Landing Gear Lights Turn On By Themselves

[Shilohking]

My 3-year old Cougar 5th wheel has two small courtesy lights over the landing gear.  I never use them. I parked the rig on a storage lot for the winter three days ago, checked that everything was secure, and turned the battery disconnect switch (in a compartment) to kill all power to the battery.

Got a call last night from the storage owner who said the courtesy lights were ON. They can be turned on/off by an external simple switch, but the switch would not shut them off.

I opened the compartment to check the battery cutoff. It was in the correct position to cut power from the battery. Curiously, the toggle switch to raise or lower the landing gear also was receiving power and was working.

I had to disconnect the battery to get the lights out.

Does anyone have an idea what's happening, or are Halloween gremlins taking over my Cougar?

Jerry

[Shilohking]

Thanks to all for your advice. Yep, that pesky remote control was the culprit!

[shepstone]

TakingThe5th wrote:

spud1957 wrote:

Shilohking wrote:
My 3-year old Cougar 5th wheel has two small courtesy lights over the landing gear.  I never use them. I parked the rig on a storage lot for the winter three days ago, checked that everything was secure, and turned the battery disconnect switch (in a compartment) to kill all power to the battery.

Got a call last night from the storage owner who said the courtesy lights were ON. They can be turned on/off by an external simple switch, but the switch would not shut them off.

I opened the compartment to check the battery cutoff. It was in the correct position to cut power from the battery. Curiously, the toggle switch to raise or lower the landing gear also was receiving power and was working.

I had to disconnect the battery to get the lights out.

Does anyone have an idea what's happening, or are Halloween gremlins taking over my Cougar?

Jerry

The only way those lights get 12v is thru the switch. That's the first thing I would take apart and look at.

My remote can also control those lights and it's a flaky setup.

X2 on the remote, if it has one , many have posted that the landing gear lights won't turn off only to find out that the remote over-rides the switch.

[TakingThe5th]

spud1957 wrote:

Shilohking wrote:
My 3-year old Cougar 5th wheel has two small courtesy lights over the landing gear.  I never use them. I parked the rig on a storage lot for the winter three days ago, checked that everything was secure, and turned the battery disconnect switch (in a compartment) to kill all power to the battery.

Got a call last night from the storage owner who said the courtesy lights were ON. They can be turned on/off by an external simple switch, but the switch would not shut them off.

I opened the compartment to check the battery cutoff. It was in the correct position to cut power from the battery. Curiously, the toggle switch to raise or lower the landing gear also was receiving power and was working.

I had to disconnect the battery to get the lights out.

Does anyone have an idea what's happening, or are Halloween gremlins taking over my Cougar?

Jerry

The only way those lights get 12v is thru the switch. That's the first thing I would take apart and look at.

My remote can also control those lights and it's a flaky setup.

[Sun_Dog]

As greende said, if the light(s) are turned on by the remote they can't be turned off with the local switch. Neither these lights, the landing gear or the slide motors have their power removed when the installed battery disconnect switch is off. This is done to prevent attempting to operate these large loads when only the converter is supplying DC power. Some converters are not powerful enough to operate large current loads without the battery. The only fix for disconnecting everything is to disconnect the battery wire or install a disconnect switch directly on the battery.

[greende]

Most likely they were on when you unhooked the first time and were only noted after dark. Do you have a remote control for the slides, awning etc? If so, there is a button on that for the docking lights. When this pressed, the outside switch will NOT turn the docking lights off. Don't ask me how I know this but I ended up rewiring the lights so someone can't accidentally turn them on again. I really do not need to use the remote to turn the docking lights on anyway. Go back and hook the battery back up and push one of the top buttons on the remote. I think it is the one with the star around it.

[spud1957]

Shilohking wrote:
My 3-year old Cougar 5th wheel has two small courtesy lights over the landing gear.  I never use them. I parked the rig on a storage lot for the winter three days ago, checked that everything was secure, and turned the battery disconnect switch (in a compartment) to kill all power to the battery.

Got a call last night from the storage owner who said the courtesy lights were ON. They can be turned on/off by an external simple switch, but the switch would not shut them off.

I opened the compartment to check the battery cutoff. It was in the correct position to cut power from the battery. Curiously, the toggle switch to raise or lower the landing gear also was receiving power and was working.

I had to disconnect the battery to get the lights out.

Does anyone have an idea what's happening, or are Halloween gremlins taking over my Cougar?

Jerry

The only way those lights get 12v is thru the switch. That's the first thing I would take apart and look at.

[TakingThe5th]

the bear II wrote:
My landing gear are still powered when the battery switch is in disconnect position. The landing gear controller is directly wired to the batteries.

X2.

[the_bear_II]

My landing gear are still powered when the battery switch is in disconnect position. The landing gear controller is directly wired to the batteries.

[MrD]

just so you know, I have power to my front landing legs with my 12 volt on/off switch in the off position, but I haven't tried my front lights.

Mike

[Dave_H_M]

Did you check to see if the disconnect switch was really di8sconnecting? My first thought.

[donn0128]

Probably the little switch shorted out.