umbilical hardwire

[toddb]

I'm a new owner of a 2010 AF 992. I've been fixing up little things on it and the umbilical is a hodgepodge of parts.
What is the point of disconnecting it from the camper? I was just going to hard wire a new 7 pin using a trailer box. I don't see any clearance issues loading since it would stick out as far as the current plug.

Thanks
Todd

[deltabravo]

Bedlam wrote:
The 6-pin exterior plug is under the kitchen counter, but the water heater may make access to it and the connections difficult. Unless the camper side of the plug is damaged, it seems like too much work to convert to hard wired.

Ditto,

[deltabravo]

ardvark wrote:
Is there not a J box where the truck wires come into the camper. Maybe install a fuse there?

No, AF doesn't have a J-box behind the umbilical inlet. The wire is buried in the wall. Installing a J box will be impossible, because you can't access the wiring to "un-bury" it from within the wall.

[DWeikert]

deltabravo wrote:

wnjj wrote:
If you ever install on a truck without an isolator and can’t reach the plug when it’s loaded, just pull the fuse to stop the charging.

AF doesn't have a fuse to pull to stop charging from the truck.

The fuse to pull is in the truck's fuse box feeding the +12v to the trailer wiring. My Northsar also does not have any way to isolate the truck batteries from the camper's. I had to install an isolator on the truck.

[Bedlam]

The 6-pin exterior plug is under the kitchen counter, but the water heater may make access to it and the connections difficult. Unless the camper side of the plug is damaged, it seems like too much work to convert to hard wired.

[ardvark]

Is there not a J box where the truck wires come into the camper. Maybe install a fuse there?

[deltabravo]

wnjj wrote:
If you ever install on a truck without an isolator and can’t reach the plug when it’s loaded, just pull the fuse to stop the charging.

AF doesn't have a fuse to pull to stop charging from the truck.

[deltabravo]

toddb wrote:
thanks for the input guys, hard wire it is.

Pulling out that 6 pin connector the AF uses and trying to put in some sort of a hard wire pigtail is probably going to be extremely difficult. There's zero access to the wires from inside the camper because they are buried in the wall.

[deltabravo]

enblethen wrote:
Is the camper battery in the camper? If yes, you should have some type of isolator to prevent camper from draining battery.

Arctic Foxes have the batteries in the camper, but no form of isolation. THe truck is where the isolation occurs, either by having a truck that has an isolation system from the factory, or by adding one on earlier model trucks.

My "truck" experience is only with GMs. GM did not have built in isolation on the GMT900 and older trucks. (2014 and older).

I don't know if they do or not on 2015+.

[DWeikert]

My Northstar is also hard wired to the camper. The cord comes out the rear of the camper and plugs into the trailer socket on the truck, not an in-bed socket like some manufacturers use.

[wnjj]

toddb wrote:
thanks for the input guys, hard wire it is.

I think you’ll be fine. Hard wiring means one less connector to fail. If you ever install on a truck without an isolator and can’t reach the plug when it’s loaded, just pull the fuse to stop the charging.

[toddb]

thanks for the input guys, hard wire it is.

[hedge]

My Adventurer is also hard-wired, haven't had any issues with it at all.

There aren't really any standards with truck campers it seems, for example my ubilical comes out at the back drivers side but many come out at the front drivers side.

[mkirsch]

toddb wrote:
I'm just looking for a reason as to why this is done on a truck camper.

Since the other end of the cable is usually inside the truck box and inaccessible when the camper is loaded, having the other end unpluggable is desirable in situations where the charge lead from the truck is hot 100% of the time. On older trucks, this was a thing.

On my truck, it's the only way the camper gets 12V power. There is no provision for onboard batteries on my camper. No place to put one. Nowhere for it to connect. This is factory for this particular line of campers (Palomino) at the time it was built (2000).

My camper plug is in the bed, where it would be for a 5th wheel or gooseneck. It is blocked by the camper when the camper is loaded, and inaccessible. I have already ruined a battery on my truck by forgetting to unplug the umbilical even with the convenient connection on the camper body by the driver's door.

[enblethen]

If you are planning on keeping camper mounted to the truck, then hardwire it. If you planning on removing it often, then think about using a larger blade style seven pin connector.