Electrical Issues

[Debbie Ray]

I started getting my Scamp 16' Deluxe ready for the summer and have a couple of electrical issues I need to solve.

1. At the end of last towing season my driver's side turn signal and tail light were not working. I've checked all my ground wires starting with the brake controller, trailer plug and at the tail light fixture. Now the tail light
works but the blinker doesn't. Any other suggestions? (yes I did change the bulbs)
2. I am replacing my interior 12v light bulbs with LED's. When I started this
project I discovered that I had no 12v power at all. I thought I must have left something on so I plugged into shore power to charge back up. After an over night charge still no power. The 12v lights and pump work when the trailer is on shore power. What is the next things I should look at?

The good news is that during my research on these problems I discovered that whoever wired the trailer towing plug had just spliced one on to the end of the wire. At first I thought this might very well be my problem with the tail light. I properly connected a new plug and I'm sure that fix will save me some future headaches that the spliced wires would have caused.

Thanks for your help!

[Terry G]

Debbie, Trying to troubleshoot these sort of things is nearly impossible unless you have some way to actually tell if you have voltage and continuity. The best tool is a multimeter. These are pretty cheap now--as little as $5 at Harbor Freight. First, I get a long piece of wire and connect it to the battery. Set your meter to ohms, hook the minus from your meter to this piece of wire and start checking grounds. You shouldn't have more than a couple ohms between the battery and any ground in the trailer. Then change the meter to voltage and check your battery and all the positive voltage points. The voltage should be close to the same at the battery and all other positive voltage points. I know this sounds complicated, but it seemss like the only way to know for sure what's going on.

[Carol H]

Debbie there is a hidden fuse that is buried on my scamp under the rat fut under the front bunk - just inside the trailer at the point the wiring comes into the trailer from the battery - its kind of hard to tell that it is a fuse as its spliced into a thin wire with tape around it. Have no idea if thats your problem or not but it may be worth looking at.

[Debbie Ray]

Carol, thanks for the hint. I had found the fuse in my closet (I have a front bath Scamp) but did not realize there was a second one outside in the battery box. That one was the culprit! Lights are up and running again!

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Debbie Ray

Carol, thanks for the hint. I had found the fuse in my closet (I have a front bath Scamp) but did not realize there was a second one outside in the battery box. That one was the culprit! Lights are up and running again!

Happy it worked! It really is a silly little fuse that goes unnoticed unless you really looking for it. It was one of those little things I discovered about my trailer the long/hard way. LOL