Everyone Check your Female 7 pin connector.....

[covered_wagon]

I cracked my 7 pin female connector on my camper. I went to replace it today and found the wires not striped enough and had wire insulation pinched in all the screw clamps. Bad work, but then found the ground in the center was never striped at all. They just tightened the screw a bunch expecting it to pinch thru the insulation. I found only one thin tiny little wire braid had been touching the terminal. That's bad workmanship! So check yours out, problem is you have to take it off the camper body to get to it and take it apart to see.

Been running since 03 like that always wondering why I never get much battery charging even after driving most of the day.

[jimh406]

covered wagon wrote:
I found the Pollack brand to be the most solidly built and held the best, even had a secondary 'click' as you pushed it in as if to connect deeper onto the 7 pins.

I had some weird connection feedback at times last year. I think I’ll buy a new one and replace at my leisure. Thanks for the brand recommendation.

[covered_wagon]

New Development......

I bought two 7 pin female recepticles One at O'Reilly's Auto and the other at a local farm Store. Both were an off brand never heard of before. I decided to try them /study them etc. since many products these days are not holding up as they should and cannot be trusted, I bought two different strange name brands. Neither one was the commonly heard of Bargman brand or the Pollack brand.

The problem was found after install that neither one could hold the truck to camper cord solidly in place. One took only 2 wiggles up and down and the lock released just as if I hit two bumps in the road. The other took 3 wiggles and it let loose and the cord fell out.

I wonder what UL Listing is doing these days? I had a client that worked for UL listing and was traveling to China often to test products before getting shipped to our markets in the U.S.A. What happened with that?


After this experience I went to the town where you can get anything you need and found they sold both well known brands, I found the Pollack brand to be the most solidly built and held the best, even had a secondary 'click' as you pushed it in as if to connect deeper onto the 7 pins. The lock on the flip up cap held so well also and did not release if wiggling the cord up and down. It was the most expensive, but is the best. Be careful what you buy out there.... some weird stuff floating around these days.

I want folks to be wary of off brand products. It would be hard to take the thought of someone getting rear ended at full speed because you had no tail lights nor brake lights if stopped on the highway. That would be awful.

[burningman]

I already had the standard flat pin RV style connectors but I added the big-truck style round pin connectors. They’re far more reliable.
There’s no reason you need to remove your flat-pin plugs, just so you can connect to whatever else you might need to someday.

[Grit_dog]

NRALIFR wrote:


All it would take is for everyone else to start doing things MY WAY and we’d be good. :B

:):)

I could handle things being the NRA Way I think. All your work I've seen looks pretty solid!

[Grit_dog]

Hemi Joel wrote:
I've never seen that color code before with a 7 pin RV plug, but I like it.

Per my post above, there are 2 wiring color standards. Vehicle standard which is the brown, running lights and yellow/green, L and R turn signals. And the "RV" standard it's called, with what you posted.
Idk when this happened, but I encountered it a few years ago trying to make a quick change using a prewired pigtail. Got it all wired up color for color on the trailer, but "that trailer" had the regular vehicle standard and the pigtail was the RV standard. Ended up doing pin outs to figure it out, in the rain.... and at the time thought it was some cheep Chinese trailer plug that was wired wrong, lol!

[NRALIFR]

Grit dog wrote:
NRA, you’re right, the 7 pin round is better quality, but unless one only uses their “own” trailers or carrys adapters, literally everything else with light duty trucks and trailers is the 7 pin flat.
It’s a trailer plug and not a philosophical discussion IMO. It is what it is. And really, most failures are caused by physical damage to the plugs, not “wearing out.”

All it would take is for everyone else to start doing things MY WAY and we’d be good. :B

:):)

[JoeChiOhki]

All good here :). Use a 2 pin lift gate plug, plus two four pin round (one modified to be a 3 pin to prevent the back up cam from getting plugged into the running lights socket), and a six pin round for the intercom 😛

[Hemi_Joel]

I've never seen that color code before with a 7 pin RV plug, but I like it. The pic I am attaching is what I have always seen. I never liked it because it does not match the yellow/left turn - green/right turn - brown /tail convention of the flat 4 connectors.
Maybe they are changing it over for that reason?

[covered_wagon]

Lwiddis wrote:
What is the make, model and year of your camper?

Sorry about not answering sooner... it is an 03 NL 10-2000 RR, owned since new. The cord was done okay and now the lights are much brighter, everything works nice now.

[Grit_dog]

NRA, you’re right, the 7 pin round is better quality, but unless one only uses their “own” trailers or carrys adapters, literally everything else with light duty trucks and trailers is the 7 pin flat.
It’s a trailer plug and not a philosophical discussion IMO. It is what it is. And really, most failures are caused by physical damage to the plugs, not “wearing out.”

[covered_wagon]

Thanks everyone it's good to get all these tips. I was traveling early one dark morning without any lights on the back end. So dangerous. these guys that haven't a care in the world about their workmanship should be retired to the homeless camp in Borneo. LOL.

[folivier]

Depending on the condition of the blades and contact (female) portions you can clean them with a bit of emery cloth and spring them back tighter then use a bit of di-electric grease. That could make them as good as new, of course that depends on the wiring having been done correctly when installed.

[Tvov]

I tow a TT, but this is related...

After a few years of towing I was having to really "jiggle" my trailer plug to get everything to work. I had to replace the bracket holding the truck's receiver plug so I just got a new bracket and plug.

Now everything works! If you are having to "play" with your plugs a lot to get them to work after a few years, it may be easier just to replace the plug(s).

Oh, and any work done by a dealer? Check and double check it!

[covered_wagon]

jimh425 wrote:
One warning as well, if a dealer wired your plug, don’t be surprised it the wiring is nonstandard. Don’t just blindly wire to the standard.

Good point, so I am taking apart both male ends of the cord as well to check on that. My setup is standard from Northern Lite campers. I thought I had everything fixed on this camper. I will be so happy to have halfway decent connections that maybe let the batteries charge to some degree while running. All the lights should be brighter as well.