Camper - tow car mismatch

mich800 wrote:
Questions below to better understand what is going on:

The Jeep had a standard four way which had worked countless times with my other trailers. When I bought my RV, Lazy Days did the conversion to 7 pin. The very first time the dealership hooked my camper up to my Jeep it blew out all the lights IN my Jeep. They fixed that and told me MY converter module was bad.

What is a converter module? In the tow vehicle? A converter module is a powered “relay” of sorts that connects to the tow vehicle, taps into the vehicle lights, and sends outputs of those lights to the trailer.

They installed a new one on the spot. When they hooked it back up, it blew the module THEY installed. (That’s two modules down, guys) Lazy Days then Hooked up their camper tester ( big black case with a voltage supply and a bunch of switches and gauges.) The camper blew THAT up as well.

What was the diagnosis? Power back feed from trailer? Short to ground, is there voltage at the frame?. They didn’t tell me any details other than what I said below. “We found a factory screw was accidentally run through the wiring harness and we fixed it.”

(Probably my Jeep, right Doug?). At this point they whisked me away to the waiting room where I waited for SEVEN hours for them to resolve the issue. I was called when they had it all hooked up and all lights/turn signals working. They told me they found a wire through the harness that was allegedly done at the factory and that they fixed it. I brought the camper home and put it in the garage. The brake lights worked at that point. I unhooked it and plugged it in to shore power. The following Friday I hooked the camper back up and it blew the converter module again. While the Jeep lights work fine, the converter module outputs to the trailer were blown.

I took it back to Lazy Days and they put ANOTHER converter module in. In the parking lot, we connected disconnected the camper repeatedly. Brakes always worked. Sweet. I took it home and backed it into the garage. Brake lights worked. Disconnected from the Jeep, and put it in the garage. I DID NOT HOOK TO SHORE POWER.

the following weekend we went down to the keys. Brake lights worked fine all the way down. (Yes, we checked the lights as we were backing in) We backed into our spot disconnected and hooked up to shore power for the week that we were down there. At the end of that week, hooked up the Jeep to the camper and no brake lights. We drove 350+ miles back with no brake lights.

(At this point I recognize that the only time the module blows is after being plugged in to shore power)

Over the remainder of 2019, Lazy Days put NINE new converter modules in. The Jeep wiring was fine before they put the 7 pin in. Jerry Ulm Dodge in Tampa did a complete work up on my tow vehicle, INCLUDING all the trailer wiring and it came back clean. NOTE: The Jeep was taken to a dealership of Lazy Days’ choice as they refused to put any new modules in unless/until the Jeep was ruled out. THE JEEP HAS BEEN RULED OUT.

Have you had an opportunity to test the tow vehicle with a different trailer under the same circumstances and conditions?