The spring peepers are in full voice this time of year, but they do not wear headlamps. In fact, they are frogs, not toads. In the world of RV’s a car that is towed behind a motorhome is often referred to as a “towed” (noun) or “toad.” Like anything being towed, the car has to have functioning tail lights, brake lights, and turn signals. The existing lights on the car are often used for this, but there can be issues with arrangement, especially on newer vehicles.
Our Honda Element came equipped with a second set of rear bulbs that are not tied into the cars lighting circuits. On the way home from Florida they quit working. Visual inspect had revealed that the 6-pin connector on the bus had a couple of damaged pins. As soon as we got home I picked up a new connector from a local RV store. With a forecast high temperature of 81 degrees F, and no rain, today was the day to install it; but not until I had taken care of another important chore.
Steve (N8AR) arrived a little after 10 AM pulling Bruce’s (W8RA) enclosed trailer. We took a few minutes to look at my proposed site for the communications tower and then headed over to Wayne’s (KD8H) place to pick up the tower sections and related components I had purchased on Monday. We got there right at 11AM. Wayne greeted us in the driveway and directed us around behind the house. We loaded the steel fold over mount, motor, rotator, and bearing plate in the front if the trailer and then drove back to where the tower sections were stored and loaded those in. The trailer had about 10 feet inside, front-to-rear, and we were able to get everything in and close/latch the doors. We were on our way back to my QTH by noon. By 1 PM we had unloaded everything, stacked the tower sections on the rear/lower deck, and stored the other components in the garage. I walked Steve through the proposed pole barn site and then he headed home to hang drywall.
I gathered up the tools I needed for the connector project and arrayed them at the rear of the bus. Simple projects never are, and this was no exception. I removed the two screws that hold the connector into the bumped fascia and the discovered that I could not pull it out more than a 1/4 inch. The connector housing has an insert with the pins on one side (facing out) and the wire connections on the side (facing in). The insert is retained by a small screw on the top of the housing. To work on this assembly you have to be able to pull the housing out far enough to remove the retaining screw. You then need to have enough loose wire behind the connector to allow the insert to come out the front of the housing far enough that you can get to the small machine screws that that hold the wires.
The problem was that I did not have the necessary amount of loose wire. There was plenty of wire, it just wasn’t loose. I had to clip about a half dozen zip ties in the engine compartment and along the underside of the rear bumper, and remove a cable clamp, but I eventually freed up enough wire to pull the connector housing out far enough to work on it.
The wire connections on the insert were not done in a standard way per the directions that came with the new connector, so I made a diagram of how they were done. (I should have rewired both the bus connector and the cable end to be standard, but I plan to replace this whole setup with an EZ*Connector system this summer.) I disconnected the wires, which freed the insert, and slid the old housing off the end of the wire bundle. I cleaned up the ends of the four wires, stripping away 1/4 inch of insulation and trimming off frayed strands. I slipped the new housing over the wires, made the connections to the back of the insert, slid the insert into the housing, and secured up it with the retaining screw. I slid the housing back into the bumper fascia and secured it with the two screws.
Before dressing all the wires I pulled the car behind the bus and connected the electrical cable between them to test the lights. I connected the bus chassis batteries (there are two switches for this) and turned on the left turn signal. All the lights on the bus were fine, but I still did not have lights on the car. 🙁 I had also had problems previously with the plug and socket on the car so I jiggled the connector and the lights started working. I verified that I had tail and turn lights but could not test the brake lights as that takes two people. (I could have turned the ignition on and that would have caused the brake lights to come on since the emergency/parking brakes were set.)
I suspected the problem was in the connector on the end of the cable, but it was sufficiently corroded that I could not get it apart. I decided to spray all of the old connectors (3) with De-Ox-It, including inside the cable ends. I then sprayed all if the connectors, including the new ones, with De-Ox-It Gold. I plugged the cable back in to the bus and the car and retested the lights. Everything was working, so I secured the wiring on the bus with new zip ties, put my tools away, and closed everything up.
Sometime during the afternoon I got a call from Bruce (W8RA) and took a break from the electrical work. He had a friend who had purchased a used full-size tractor to pull a large 5th wheel. The tractor had a KVH Trac-Vision R5 in-motion satellite dish and the owner wanted Bruce to help him get it working. Bruce knew we had a motorhome and thought I might have some insight into how to do this. The only advice I could offer was based on the satellite dish and electronics that were on our bus when we bought it. In addition to the dish on the roof and the receiver in the coach there was a third box that went in-between the two. I suspected that the KVH had something similar, but I wasn’t sure.
Linda had been babysitting all day so we had an Amy’s Indian dish with a nice salad for dinner. It had been a warm, physical day so I started a load of laundry and we just relaxed after dinner.