Help with electrical issue please

[kittlecat]

As a single female RVer, I am happy to report I was able to successfully dewinterize my TT yesterday on my own! However, I've run into several problems and appreciate any help people may offer.


1. I have a 2015 Rockwood Ultra Lite 2608WS. When I turned on the landing lights on the front of the TT yesterday, the light on the left side (driver's side) of the TT did not work (they are LED strips).



2. After hitching the TT up and connecting the lights to my truck, when I went to check the lights on the back of the TT, the left brake light is not working. I don't have a spare bulb right now to switch out with the brake light but am working on that.



Here's what I've done so far:


I checked the fuse panel in the TT and none of the breakers were tripped, nor were any of the flat blade fuses bad. There are no red lights illuminated on the fuse panel.


I otherwise appear to have lights and power inside the entire TT and all exterior lights controlled by the panel inside the TT door work on the outside except the one landing light**. I turned on the fridge this morning to be sure it is functioning properly but won't know till later today. I've also got the a/c turned to check that. I've got the a/c set as follows:


Switch set on fan, fan set on auto low. Do I have that set correctly? I get mixed up sometimes. I think it's a Dometic(?).



3. **Lastly, the water pump is not working. It's not humming, it's not priming, it's not doing anything. It worked last fall when I winterized. Not good as I've got a tank full of bleach water that I can't pull through the TT so will have to drain. When looking at the pump, there is nothing remarkable to note except there was one small drop of a pink fluid (doesn't feel or smell like antifreeze) that seems to have leaked out of the pump.



If anyone has suggestions on what to try with the water pump as well as suggestions about what to try next with my left front landing light and left rear brake light, I'd be most appreciative.


Are there fuses elsewhere on the TT that I should check?



Please note: I am a single female RVer. I am not dumb but my knowledge of electrical issues is quite narrow. My friend who normally would come help is traveling right now and since I've got a trip planned for this weekend myself, for a whole bunch of reasons including safety, I'd like to get the brake light working again. Please be nice in your responses and don't be afraid to keep terminology simple so I can understand it. Thanks!

[Flybob]

The fan setting on the AC should be auto. This will allow the fan to run with the AC. In the low or high position, it will run continuously.


Water Pump.
There is an inline fuse near the water pump on some systems. Check it. If the pump runs but no water, then you need to check the winterize valve. It still may be in the winterize position ( draw in antifreeze).


The landing light issue may just be a bad connection. This one will be harder to find, but should not impact your trip.

[llr]

A lot of separate issues here, the brake light is completely isolated from the TT and powered by the tow vehicle.
Do you have a voltmeter and know how to use it? The 12V systems are very safe to work on and except directly at the battery if you short something out you may see a spark and blow a fuse but no danger.
Are your tail light LED or regular bulbs? If regular bulbs changing it would be the 1st thing.
Does the taillight work in that same fixture?

The 12V system is all fuses, the breakers are 120V. The indicator light will only work if the items on that fuse are turned on.
What is the voltage at the battery when plugged in to shore power and when disconnected?

The water pump sounds like it has a small leak which need to be addressed but that is not stopping it from running. There is generally a fuse in a wire near the pump, check this and check for power there.

[Mr. Dan]

I'll take a shot at this ==> "2. After hitching the TT up and connecting the lights to my truck, when I went to check the lights on the back of the TT, the left brake light is not working. I don't have a spare bulb right now to switch out with the brake light but am working on that."
Those lights are run through fuses in your tow vehicle (GMC Yukon, if I've read your profile correctly). Get your Yukon's Owner Manual and look up fuses for trailer lights. They are separate from tail/signal/brake lights for the truck itself. I just had this issue and my blown fuse was in the under hood fuse box on the driver's side under the hood. Yours may vary.
Also in #2. You wrote "fan set on auto low". My Dometic thermostat has Auto OR Low OR High but not 'auto low'. Must be a different thermostat. Of course, then you have to set the thermostat to Cool.

[wmtire]

kittlecat, can I ask what your are plugged into for shore power in order for your 120 volt AC air conditioner to work.

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by kittlecat

2. After hitching the TT up and connecting the lights to my truck, when I went to check the lights on the back of the TT, the left brake light is not working. I don't have a spare bulb right now to switch out with the brake light but am working on that.



Here's what I've done so far:


I checked the fuse panel in the TT and none of the breakers were tripped, nor were any of the flat blade fuses bad. There are no red lights illuminated on the fuse panel.

You could simply swap the bulbs between left and right brake lights and see if the problem moves. If it does, then a visit to the local auto parts store is in order. Take the old bulb with you. While you are at it, take the bulb from the landing light, too, and get another of those.

If the problem does not move to the other side, there are two possibilities, both well within your capabilities.
1) A fuse has blown. As noted, these fuses are in the tow vehicle, not the trailer. And they are often different fuses than the ones for the tow vehicle. That is, there are four separate fuses for brake lights
a--Left tow vehicle
b--Right tow vehicle
c--Left trailer
d--Right trailer
You will have to read your tow vehicle owner's manual to find the correct one to check. Don't be misled by checking fuse a when you should check fuse c.

2) The other possibility is that one of the contacts in the connector between tow vehicle and trailer has gotten bent. Unplug the umbilical between tow vehicle and trailer. Inspect the contacts in both parts carefully, especially the one labelled Left Turn/Stop in this picture.

[Mr. Dan]

If this trailer is like my 2015 Wildcat, it has LED fixtures for tail lights, signals, flashers. If so it will be much easier to check the Yukon's fuses than to swap LED fixtures which may be caulked to the back wall. It is also more likely to be a blown fuse than an LED fixture.

[Tiggerdad]

I once had the same issue. Swapping good bulb and putting in that location did not help. Finally clean the end of the cord that plugs into the truck. Found a little debris there. Sprayed with contact cleaner and applied a little bulb grease. Works fine now. Good Luck.
I am assuming the lights work on the side side of your tow vehicle.

[Scrapper]

One thing about water pumps is sometimes they can stick from setting all winter. My wp sets from the time I winterize at the end of the season. I've had it happen twice when I went to winterize. I turned it on/off a couple of times and it freed itself then worked fine to finish the job. Now I learned to connect the city water in the spring to the af port just long enough to flush the water pump. Last season it worked without a problem. If the antifreeze dries it gets sticky so if it leaks out enough that can be your problem.

[kittlecat]

First, thank you everyone for your responses. I was able to get most of the problems solved today.

First, my TT has a dedicated 30 amp shore power connection with a surge protector on it. The surge protector wasn't showing any codes to indicate it had experienced any problems. I have a little voltage regulator (not sure if that's the right name for it) that has a needle that moves from side to side plugged in inside the TT. The needle is right in the middle. I do have one of those voltage check things (sorry, don't know the right name) so you can see if a line has juice in it, but don't know how to use it. I'll have to have my friend show me when we go on our group trip in about 2 weeks.

As far as the left tail/brake light that wasn't working, we used some dialectric grease on the connection at the TT/truck and that seemed to help, along with wiggling the emergency flasher switch inside my truck when I activated it to check the brake lights. Between those 2 things, hopefully that problem is solved.

As for the water pump, my friend (who's traveling), aka our camper whisperer, suggested the battery cables be disconnected and the terminals cleaned as the pump runs off the house battery. That and a little thump with the side of a wrench seemed to do the trick. The pump kicked right on and I was able to pull water up to the kitchen faucet in the front of the TT, as well as to the toilet.

However, what isn't working at the moment is the water in the bathroom sink. Nothing. No gurgling, air, nothing. Pump does prime though. But I note in one of the responses that someone suggested I might have the AF inlet valve in the wrong position. I'll check that tomorrow. I'm happy with water in the kitchen as this is just a weekend trip, but the problem will ultimately need to be solved.

I very much appreciate the suggestion about a quick flush of fresh water into the pump when dewinterizing. I wondered if the pump could get "gummed up" from antifreeze after sitting through a Michigan winter. I'll definitely keep that in mind should the problem ever occur again.

I also checked the fridge and water heater today and those are in excellent working condition at this time.

I'm feeling much more settled this evening than I was this morning. My nephew's business partner came over to help me as he's very mechanically inclined and not easily overwhelmed by problems. He laid down under the TT and checked the little bit of wiring that's visible near the battery/tongue (the rest is under the corroplast, which is in very good condition), as well as the fuses (?/!) that are down there, and things look good. He also mentioned that with his truck (same year as mine), that there is a trailer brake fuse as well, separate from the fuse box inside my truck possibly. We didn't end up having to locate or check that fuse box since the brake light issue was resolved, but it is certainly a good thing to remember.

Thank you to everyone who provided me with suggestions, thoughts, ideas, etc. As a group, the knowledge on this forum is truly impressive. I'm lucky to have a camper whisperer available to me most of the time locally, but so many of you on the forum are camper whisperers in your own right. And that's a compliment!

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by kittlecat

However, what isn't working at the moment is the water in the bathroom sink. Nothing. No gurgling, air, nothing. Pump does prime though. But I note in one of the responses that someone suggested I might have the AF inlet valve in the wrong position. I'll check that tomorrow. I'm happy with water in the kitchen as this is just a weekend trip, but the problem will ultimately need to be solved.

If the kitchen faucet works and the bathroom doesn't, the problem is almost certainly that the aerator on the end of the bathroom faucet is clogged. Unscrew it from the faucet and see if you have flow. If you do, hold the aerator against the faucet upside-down to reverse flush it. Then screw it back into place.

[kittlecat]

Excellent suggestion. I'll try that in the morning. Thank you!