Wiring Electrical for the Camper

[bajajoaquin]

I just bought a Lance Squire 5000 for my 2003 F350. It came with a pigtail to wire into the truck. I had planned on just keeping the camper separate electrically from the truck, but it just dawned on me that the camper covers up my tail lights and I need to wire it up to have lights.

I have a diagram which describes the functions of the different colors, but I don't know what to expect when I wire it up. The pigtail goes in the front of the truck bed and is supposedly wired in under the cab. Is there going to be a matching pigtail under the cab there, or do I have to find the wires and splice into them?

 

[UHAULER]

I have a 2002 f350 and bought a plug in camper wiring harness for my Northstar camper. Put the plug in the front left corner of bed.

https://www.etrailer.com/Custom-Fit-Vehicle-Wiring/Ford/F-250+and+F-350+Super+Duty/2002/54701-003.html?vehicleid=20021172154

 

[bajajoaquin]

Cool. How did you get it wired to the truck? Was there a connection down there or do you have to splice into three wires running back to the tail lights?

 

[UHAULER]

It plugs into the factory wiring harness near the rear of the bed, you just unplug a factory connector, plug in both ends of the harness and run it to where you want in the bed. It looks like 5th wheel haulers put the plug near the rear, I think for most campers it should be in the front.

 

[Nicaragüense]

You can run it from the 7pin trailer plug in the back by the hitch. Thats how the previous owner of my truck had his lance hooked up and he had the combo for about 10 years till I got it. Soo anyhow, if you do that by making an extension it gives you a temporary way to get going for now till you decide how you want to hardwire your setup. I never got around to doing it the proper way like the guy a few posts up since I had to replace the bed on my dodge. But that would be the best way to do it rather than my way.

 

[bajajoaquin]

I'll probably run a long extension. Just crawled under and I can see the harness and connectors but there's no additional pigtail to connect to. One option could be to get a factory style connector and wire that to the proper camper connector. I could then unplug the trailer connection and plug in the new one.

I guess I'll try to find the part number to see if that's viable.

 

[UHAULER]

The link to the camper wiring harness is plug and play. You unplug the male and female connector on the factory harness and plug in the male and female connectors from the new camper harness into the factory harness .

 

[bajajoaquin]

Aha! Thanks for checking back in on me. I'll check it out!

 

[Regcabguy]

Aha! Thanks for checking back in on me. I'll check it out!

San Diego Trailer Supply can wire it up right if you desire. They added solar and other options to my friend's camper.

 

[bajajoaquin]

Thanks. Talked to the previous owner today. He trimmed the insulation and then soldered the pigtail into the existing harness. Worked for 15 years without hassle. Will probably do that is for some reason the part Uhauler gave doesn't work.

 

[bajajoaquin]

The link to the camper wiring harness is plug and play. You unplug the male and female connector on the factory harness and plug in the male and female connectors from the new camper harness into the factory harness .

The info on the link says,
"Plugs between OEM wiring harness and your factory-installed 7-way connector

Requires that your Ford F-250 and F-350 Super Duty have factory tow package with a 7-pole trailer connector
Retains use of factory 7-pole connector at the rear of your Ford F-250 and F-350 Super Duty"

However it looks like you plug in this one, and your old one stays there, but is no longer powered up. Is that right?

 

[UHAULER]

No, it is still powered up. It goes through the camper harness and back the the factory 7 pole connector.

 

[Mundo4x4Casa]

Joaquin,
It's not clear to me what you want to do. Do you just want to hook up tail lights? If so, how are you going to charge the battery in the TC or run the Fantastic Fan, heater or interior/exterior lights? The best solution, IMHO, is to wire your truck to accept the camper plug. I think the run to the trailer plug is too long unless you use even heavier wire. I put mine in the bed on the forward left side where the pigtail can reach easily. When I get the TC loaded within 18" of the front of the bed, I stop and plug in the camper. I run all 3 same size group 27 batteries wired together. Only once when I left the fridge on 12VDC over night, did my whole battery system go south. There are some caveats. If you are going to wire the TC to the truck batteries, then you want to use a very heavy power wire from the bed to the engine area. I use a #6 red wire, which is pretty heavy, but there is very little voltage line loss and no heat over the 8 feet of run. It goes right on the heavy red wire in the pigtail. I spliced in the lights and other parts of the circuit, some going all the way forward and some getting the shortest route to circuit. Also, it's good to have a switch to isolate the TC from the T when you need to do that. Another thing I did was solder and insulate with those sticks of heat shrink tubing and tool handle goo. There's a lot of weather that passes underneath your truck and you want to always have a circuit. As above, these are available both on-line and at a reputable trailer supply store. This is a critical part of making your TC a success so it's a good thing to have it done right.
regards, jefe

 

[bajajoaquin]

To mundo4x4casa: it appears that the trailer wiring has a power wire that is only hot when the ignition is on. Tapping into that will give me juice while driving. That's how the previous owner had it wired for 15 years without issue.

And more generally ive decided to splice into the trailer harness as the previous owner did with his truck. It was less expensive to buy a heat gun, shrink tube, and a soldering iron than it was to buy the plug in harness. By the time I remove the camper and drill the hole for it, the labor is probably a wash. This way, i end up with a couple new tools.

It will probably take me anothe week to get to it, but I'll keep you posted.

 

[bajajoaquin]

It took more than a week but it's mostly done. I got the lights wired up, which was the most important part. Went okay, but I was unable to find the ground by the wiring diagram I had. Since there is a solar panel, it's not super urgent so I'll probably live with it for a while.