2012 Kodiak 200QB Electrical Issue

[senoiasummer]

Hello all,

I am the second owner (at least) of the above model travel trailer. My Brother in Law owned it before me and as far as I can tell the trailer was well maintained.
I have owned the trailer for about a year and its been out three times (twice by me, once by my son), all short trips.

Both my son and I have Ford F-series trucks, mine a 2018 F-150 and his is a 2019 Super Duty. We have both seen a random "trailer wiring fault" flash up on the instrument cluster. In the most recent trip, I pulled the trailer from home to CG, about 250 miles and never saw the fault. On the way back, I saw it once early on the trip back. I didn't stop the truck and check, but I know the running lights were still working on the trailer.

Additional, on this trip, for the first time, I had something odd happen with the GFCI in the trailer. I was connected to CG 50A service. We arrived at the CG around 1PM and all things electrical appeared to be working. We have a nite lite plugged into the GFCI (which is physically located in the bathroom) which was on, so know it was working. That evening when I plugged my iphone charger into one of the outlets up front and it wasn't charging the phone. I checked another outlet and it wasn't charging either. I went back to the bathroom and the GFCI was faulted. I reset and the charger worked and I went to bed. At some point during the night the GFCI tripped again. I reset it and didn't have any additional issues for the remaining two days of the trip, which included having iphone and iwatch chargers plugged in, coffee pot plugged in and brewing, and waffle iron plugged in and working.

What are the chances that the two issues above are related? I haven't look for or at a wiring diagram yet, as we just got back last night, and I am at work today. Is the 12V ground wiring from the truck isolated from the 120VAC wiring? I assume it is, which makes me think that I have two independent problems.

Thoughts? My inclination is to start by looking at the ground wiring in both cases. I took a brief look under the trailer when we got home and I see a single jacketed, presumably multi conductor, cable running from the hitch over the axel and back towards the back of the trailer. My first assumption is that if the outter jacket of this cable looks "ok" that the interior conductors are "likely" ok as well.

Thanks for any insight!!

SS

[dsol]

There are better and smarter electrical gurus who visit this site frequently but I suspect the problems are not in anyway related.

As far as the GFI tripping I would try the easy fix/troubleshoot and replace the outlet with a new one. Make sure to try and find a shallow depth version as room in the box could be tight. These things fail pretty regularly and are probably low quality to start with.

As far as the fault warnings you are getting in your trucks I think you should take a good look at the plug on the trailer. You might even try cutting it off and replacing with a new one. Between the connections in the plug and the wires going into the plug I wouldn’t be surprised if there was something shorting or losing contact. It might have gotten wet and rusted or might not be making contact with your truck’s receptacle. But since it happens in both trucks you can eliminate either one of those as the culprit.

Good luck.

[senoiasummer]

Ok, changes the GFCI. Am going out next week, so we will see if that fixes things on that front.

As far as the trailer wiring fault goes, I was reading a ford forum and a post there suggested checking the electric brake wiring where if goes into, comes out of the axel(s). Sure enough, on the rear axel there were some knicks in the wiring. I band aided it for the moment with liquid tape followed by electrical tape and will try and pull new wires thru the axel when I (1) have time (2) can research some wire with tough insulation (3) get the right size grommet for the hole and (4) pull the specs on the brakes to see how much current they draw

[trucking]

Originally Posted by senoiasummer

Ok, changes the GFCI. Am going out next week, so we will see if that fixes things on that front.

As far as the trailer wiring fault goes, I was reading a ford forum and a post there suggested checking the electric brake wiring where if goes into, comes out of the axel(s). Sure enough, on the rear axel there were some knicks in the wiring. I band aided it for the moment with liquid tape followed by electrical tape and will try and pull new wires thru the axel when I (1) have time (2) can research some wire with tough insulation (3) get the right size grommet for the hole and (4) pull the specs on the brakes to see how much current they draw

Why does the manufacturers put those electric brake wires in the axle anyway.
What a stupid thing to do.
They short out all the time rubbing from vibrations inside the axle.
Do your self a favor and mount the electric brake wires on the Outside of the axle.
You can wire tie them to the outside of those axles very secure and they will not short out.
Just my two cents, Happy Trails

[persistent]

Good advice posted above.

Not only are the 12 volt and 120 volt systems separate, but the GFCI does not have anything to do with the 120 volt system ground. GFCI work with or without a ground.

They measure current in the hot leg and the neutral leg. They trip when there is a tiny imbalance. The idea is if current is missing, then it could be passing through a person.