Travel Trailer blocking RF (Garage Door Opener)

[pingman222]

Hello everyone! new here, with quite a mind boggling issue.

We just picked up a 2017 KZ Spree Escape 191BH a couple months ago, and have recently completed a 6800km trip with it, and it was great! However, now that it's parked back in its spot, we are running into an issue with radio frequency interference.

Upon first purchasing the trailer and parking it at the in laws big driveway, they had noticed that all their garage door openers were not longer working via remote, or the wireless outside keypads. As soon as we moved our trailer out to take it on the trip, everything was working perfectly again.

Now that its parked back there, they no longer work again, and neighbours are reporting their doors are no longer being able to be controlled by their wireless remotes.


My furrion observation camera also did not work for a single second on the trailer, always said "no signal". There were also times where the key fob for my tow vehicle was not working with the trailer close by, and when it did, range of the key fob was dramatically reduced.


My trailer does have the aluminum roof, however, i cannot think of where else to start looking or troubleshooting to sort out whats causing all of the interference. Anyone have any ideas??


Thanks!!

[Lynnmor]

3 tons wrote:
My evening LED outdoor landscaping lighting is not well shielded so emits lots of RF which reeks havoc with my garage door opener...

That is why I mentioned LEDs three days ago, don't know if that was considered.

[3_tons]

My evening LED outdoor landscaping lighting is not well shielded so emits lots of RF which reeks havoc with my garage door opener...

[jodeb720]

I'm with JKWilson.

Unplug the trailer, see if the problem stops. If it does, then it's probably the converter - and at that point it's a scavenger hunt.

Plug it in, turn off every breaker.
One at a time turn them on and test to see which circuit is the culprit.

The only thing I can think of is the converter broadcasting RF causing your problem.

[maddog348]

can you contact orig owner re: this anomaly ? Maybe reason he sold it.

JM2¢ ~~ YMMV

[maddog348]

haunted ~~

[DutchmenSport]

At first, when I read your story, I thought ... "no way!" But then immediately remembered a couple months ago we were camped at a State Park in Indiana and every 20 minutes on the dot, the television would turn off. After several times of it turning off on its own, I timed it, and sure enough, exactly 20 minutes apart. Got home and never did it again.

So yea, it's possible something is emitting from your camper. As suggested above, unplug all power, see if the garage door opener works then. Then power up the trailer with everything turned off, and one by one see if you can isolate the root cause.

Either that or ... my second thought after the, "no way" moment .... Aliens --- the outer space kind!

[dougrainer]

Since you purchased used, I would be curious to know if a previous owner had a vehicle tracker system installed similar to what used car dealers install at Tote the Note lots. Doug

[pingman222]

jkwilson wrote:
Likely something is making RF noise. Door opener receivers are not very resistant to interference so anything generating noise will cause issues. Bad spark plug wire in a vehicle is very common.

Is the trailer plugged in to power when it causes issues? Converter would be my first guess as a culprit.

i guess it happens in kind of all different scenarios. As it sits right now blocking garage door frequencies, it's just sitting on the driveway, battery still hooked up but no external power.

At the campsite plugged into 30A, no idea because there were no garage doors there, however i did notice some key fob range issues when trying to unlock the car and such (proximity key).

When towing the trailer, there were actually a couple of times that my car had gone into "no key found in vehicle" mode too

[jkwilson]

Likely something is making RF noise. Door opener receivers are not very resistant to interference so anything generating noise will cause issues. Bad spark plug wire in a vehicle is very common.

Is the trailer plugged in to power when it causes issues? Converter would be my first guess as a culprit.

[Lynnmor]

the bear II wrote:

I would unplug all electronics and disconnect the batteries in the trailer and then start reconnecting one by one to see if any are causing the problem.

Yes do that, but first be sure that any and all LED lights are turned off (not just unlit, but switched off).

[Old-Biscuit]

Any high voltage power lines nearby?

Trailer 'hot skin' due to induction from power lines...

Otherwise....?????

[pingman222]

the bear II wrote:
My first thought was- Could it be an alien space ship in disguise?

If it is plugged into power I guess it's possible the roof may be creating some sort of jamming. But that would mean there would have to be some current going through the roof which means a possible short. First thing I would do is to unplug it from power and if you have solar panels disconnect them.

I remember reading where a motorhome became charged with electricity when it was parked under some high power electric lines. The owner would get a small shock when he touched the skin of his MH. Once he moved the MH out from under the power lines the shock went away.

Do you have a Cell signal booster or WiFi extender they shouldn't cause interference but if the frequencies are close who knows what might happen.

I would unplug all electronics and disconnect the batteries in the trailer and then start reconnecting one by one to see if any are causing the problem.

yeah the easiest will be unhooking the battery at first. We have nothing else in there as far as equipment goes except for the stock furrion head unit, its the DV7100. Quite annoying really, just mind boggling!

[DFord]

Like you say, a big hunk of aluminum by itself should not be causing any problem. Try disconnecting the battery while it's unplugged and see if anything changes. Do you have any wireless battery powered indoor/outdoor thermometers or anything else that might be emitting any RF energy? Pull their batteries if that's the case. After completely disabling everything, see if the other remotes that are acting up work.

If all that fails, you'll need to call Ghost Busters and have the do a scan!

[the_bear_II]

My first thought was- Could it be an alien space ship in disguise?

If it is plugged into power I guess it's possible the roof may be creating some sort of jamming. But that would mean there would have to be some current going through the roof which means a possible short. First thing I would do is to unplug it from power and if you have solar panels disconnect them.

I remember reading where a motorhome became charged with electricity when it was parked under some high power electric lines. The owner would get a small shock when he touched the skin of his MH. Once he moved the MH out from under the power lines the shock went away.

Do you have a Cell signal booster or WiFi extender they shouldn't cause interference but if the frequencies are close who knows what might happen.

I would unplug all electronics and disconnect the batteries in the trailer and then start reconnecting one by one to see if any are causing the problem.