paul_arc
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Re: Lance camper draining battery
I talked to my work and there is a DC clamp meter I can bring home to try troubleshooting this. I wont be home until mid next week so I can put a plan together on things to test. - Clamp the positive and negative lead on both truck batteries with the camper plugged in and unplugged. Ideally both readings should be 0. - Clamp each wire on the 6 pin wiring harness on the truck side while plugged in and unplugged. Even both 8 gauge + and - wires. Any other suggestions on what I should try to use the DC amp clamp on? Or something else I should try doing to solve this problem? Thanks for the help guys972Views0likes0CommentsRe: Lance camper draining battery
I don't have anything extra plugged into the truck when the camper is plugged in. Just the camper plug. I thought maybe the brake controller but it is always in the truck and I didn't tap onto the output wire for the brake controller. I checked the voltage on the lance plug and I have 13v on the charging wire that is coming from the camper battery and isolator. but on the truck side, that wire is just capped off under the truck. Can it be anything with the 8 gauge ground wire that I have bolted to the truck chassis but I don't have the 8 gauge hot wire to the batteries? I was just figuring the ground needed to be hooked up in order to make the turn signals and brake lights to work.972Views0likes0CommentsRe: Lance camper draining battery
AnEv942 wrote: I'm reading/assuming that the trucks charge line is live. Though didn't say whether or not its connected at truck engine bay fuse block, my understanding is the Chevy charge wire isn't connected from factory. Its the only route that 12v can be drawn from truck hence my assumption charge wire is live. On the Chevy the charge line is always hot if connected. I would meter the receptacle camper is plugged into for constant 12v. Somewhere somehow, camper is connected to the trucks charge line. AS trailer doesn't have a charge line (odd) and pigtail to camper, charge line isn't hooked up- yet camper is draining the truck battery. Seems you are NOT using truck to recharge trailer/camper while on the road, one option is to pull fuse on trucks charge line. I just checked all the pins on the lance 6 pin and trailer 7 pin, and none of them had 12v with the ignition off. I would think that would mean that it shouldn't be able to drain the truck battery??972Views0likes0CommentsRe: Lance camper draining battery
joerg68 wrote: I tapped those into the 7 way at the rear of my truck. On the truck side of the camper plug, have you connected Pin #4 or not? It has +12V from the truck when you look at a plug diagram such as this: https://www.ajtnt.com/7-way-rv-plug-diagram/ Do you have a cheap multimeter? What is the voltage reading on Pin #4? I just checked all the pins on the lance 6 pin on the truck and none of them had 12v. I checked all the pins on the 7 pin trailer plug on the truck and none of them had 12v with the ignition off. I checked both the 6 pin and 7 pin plug with the blinkers, brakes, reverse lights and head lights on, everything had the correct voltage with the meter. Then nothing had voltage with the ignition off.972Views0likes0CommentsRe: Lance camper draining battery
ticki2 wrote: If you plug in the 5th wheel plug and let it sit does it drain the truck battery as the camper plug does ? If it does not check where you tapped in for the lance plug . Is the 30a fuse under the hood for the charge line in or out ? The 5th wheel never drained the truck batteries before but I haven't had it plugged into the truck since I put in the lance plug on the truck. So that is a good idea, I'll plug the 5th wheel in and let it sit for a few days. Then that should tell me if the problem is on the truck side or the camper side since all the wires are connected together on the camper and trailer plug.421Views0likes0CommentsRe: Lance camper draining battery
GeoBoy wrote: You have a propane leak alarm and a carbon monoxide alarm that are always active unless you shut the power off to the camper, they will drain your batteries. That is correct except those alarms are connected to the camper battery and doesn't draw from the truck (unless that charging wire is connected)421Views0likes0CommentsRe: Lance camper draining battery
joerg68 wrote: If only the exterior lights are connected, how can the camper draw anything from the truck when the truck is off? When no lights are on in the truck; no lights can come on in the camper, right?. All lighting pins in the plug are at 0V, or the respective light would be on on the truck as well. Provided everything is wired correctly on the truck side. The wiring for the exterior lights bypasses the camper battery and the rest of the camper electrics. In that regard, the camper behaves like a trailer without any power of its own. Or are there campers out there that do it differently? So there must be *some* connection between the +12V charge line and the camper elecrical system, somewhere. I think. Can you disconnect the +12V at the truck side of things? Be careful though, dependig on how the truck side was wired, the line is fused to 30 or so amp - or maybe not at all if the plug was installed by someone who didn't know what they were doing. I wired in the plug on the truck side myself. The factory 8 gauge wire for the 12v charging wasn't long enough to make it to the battery so I haven't hooked it up yet. So that's how I know that it isn't connected. But like you said, the only thing connected to the truck is the turn signals, running lights and reverse lights. Those just go from the truck, through the camper cable into a fuse block inside the camper, then out to the proper lights on the exterior of the camper. That's why I'm not sure why they would be killing the truck battery, because if you don't activate the turn signal, then it's just an open relay in the truck. There shouldn't be a path to the battery.421Views0likes0CommentsRe: Lance camper draining battery
I'll check first for any stray wires like suggested. The Lance receptacle in the truck bed is all molded plastic and you can't see the connections if there is something wrong with it. Before installing though I used my ohm meter and checked each pin together to make sure each pin was infinity with all the other pins and they were. I guess what I can do is remove 1 wire at a time and let it sit for a few days then see which one quits killing my truck batteries. Then go from there. All the camper lights are LED and they all work as they should. My Arctic fox 5th wheel just plugs into my 7 way trailer connection and doesn't have a charging wire to charge the trailer batteries. But that one doesn't drain the truck batteries at all. I bought a 7way Trailer Y harness for my bumper plug, so that I can put another 7 way in the truck bed for the 5th wheel. That one doesn't have any problems. Then I tapped onto those wires for the lance plug. There is no battery drain without camper plugged in, and the camper charging wire is not connected. Also one more note. When I got the camper, there were 2 blown 30amp fuses that are on the output side of the converter causing it not to charge the camper battery. I replaced them and it seems to be working as it should. So I am not sure why they were blown in the first place.421Views0likes0Comments
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