Hi all

I am a new to me owner of a 1985 hi lo model 16 (?)

Just brought it home on thursday, and I am working through a few problems left over from the previous owner.

Besides having to get my truck set up with a 7 pin harness and brake controller, I also need to fix the wiring on the trailer.

The electrical that seems to be working is:

Power to pump - once I installed a battery, it raises and lowers with no issues.
12V water pump - when I turn the switch on, the pump runs
inverter - when I plug in 110V, I can hear it click and start to humm (haven't tested it any furthur than that)
All 110V interior plugs work - except fridge plug

The electrical that does not work that I need help with

All lights inside, except for the 2 lights right at the front of the trailer on the wall. I have not even checked the bulbs yet, but there's wiring problems I will show below that I want to tackle first

Exterior light at door inop
Bathroom fan inop
110V outlet for fridge (behind fridge through exterior access door) dead

I have stared at the wiring diagrams, and haven't been able to figure out why all the 110V plugs would work, but the one behind the fridge does not.

I can't get the fridge to come on, but it looks in very poor condition, and may just want to remove it completely and install a 110V bar fridge with inverter.

Other than the fridge, I need to tackle the spagetti of wiring up at the battery box. Below are a few pics of what I am dealing with. I can clean up and repair all the wiring that is still connected, however there are some wires just hanging there that aren't connected to anything, and I'm not sure where they should go.

I also have to make sure the electric brakes are working, I can't seem to locate the break away pin, unless it's the black thing that has a bunch of what looks like house wiring coming out of it.

I am confident in my wiring ability, just need help with the identification of the wires.

Thanks for any help. Below I am attaching a few pictures of what I am dealing with, and a video running through the battery box.







Here's a link to to the video, may be easier to see


‪Video 11 07 30 3 19 14 PM‬‏ - YouTube

Also, here are the pics of what I think is the break away for the brakes

That all looks like a helluva mess. First, go buy a new breakaway switch and get it mounted with the cable end pointing to the hitch. Start separating the wiring by starting with the seven wire cable from the TV cable. Get everything else out of the way and try to get everything properly connected at the terminal strip. There should not be any 110 volt wiring in the battery compartment. It looks like you have bad insulation on some wire, replace it, and get all that taped up stuff out of there. Make sure you have two circuit breakers in there somewhere, one for the lift pump and one for the house wiring. I believe the wiring diagrams give color coding so you will have to run with that.

After that, trace your 110 volt wiring into the trailer and locate the fuse/breaker box. It may be separate from the converter (not inverter) but will have wiring going to the converter for the 12 volt circuits and battery charging. Check all breakers and fuses. This is a good time to have a volt meter to check for energized circuits.

Just break things down to the simplest form and go circuit by circuit.

__________________
Great Wife, Joyce
2010 2310H Hi-Lo
2012 F150 4X4 SuperCrew EcoBoost w/Leer Cap
Reese WD Strait-Line Hitch
Amateur Radio K3EXU

Check the outside compartment on the side or front for a cable that plugs in to the top half of the trailer. The newer trailers have a cable inside the bathroom that provides power for the various lights and bathroom fan. I'm not sure when they were brought inside but the older trailers have an outside cable, either under the front window shield or on the side. Some are alwatys connected and others need to be plugged in when you get to your destination.

Ya, I figured that was the best way to do stuff, just wondered if I was missing anything.

Started with the 7 pin wiring cleanup this afternoon.

Electric brakes are new to me (Upgrading from a bonair pop up tent trailer with no brakes)

Other than wiring it into the break away switch when I get one this week, is there any other wiring that it's supposed to be connected to?

The previous owner had this wiring all screwed up. Looks like he confused black with ground, and had the white and black connected together, and added the solid copper house wiring.

I obvously cut all the house copper out of the battery box, and rewired to a new 7 pin block, but there was another wire spliced into the blue wire too, was pushed beside the grommet out of the box and under the trailer.. I have to try to trace that tomorrow, definately doesn't look factory installed.

Just confirming, the blue wire from the 7 pin harness connects to the blue wire that travels up the coil wire with the rest of the wiring to the top of the unit correct?

This is where I'm at so far:

Normally, in today's wiring, the blue wire is the brake wire. I don't think it would go up to the top, rather it should head underneath and straight to the brakes. The breakaway switch hooks to the battery and to the brake wire.

__________________
Great Wife, Joyce
2010 2310H Hi-Lo
2012 F150 4X4 SuperCrew EcoBoost w/Leer Cap
Reese WD Strait-Line Hitch
Amateur Radio K3EXU

I'm going to have to look at it closer tomorrow, as it was getting pretty dark.

Looking at the wiring diagram, the coiled harness going to the top section does not show a blue wire at all.

Maybe the previous owner pulled the other wires out of the lower harness to repair them and never put them back properly.

Anything is possible. One thing to check while you are at it is make sure the wires to the trailer plug are properly hooked up, according to standard wiring procedure, to make sure it matches the wiring on the tow vehicle socket.

Her is some good info on that: Trailer Wiring Diagrams | etrailer.com

__________________
Great Wife, Joyce
2010 2310H Hi-Lo
2012 F150 4X4 SuperCrew EcoBoost w/Leer Cap
Reese WD Strait-Line Hitch
Amateur Radio K3EXU

So had to back track a bit, some of the colors in the wiring diagram don't match.

I do indeed have a blue wire heading up the coil to the top compartment, but I do not know what it's for.

I jumpered and applied 12V to it, and then checked everything inside.. It appears to do nothing.

I seperated the trailer wiring and all the other wiring into 2 seperate connectors, taped up all the wiring, as some of the insulation was deteriorated, but I did not have enough slack to cut it out, and will plan on replacing it down the road.

I located a blue and white wire headed to the brakes, crawled under and found a rats nest of cut/chopped wiring under there too. I will have to get it up on jack stands and pull the tires and repair that wiring at some point, so for now I left the brake wires disconnected, because when I tested them by applying 12V to the blue wire and ground to the white wire, it sparked pretty badly.

I put loom on all the exposed wires and secured it all to the bottom of the trailer.

Unfortunatly, the inside lights still do not work, I have now tested with a test light, and there is no power there, except for the 2 right at the front of the trailer, so I must have some additional issues inside the trailer.

I'm wondering if the blue wire in the coil at the front is the mysterious "stereo wire" that is referenced in the manual. It lists that wire as a yellow wire, but the only yellow wire in that harness was for the reverse lights, which it also lists, but as a different guage.

Anyhow, that's my update for today.

Thanks for the tips everyone.

Ok, so I've got everything finished, and working 100% (sort of)

All trailer lights work, I serviced the brakes, repacked the bearings, and then decided the rats nest of wiring to the brakes was too bad to bother to repair, so I ran new wiring up both sides of the trailer into the front battery box, installed a new break away switch, and all the brakes work perfectly.

Onto the interior lights.

I cannot find where the wiring for the light over the kitchen, the light in the bathroom, and 2 of the lights on the side, and the exterior door light run. I have come to the conclusion that they must run behind the walls somewhere, and I cannot locate them.

Anyone have any suggestions before I simply run new wiring on the inside of the walls and cover it with some kind of trim?

The 110V plug for the fridge is in behind the kitchen cabnets, and I'll have to get that rewired too, but I accessed the fridge from the rear compartment, and plugged the fridge directly into an extension cord. Set the dial to 110V and left it. The fridge is NOT working in 110V mode. Checked in 12V mode. Have voltage, but no workey either. I have not tried it in LP mode, because I want to have the LP system checked before I use it.

Am I safe to assume this fridge is dead (won't even run plugged directly in, bypassing the trailer completely)

I won't lose any sleep over pulling this fridge out and replacing it with a 110V model. I will install an inverter to run it while on the road, and I don't care about using LP.

Any thoughts on this fridge before I condemn it?