HELP

[Dave1026]

At the beginning of the summer, my future wife and I bought a 2011 Rockwood HW 276 and I have to say i was very excited about this camper when we acquired it, however now I am less than pleased to own it.We have took it camping a total of three times for a long extended weekend and the number I things breaking are outnumbering the days we have been camping.The door wire that helps slide the door into place, two cabinet hinges.Staples coming out of the veneer.The door panels feel apart the other day.Lastly all the caulking on the camper was pulling apart from the seams so I had to re caulk the entire camper .
After that laundry list of things that have broken and/or have replaced I tried contacting Forest river.Let me tell you I was less than impressed with their customer service.I asked for the wire diagram for my camper and his reply was I don’t have those.Hmmmm I contacted the “manufacture” and he doesn’t have the wire diagram..

The biggest problem I am having at this point..I was coming home from camping on the fourth and by electrical breaks were not working and in fact stop working all together.The trailer lights and turn signals weren’t working as well I pulled over and checked my wiring hook up and noticed that there was a clicking noise coming from the fridge?? We had previously left the fridge on dc power on the way home but was connected to 110 ac power at the camp site..So I turned the fridge off and drove slowly .20 mins later the breaks started working again however at this point my truck began to reach the ¾ line for the temp of the engine at slower speeds but when I would reach 60 the temp work drop back to normal.

When I made it home and started to investigate things a little further I noticed I blew a 10 amp fuse in circuit three even with the main power switch turned off.I checked the camper battery when putting it on a charge that it only had 40 % of it charge.Plugged the fridge into 110 and it works just fine.I next checked my truck battery is showed roughly 12. Something on a volt meter and when the truck was running it read 15 volts.Playing around with a few thing I eventually disconnected the 30 amp fuse for the accessory wire that was ran with the power for the electrical brakes when installed and it arched on me when I reconnected it.A few fuses on the breaker in the camper I noticed arched as well when putting them back in.

I have a few ideas of what could be happening but I am looking for some thoughts of things I might be overlooking.I would appreciate and advice since I cant get any answers from the service managers from forest river.I guessing there just preoccupied with the current lawsuit and fines there having to face http://www.elkharttruth.com/news/business/rv-industry/2015/07/09/Forest-River-RV-agrees-to-35-million-settlement-with-federal-regulators-over-safety-recall-reporting.html.

[f5moab]

I would guess their service is not preoccupied with a recall or the reporting thereof. Their lawyers...yes!
And no, most manufacturers do not supply wiring diagrams. Even car/truck manufacturers don't supply one; however, you can purchase one for a few hundred $$.

[bikendan]

yep, wiring diagrams aren't available, pretty much industry-wide, not just FR.

not sure why you're upset at FR, when you bought a 5 year-old popup and you've mentioned nothing about how well it was maintained by previous owners.
caulking is a normal maintenance thing that should be done often.

who knows how well or poorly previous owners took care of it or abused it.

what brake controller are you using?

[kinma13]

Love n very happy with my hw276.

[HONDAMAN174]

When we had our HW277, we would occasionally blow the main fuse to the convertor and charging fuse to the TV. To keep this from happening, we would first check the 7 pin at the TV to make sure everything worked(plug in tester). Then plug in harness to trailer. Only then would we switch over to 12v on the fridge.

Sounds like the trailer battery went dead from running fridge since fuse was also blown from tow vehicle and not providing any power.

Sorry that it seems like your unit quality is frustrating you, but you could also spin it as all the opportunities to fix these items yourselves and be proud of it. As with any rv they all have quality issues. Hope that you enjoy your time camping and less fixing things-I just look at it as customizing.

[Flybob]

First step is to take a deep breath. You appear to have several things going on and lumping them all together will make them impossible to correct.

1st. Brakes. In normal operation the brakes have nothing to do with the 12V [power system in the trailer. only if the breakaway switch is activated does the trailer 12V supply become involved. Using the meter, check the voltage on the brake pin of the TV connector when the brakes are activated. If no power there issue is in the TV ( possibly a fuse). Many Tv's have a separate fuse for the trailer brakes and for the trailer lights. If you have power at the connector, then check for voltage at the brakes ( usually wire nut connections near the wheels. If you have power there, you should be able to hear the brakes activate ( click) when peddle pressed. To confirm, jack trailer ( by frame not axle) spin the wheels and tap brakes. Wheel should stop.

Once you get brakes fixed, you can move on to trailer battery. The fridge and aux stuff will drain the trailer battery. You can get some help from the 12V aux circuit in the trailer plug if connected properly. Many vehicles have this circuit wired up but do not put a fuse/breaker in the panel to save money. If you do not have 12V on the aux pin check the owners manual for the fuse position and look for a fuse. Also check the TV fuses for the trailer lights. They are usually separate from TV lights and in a separate panel.

If the 40A fuses in the convertor panel are blown, you will not charge battery when plugged in. These fuses are usually orange. If you can get to the battery, check voltage with TT disconnected from shore power. A good battery will be in mid 12V range. Then connect shore power and recheck voltage. If working properly, voltage should now be in high 13 range.

Remember anything working on AC in the TT ( AC, Microwave etc) goes through circuit breakers, Anything working on 12V ( fridge control, lights, water pump, furnace) works thru fuses.


If you break this effort up it should be a relatively easy problem to fix.
Good luck.