Introduction
Back in the summer of 2023 we experienced a rather strange electrical problem with our trailer. We had a situation where there was no DC power in the trailer. No lights, fans, radio, tv, etc. It was the strangest thing.
All the circuits worked fine when:
- plugged into shore power.
- plugged into the 7 way connector of the truck.
The battery charging, power jack and the brakes worked as expected.
Background
The suspected cause or at least what I believe is the event that triggered the problem was our awning. Ever since we bought the trailer our awning has been an issue, specifically reeling the sucker in. I think planets and galaxies have come into existence and burned out in less time then it takes to reel in our awning. I have oiled it every year, and it does make a marginal difference. I have read somewhere that it is likely a grounding issue. Once the temperature warms up here I will investigate. It was getting so bad, I would have my wife operate the awning button while I would push the awning along. Even then the re-settable fuse would often trip, so we would have to wait 10 seconds or so for the fuse to reset and then proceed, all the time the lights would dim. This can’t be normal. Right?
I first noticed the DC circuits / lights not working in the trailer when we were preparing for a trip. I quickly figured out that everything worked fine when connected to external power. Since we had an electrical site booked I wasn’t too worried about it. That was a future me problem. Once we returned home I started to investigate.
Part of the problem tracking down electrical issues is it can be difficult to troubleshoot without a schematic. So as I started mapping everything out, I thought it might be a good idea to document the work, as I wasn’t sure how long this was going to take and I have a short memory. Thus the attached electrical schematic below in the download section.
Things to note:
- first the schematic is not complete – not by a long shot
- second it is definitely not 100 percent correct.
Back to the Problem
So after a lot of hours of laying under trailer with a multi-meter, I turned to the user groups and found out that there was yet another manually re-settable fuse on the drivers side just back of the A frame. I forgot who it was that put me on the right path… but I owe you a beer. The fuse was buried behind a sea of wires and another 20 amp fuse that I had stared at for literally hours and checked a dozen times, I was beginning to think I was loosing my mind. I pressed the reset button and … boom … all was right in the world again.
Documentation
So I thought if I can pay back the community, I’d at least post what I knew. I would really like to complete the schematic, and I was hoping maybe the community can assist. Even if you don’t own a Epro/GeoPro 19FD, I suspect your knowledge will transfer between EPro and GeoPro models as they have a lot of similarities. I am willing to add and note and model specifics. If you find yourself tracking down an electrical problem and would like to add to the schematic below, please send me the corrections and/or additions and I will update the document, I am willing to send out notifications on updates on various user groups if there is interest. I just need to know which ones you hang out in.
Download
You can download the full four page schematic in pdf from this link.
I think that’s it for today. Cheers!