FWC Hawk questions

[ncyrider04]

Recently got a gently used 2012 Four Wheel Camper Hawk pop-up that we put on our 2015 Dodge Ram 1500 crew cab/short bed. The previous owner explained the power cable it came with that connects to the truck's battery , and runs to the truck bed where the camper's plug in cable is. I installed that cable so it's connected to the truck battery and runs to the truck bed, but I'm wondering what that small box is that is inline on the positive wire...is it just a fuse? It has 2 posts that connect the 2 red wires, about 6-10" away from the battery.
When plugged in to shore power and the camper's battery is charging, does the truck's battery get charged too if that truck power cable is plugged in? It does have the power inverter

Also wondering about a few of the options/appliances this Hawk didn't come with, I understand some/all of them are available from FWC as kind of a bolt-on/plug-and-play upgrade? the options we may want are the water heater, air conditioning, and maybe upgraded(newer version?) refrigerator

 

[Rando]

Yes that is a fuse or circuit breaker - it should be 30A or so.

Whether the truck battery charges from the camper or not depends on which battery isolator is installed in your camper. The older campers typically came with Surepower isolators that were 'single sensing' and therefore wouldn't charge the truck battery. Later models (and lots of people switched their older ones over) came with blue sea isolators that are 'dual sensing' and will charge the truck from shore power. If you have the older isolator, one trick is to plug into shore power, then start the truck for a minute, which will cause the isolator to switch on, it will then stay on after you shut off the truck as long as the shore power is plugged in.

Pretty much none of the options are bolt-on/plug-in maybe with the exception of replacing the fridge. The hot water heater and AC (which is just a hokey window unit) all require holes to be cut in the side of the camper. Depending on the exact dimensions, the fridge upgrade may or may not be straightforward.

 

[Stan@FourWheel]