Power Distro, Truck Power & Rig Battery for Landing Gear - Montana Owners Club

FloridaFlockers · 01-22-2018, 09:26 AM

MOC Folks,
Coming back to the trough of knowledge for some help. Let me begin by apologizing if this is a rehash of questions that have been answered a gazzilion times. This site offers a boat load of knowledge and I am just learning to navigate all of it.

Our back story… dropped our 2017 3820FK off at Camping World in N. Charleston, SC on 12/9/18 for some warranty work. Needed the hot water repaired; won’t work off electric, fridge doors repaired; won’t stay closed, and winterized. So we finally picked it up Saturday 01/20/18, yes you read that right but Camping World’s wonderful service (that drips with sarcasm) is not why I am coming to the trough for help.

When we picked our rig up the jacks would not work, the battery was dead. The yard porter (pretty sharp and helpful) ID’d it right out of the chute, the Techs left the battery connected and killed the battery. So the porter hooked up a jumper battery box and all was well. Jacks come up, we hook up and get ready to leave. But before we leave I check to see if the jacks will extend. Nope, the jacks would not extend. The porter says, “no worries by the time you get ready to unhook the truck will have charged the battery and you’ll be good”. We leave and head to our parking place, maybe 10 minutes away and if you guessed the gear would not work, you’d be right. At this point I may have uttered some profanities. Call back to CW and speak to my absolute favorite Service Rep (also dripping with sarcasm) and they send the Porter back out with the jumper box, we extend the gear, unhook and I take the battery home to put on a charger. Plan to run the battery by Autozone to run a check on it.

Now for my questions.
1. Does my truck (2016 F-350 SRW) charge the battery?
2. I thought once hooked to the truck, the truck would provide 12VDC power to the rig for gear, slides…. Am I off on this?
3. After 21 years in the USAF working Avionics and another 17 has a DoD Contractor pretty handy with a schematics and a multi-meter. Is there anywhere to get schematics for these rigs? Will Keystone provide them?
4. This all got me to thinking (I like back-up plans) is there any way to hand crank, or another method, the gear up/down in the event of a power failure? Looked through the documentation I have and didn’t see anything about manual up/down.

Thanks in advance for the help, Joe.

waynemoore · 01-22-2018, 09:55 AM

Ok let me try to answer some of this.
On my truck and rig the truck will charge the battery but not in 10 minutes. Maybe if I drive for two or more hours yes. Also maybe not fully charged. So a good charging with a battery charger is needed.

Not sure if the truck being hooked up will provide enough power to run the slides. I always plug into a power source befor putting the slides out.

Schematics are you kidding that is very funny. No there are none.

Yes there is a way to manually extend the landing gear and the directions are in the owners manal for the level up system. Or call the manufacturer for one.

I do hope this helps

**DQDick** · 01-22-2018, 10:38 AM

I agree with all the above. For a level-up manual go here: https://www.lci1.com/assets/content/...r_s_Manual.pdf

dieselguy · 01-22-2018, 10:44 AM

Adding to above reply ... Sometimes a newer truck doesn't have the fuse installed in the charge line back to your fiver ... check your truck's manual for that issue.

I would not rely on probably a 14 gauge wire that supplies voltage to your camper via the 7 pin connector to repeatedly try to power a high current draw device like your slide or jack pump. It will work in a pinch, but that wire will get darned hot.

Ditto on the above reply about schematics ... "secret squirrel stuff".

Very briefly about manually extending jacks. Using a drill motor and a 1/4" Allen bit ... stick it in the end of the hydraulic pump motor and pull the trigger ... one direction to lower, the opposite direction for retract. You also have to turn a screw in the end of some of ths solenoid valves near your pump motor ... READ YOUR OWNERS MANUAL on how to actually go about this.

jeffba · 01-22-2018, 01:40 PM

Lazy mans way to check to see if truck is charging battery when hooked up to truck.
Check battery level at panel with truck not connected. then hook up truck. you should see that it now reads charging. if not make sure you have a good connection. Another way is if your Leveler controller has a battery level output. (mine does). I used both methods. Lazy because I do not have to break out my DVOM

WeBeFulltime · 01-22-2018, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffba

Lazy mans way to check to see if truck is charging battery when hooked up to truck.
Check battery level at panel with truck not connected. then hook up truck. you should see that it now reads charging. if not make sure you have a good connection. Another way is if your Leveler controller has a battery level output. (mine does). I used both methods. Lazy because I do not have to break out my DVOM

I checked mine using the leveler controller and it does charge but just a "trickle".

CaptnJohn · 01-22-2018, 03:18 PM

The truck will charge the battery but it will take a long time from dead. A full battery will extend and retract slides without being on shore power but will be slow and draw a lot. Every recent Super Duty I'm aware of has arrived with fuse and relay installed.
The dog of the janitor that made the schematic ate them.
Not enough juice from 7 pin to run the gear. Jumper cables from the truck to the 5er battery would be a better idea.

mtlakejim · 01-22-2018, 07:58 PM

Good info on the amount of charge from your tow vehicle.

I am having similar problems with CW Little Rock, AR. My 5th wheel has been with them for over 2 months now! I went to pick it up once when they said it was ready and when I got there they hadn't fixed about half of what was on the ticket and what they did "fix" was not fixed right!

As for the schematics, IF Keystone had any sense they would be glad to provide them since it is better for them to let the owners fix their own trailers (some of us could do a better job than the dealers for sure!). But after touring the plants I get the strong sense that the wiring guys build the wiring harnesses without any schematics. I saw them laying them out on long tables with wire jigs (nails in the wood) and I think it was mostly just experience guiding them. There wasn't a blueprint in sight!

FloridaFlockers · 01-23-2018, 06:35 AM

Thanks again for the feedback and advise. 2nd time I have needed help and 2nd time I got very helpful advise. Hope to some day be able to pay it back. Used the Google machine this AM to find the 7 pin diagram. I really like the Lazy Man's method of checking the charging and will try that 1st but also have the diagram now. The Manual Override method in the manual (thanks for the link) seems pretty straight forward. Looks like one of those things that would be best to know how to do "before" you really need to. I get it loud and clear on the schematics piece, no joy. To mtlakejim, sorry to hear of your woes with Little Rock CW accept, it's good for me to know that we are not the Lone Ranger. Thanks again, Joe

speedster100 · 01-23-2018, 06:44 AM

I ensured the new truck I bought had a high output alternator, not that it would charge much faster but with the loads on these new trucks with computers, cell phones etc etc I wanted to ensure it was putting out enough to actually have enough amperes to give the batteries in our RV a charge while travelling as we boondock alot.

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