that there were at least three wires that had come apart from the blade end. When I tried to push the end from the "shell" the blade section just came out and all wires were now unattached...i wrote down the locations from what I could see without taking the wires from the shell... the order (CCW) seems to be ( starting under the KEY).. Black, small white , blue, lg.white, red , green.... with the yellow in the center...Does this seem right? The diagram for the scamp just shows.. desending order .. black white brown red yellow green blue...


.

This is from an older Scamp manual. .

[Joe Romas]

If you have FLAT pins ignore Carol's diagram.

Steve's is the "RV Standard" wiring.

But some have reported that some older Scamp trailers had the round pins.

There's a colorfull one here, choose the 7 pin one.
If yours is a 6 pin they have it too.

Trailers for sale including Stock trailers, Livestock trailers, Cattle trailers, Stock trailers for sale, Aluminum stock trailers, aluminum livestock trailers, aluminum cattle trailers, Elite trailers and Merritt trailers, Sharp trailers, Pride of th

The perfered repair is to get a new Bargman brand cable that has two contacts per pin and a molded end.
Normal length but they are also abailable in longer lengths.
Here's a reduced price on a 10 foot one Bargman that's only about $3 more then another brand 6' one.
7-Way Molded Connector w/ 10' Cable - Trailer End Bargman Wiring 50-67-005

Joe.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Joe Romas

If you have FLAT pins ignore Carol's diagram.

.

Why ignore it? Why would the connection types used - flat or round make any difference? Confused as usually.

The diagram I posted is right out of an older Scamp manual and it shows how Scamp originally wired their trailers and position of the wires on the plug in.

The seven pin diagram is btw how my vehicle was set up to work with my 92 Scamp and it had flat pin connections on the plug ins.

Now what the PO of the OP's trailer may have done on the trailer side wiring is a whole other matter.

[Joe Romas]

Originally Posted by Carol H

Why ignore it? Why would the connection types used - flat or round make any difference? Confused as usually.

The diagram I posted is right out of an older Scamp manual and it shows how Scamp originally wired their trailers and position of the wires on the plug in.


Now what the PO of the OP's trailer may have done on the trailer side wiring is a whole other matter.

I wrote if it's got ROUND PINS ignore it...Because the pin orentation is totally different from the modern 7 pin assignment! Do you suppose that some time in the last 33 years it could have been changed to the newer pin arrangement?

Your pin outs were also posted on a Casita forum and when I put in a new cable confident I followed the diagaram nothing worked!!!
I dug and found what I linked to and guess what, it worked and my Casuita was made 17 years ago.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Joe Romas

I wrote if it's got ROUND PINS ignore it...Because the pin orentation is totally different from the modern 7 pin assignment! Do you suppose that some time in the last 33 years it could have been changed to the newer pin arrangement?

Your pin outs were also posted on a Casita forum and when I put in a new cable confident I followed the diagaram nothing worked!!!
I dug and found what I linked to and guess what, it worked and my Casuita was made 17 years ago.

Still scratching my head. As I said I had a nice modern 7 pin installed on my truck for use with a 92 Scamp and the wires where on it just as the diagram suggests. How would the pin type change anything. If nothing has changed on the trailer side. I did eventually though have the trailer side cut off & updated - ditched the 7 pin blade adapter that came on the trailer side and THEN I had to change both sides up to the newer wiring semantics.

Scamp used the Bargman wiring set up which in itself has been known to throw a few folks off. Not sure what year that Scamp stated to put the newer 7 pin blade type connections on their trailers - but for sure it was some time in the late 90's maybe even later. On newer trailers the wiring hook up looks like this.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Joe Romas

I wrote if it's got ROUND PINS ignore it...

Hummm, from your post:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Romas View Post
If you have FLAT pins ignore Carol's diagram.

Perhaps the above is why I am still scratching my head

[Joe Romas]

Originally Posted by Carol H

Hummm, from your post:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Romas View Post
If you have FLAT pins ignore Carol's diagram.

Perhaps the above is why I am still scratching my head

Maybe you should RE-READ MY LAST REPLY.

I'M DONE

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Joe Romas

Maybe you should RE-READ MY LAST REPLY.

I'M DONE

Joe, not only did I read both your both your posts, as you can see I quoted them.

I apologize if you can not see the humour in my post.

[Joe Romas]

Please go to this LONG link and print out the Current RV standard 7 pin wiring and color coding.
It's the one automobile and truck makers have been using on factory installed 7 pin plugs for at least the past ten years.
http://tinyurl.com/gt8sudv
And it's NOT bargman that's confusing things, it's trailer makers. there are several 7 pin plug wiring and color schems. The RV standard is in the center. Check the colors carefully.
7 pin trailer wiring schemes - Google Search

I didn't place the pdf of this diagram here because it copyrited!