Hey guys, new to the forums im hoping im posting in an ok part of the forums for this. So basically we got an old vintage Trailblazer camper prolly like 14-16ft, But there was no electrical on the outisde of the trailer hooked up, i have the wires but no outlets. In side it has a box with one of those old traditional screw in fuse's, but im not sure what i need to hook up on the side for Plugging into a post, and for the trailer lights. lookin for a little direction.and like i said, i have all the wires sticking out, i just dont have plugs/outlets.Inside the trailer it has an outlet like you have in the house, no idea if its an 15a or 30a.

I had the same problem once and it took me a long time to figure it all out, so I will see if I can give you some clues. If your TT is old enough, many of the old ones used the siding to provide a neutral that carried the return from all the outside lights. Often the fixtures would work their way loose from the siding and then the lights inside the fixture would not work, or work oddly.You may have a brown wire, a green wire, and a yellow wire. Those are the positive feed to the rear lights. Connect your negative from a good battery to the ground on the TT, someplace on the siding or frame, and touch the positive to those wires to see what happens with the bulbs at the back. If nothing happens, then you should either find a way to see the back of the rear lights from inside the TT, or if necessary, remove them off the back of the TT and connect negative to the metal frame of the fixture, and positive to the filament leads to see if the bulbs work.Only once you get the actual fixtures working properly can you then try connecting your wires to an actual plug.PM me with your results from this and I will keep working with you. I have fixed many rigs and know how to fix brake/run lights that operate strangely with amazing results.

The OP is talking a out 110 AC not the cord to the truck.

There should have been a cord to plug in somewhere at one time. Somebody has stolen it. Take apart the box where the screw in fuse is located and see if you can find where the cord originally was. Then you will have to replace it with a new cord. You should find someone that knows about 110 volt power for this to be on the safe side. All the cord will do is let your outlet inside the trailer work. The lights most likely were run from 12 volt battery power. ( like a car battery) There should be a place to put a battery and the wires to hook it up. If not someone stole them too sorry to say. The battery was probably mounted on the hitch but, not necessarily for sure. I once had a old trailer that had the battery mounted in a enclosed box inside the trailer with a access door to the outside to pull the battery in and out of.

I have all the wires sticking out of the trailer, just no plug on the end of them. The trailer we got was sitting since 1979, and its in pretty good condition for a trailer that has been sitting for over 30 years. Frame and wheel bearings all still in working condition. A lot of the interior got water damage but the parts that didn't look brand new. I got a lot of tearin into to do, but i was wondering if there was a special outlet i would wire into the power wires that are coming out of the trailer and mount it onto the side for an external plug.

You need a "motor base" plug. The non-marine ones can be found at big box stores or some rv places have them

Electrical question on my Vintage Trailblazer camper

17 Replies

Sokniw
Explorer
Oct 15, 2013
Yeah im excited to get it fixed up and use it for the first time next spring, i gutted about 75% of it this weekend..
opnspaces
Navigator III
Oct 12, 2013
That's an awesome looking trailer. If you're going to gut and rebuild it internally I would definitely add all new 120V wiring and a new power distribution converter/charger and a 30A cord. Run some 12v for a vent fan, stove vent and water pump. Basically make it like a modern TT built into a vintage chassis.
Sokniw
Explorer
Oct 11, 2013
it has 1 normal light wired in, and the other light was a gas light.

but hey the trailer was worth 150$
CavemanCharlie
Explorer III
Oct 11, 2013
Was there any 12 volt lights mounted in the trailer? Some of the really old ones had no 12 volt system at all. They had a couple of 120 volt receptacles for when you were plugged in and then they had gas lights in the trailer that ran off of the propane bottle.
CavemanCharlie
Explorer III
Oct 11, 2013
The stuff on the front was for a plug that was plugged into your tow vehicle.
CavemanCharlie
Explorer III
Oct 11, 2013
That stuff coming out that back was the original 120 volt wiring. Boy! I sure wouldn't hook anything to that! But, that's just me. It might not be as bad as it seems. I'm no electrician.
CavemanCharlie
Explorer III
Oct 11, 2013
I like the shutters.
Sokniw
Explorer
Oct 11, 2013
Yeah not sure on whats going on in there right now, like i said it has a old fuse box and it looks like 2 tradition house plugs are in there, ill have to take some pictures of them.. The stove was gas and the fridge was just an icebox no electrical needed. But i ripped em both out they were nasty.

Coming out the side on the back.

Coming up to the hitch

Pictures of the trailer itself. once i get more done ill do a before and after post.
RoyB
Explorer II
Oct 11, 2013
Not sure what you may be thinking about doing with the vintage camper. Some folks like to bring them back as they were originally.

I would probably install a modern power distribution panel and rewire all of the 12VDc wiring and add 120VAC wiring for 120VAC appliances.

My 2008 OFF-ROAD POPUP trailer came with a very simple ELIXIR power distribution box with a 30AM built-in battery charger in it. All of the trailer wiring was routed thru two-inch holes and went under the non-enclosed belly of the trailer and had wires going everywhich under the trailer to get from point A to point B. A real RATS nest of wiring.

All of the wiring ended up behind the ELIXIR unit and the 12VDC lines were all divided up in to three groups of wiring and terminated into the three 12VDC FUSED zones on the ELIXIR unit.

The 120VAC romex wiring did the same thing and was tied together to feed the ONE provided 30AMP Circuit breaker for the trailer. My trailer has all of the modern 120VAC appliances already installed and everything was feed from this one 120VAC 30AMP circuit breaker.

I removed the old ELIXIR power converter/charger/Distribution unit and replaced it with a WFCO 8900 series power distribution unit with a WF8945 Converter module installed...

This gave me nine 120VAC circuit breaker positions and eleven 12VDC ATC fused positions on the power distribution panel.

This pictorial drawing summaries the WF8900 Distribution Center install

I routed all of the 12VDC cabling from where they were being used to the WF8900 distribution panel which required alot of cabling to go under the trailer. Here I used regular PVC Junction Boxes mounted from the bottom of the floor and drilled a large hole thru the center of the box to gain access thru the floor. This all dressed in very nice and completely sealed from weather and bugs gaining access to the trailer. I connected these PVC boxes together using 3/4-inch flexible PVC conduit to make a complete round-robin path for cables as shown in blue in the floor plan pictorial of my OFF-ROAD trailer. No cables visible under the trailer.

Now I can pull my off-road trailer thru the underbrush at various off the power grid location and not worry about snagging the cables under the trailer.

Having the 120VAC terminated into the so called "BASE POWER CONNECTIONS" allows me to utilize several different sources of 120VAC power to operate the trailer as shown in this pictorial drawing.

This is more detailed floorplan of my off-road trailer showing where most of the system units are located.

This is a manf floorplan of my off-road popup trailer

Submitted for food for thought only...
Roy Ken
CavemanCharlie
Explorer III
Oct 10, 2013
I love pictures. Keep us posted on the progress. Glad you got your answer. I don't know what a motor base plug is. Sorry I was not able to help.