Furrion back up camera wiring headache

[gralewaj]

My wife and I purchased a 2020 Alta 2800KBH today. I did the walk through, got the hitch set up, bought some goodies and headed home. One of the goodies was the Furrion shark fin backup camera set up that this trailer is supposed to be prewired for. When I got home, I removed 4 screws from the blanking plate, plugged in the single connector to the camera, and reinstalled four screws. When I turned the trailer lights on, expecting the instant gratification of backup camera bliss.... nothing.

So, the multimeter comes out and I have 4 VDC at the camera and a crap ground connection that fell apart as I pulled it out of the wire hole. So I fixed the ground connection, and... nothing. 4 VDC, no camera.

When I went back into the trailer an hour or so later, I see a new red light on the electrical panel and noticed my water pump and water heater lights were not lit on the panel. Blown 15A fuse on the monitor panel. WTF? the backup camera blew the 15A fuse for the monitor panel?

New fuse, panel works great. go plug in the camera again... nothing. Monitor panel done, second fuse blown.

I was told by my dealer that the backup camera ran on the running light circuit powered by the 7 pin hookup. What the hell did EtW wire my backup camera circuit to? I was a quite upset to see 14ga wire spliced to the 22ga camera plug and it does not seem that the splice comes from the center-high-red running light either, it pulls on some other wires I cannot see.

Do I need to go back to the dealer for this? Or should I splice into the running light circuit as advertised and cap the other two wires?

We are brand new to the travel trailer/RV world and are trying to make the best of this irritable situation.

Any advice is appreciated.

[sstandfast]

This sounds like you've got a bad or missing ground connection somewhere and the return currents are taking any path they can find. This will be difficult to diagnose remotely. I would take it in to the dealer and let them try and sort it out unless you have experience with troubleshooting electrical systems.

Shawn

[Mandog]

Hi, I feel your frustration. Only getting 4 volts and blowing the fuse for monitoring panel. With the fuse out do you still have 4 volts? Not knowing the wiring schematics I’d say yes take it back. You will have to leave it but I wouldn’t settle for trying to wire it up from the running lights another way.
Don’t feel bad because our new 2020 ( had it for 5 months) Rear AC quit working. Now I’m waiting for the Warrenty Dept to authorize the repair and it’s been 2 weeks now. Forest River better get on this for me or I’ll bad mouth them to no end...LOL...Good luck.....

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by Mandog

Hi, I feel your frustration. Only getting 4 volts and blowing the fuse for monitoring panel. With the fuse out do you still have 4 volts? Not knowing the wiring schematics I’d say yes take it back. You will have to leave it but I wouldn’t settle for trying to wire it up from the running lights another way.
Don’t feel bad because our new 2020 ( had it for 5 months) Rear AC quit working. Now I’m waiting for the Warrenty Dept to authorize the repair and it’s been 2 weeks now. Forest River better get on this for me or I’ll bad mouth them to no end...LOL...Good luck.....

Have you checked with FR warranty dept to see if your dealer actually requested the repair? Many dealers blame FR for the delay, when they've hadn't sent it in yet.

[denville]

Camera should be connected to running lights or backup lights. Probably just wired wrong and is never tested at the plant because no camera installed. If it is a trip to the dealer just find the 12 volt wire for the running lights and make sure there is 12 volts on it when lights are on and make the connection yourself.

[REL]

Take the mounting unit off the camper completely and see if it's connected to anything or what it's connected to. Mine had a pretty lengthy wire to a marker light hi that was close to the mount.