Uh Oh....

[TestMule]

Last Wednesday we hooked up the trailer and headed out for a few days camping at an Arizona State Park about 140 miles east of our home in Apache Junction, AZ.

The teardrop, new to us and on its shakedown cruise behind the JT, towed like a dream and we made it to the park without incident.

The next morning, I pressed the unlock button on the key fob and all hell broke loose. The alarm went off, blaring the horn and making the lights blink like a lighthouse on crack. Of course, that horn could be heard in all corners of the park. Oops... Pressing the Panic button on the remote did nothing to stop the alarm.

I disconnected the battery, pulled the PCM & ECM fuses, pulled the security gateway fuse and let it sit for over an hour. I returned the fuses to their proper location, connected the positive battery and then the negative. The alarm went off again but this time I was able to press the Panic button and it shut down. I finished connecting the battery securely and tried the start button. Yup...you guessed it. Back to the blaring alarm. I tried the door handle/manual key cycle process but to no avail.

Having exhausted my knowledge on how to mitigate the issue I disconnected the battery, contacted a local CJDR dealer, then called a tow company. The JT is sitting at the dealer, and I am waiting to hear back from the service advisor.

Great way to kick off the RV experience with the JT.

Later that day some friends came out from Apache Junction and brought us, a load of gear and the trailer back home.

Defecation occurs, eh?

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[GeneralMaximus]

cant see from the angle, but did you leave the 7 pin connected overnight?

 

[BennieD]

Let us know the final diagnosis

 

[Stan H]

If the 7 pin was left connected and you plugged that camper into the power you may have inadvertently back fed power into your system unawares to you.

 

[Minty JL]

If the 7 pin was left connected and you plugged that camper into the power you may have inadvertently back fed power into your system unawares to you.

That sounds expensive

 

[KevinC]

It's hard to tell from your picture but it looks like your teardrop doesn't have stabilizer/leveling jacks in the front; so keeping it connected to the hitch is probably what is intended. Keeping the 7 pin harness connected is something you could easily forget about when you are setting up.

Please let us know the outcome. Curious if some fuses did their job and blew or something worse happened.

 

[Labswine]

That's why the 7 pin is the very last thing connected when getting ready to go out with my trailer because I have a 50 amp shore power connector at home and, my trailer is plugged in all the time when sitting (I have critter sonic deterrence thingys plugged in to the 110v outlets) plus, it's nice to turn on the fridge a couple of days before departure to get it cold for bringing nom-noms.

When I get to my camp site, it's the FIRST thing disconnected. Then I plug into shore power.

This is to ensure I don't get any inadvertent feed back potentially frying things on my JTO.

 

[Greg_L]

I don't pull campers or ever go camping so I'm lost on this, but curious.

So are yall guessing that he left the camper plugged into the electrical of the truck and then plugged the camper into AC power at the site? And that backfeeds AC into the Jeep frying everything?

 

[DylanM]

In my mind, if there was a problem with the trailer's inverter that could have backfed into the truck via the 7 pin, then that same issue would have caused havoc with all the 12v systems and battery in the trailer itself as well. Keep in mind the truck's 7 pin harness is protected by fuses and several relays that will prevent overcurrent issues or outright disconnect the harness from the truck's light circuits when it's shut off.

My money is on a nocturnal visit from local vermin which chewed some wiring.

 

[Sbro2021]

So I don't have it hooked up in this pic, but I have done many trips with the trailer hooked up, on shore power and with solar running and haven't had the experience you are having. I hope that it's unrelated to the shore power. Shore power usually runs separate to only 120 volt items and/or then through an inverter if ya have one to drop it down to 12VDC to charge the batteries. My rig has that inverter that is tied to the battery to help keep it charged. When I can, I leave the truck and 7 pin hooked up to keep my truck battery up when I run a second fridge in the bed for longer trips.

On my previous setup, I always had it hooked up to the truck to keep all my batteries up.
Might be worth ringing out the wiring in that trailer to see if something is off. Love the drop BTW, Always been a fan of them. Have a bunch of great memories with the unit above I built back in the day.

 

[Hootbro]

If the 7 pin was left connected and you plugged that camper into the power you may have inadvertently back fed power into your system unawares to you.

How would that work?

I would expect the trailer wiring is floated separate from the inverter wiring and would only think if there was a shared ground plane to be any commonality if any.

 

[adamjedgar]

Last Wednesday we hooked up the trailer and headed out for a few days camping at an Arizona State Park about 140 miles east of our home in Apache Junction, AZ.

The teardrop, new to us and on its shakedown cruise behind the JT, towed like a dream and we made it to the park without incident.

The next morning, I pressed the unlock button on the key fob and all hell broke loose. The alarm went off, blaring the horn and making the lights blink like a lighthouse on crack. Of course, that horn could be heard in all corners of the park. Oops... Pressing the Panic button on the remote did nothing to stop the alarm.

I disconnected the battery, pulled the PCM & ECM fuses, pulled the security gateway fuse and let it sit for over an hour. I returned the fuses to their proper location, connected the positive battery and then the negative. The alarm went off again but this time I was able to press the Panic button and it shut down. I finished connecting the battery securely and tried the start button. Yup...you guessed it. Back to the blaring alarm. I tried the door handle/manual key cycle process but to no avail.

Having exhausted my knowledge on how to mitigate the issue I disconnected the battery, contacted a local CJDR dealer, then called a tow company. The JT is sitting at the dealer, and I am waiting to hear back from the service advisor.

Great way to kick off the RV experience with the JT.

Later that day some friends came out from Apache Junction and brought us, a load of gear and the trailer back home.

Defecation occurs, eh?

Omg yours is white

Id suggest its a lemon cause i have a white gladiator and ive got a thread on these forums with 12 pages of nightmare experience.

 

[TestMule]

Yeah, the shore power and trailer harness were plugged in. An electrical back feed is a definite possibility but that's not supposed to happen unless there is a common ground issue, or something has been hacked in the solar equipment circuit as they are supposed to be separate.

We are the third owner of the teardrop and I suspect that either when the solar was installed a mistake was made or somewhere down the line, one of the two owners might have been messing around with the wiring.

Either way, if a back feed did occur, I have two options:

1. Make sure the trailer harness is disconnected from the truck before plugging into shore power, or,
2. Pull out all that antiquated solar gear, make sure there is a separate harness with no connections to the light harness, and get me a portable power station along the lines of a Jackery, Bluetti or EcoFlow unit.

 

[Jaxmax]

If you are using a seven pin plug there is a battery and ground connection between truck and camper batteries. It you don’t have electric brakes and are using a flat four wire plug the chance of a connection would be on trailing lighting having something wired wrong ,only thing common on a flat four would be the negative ground connection and that could even go through the hitch ball. I don’t think the solar system would be your problem , but it would try to charge the truck battery through the seven pin plug.
I always tow with fridge on 12v if possible while driving…..Jack

 

[Stan H]

How would that work?

I would expect the trailer wiring is floated separate from the inverter wiring and would only think if there was a shared ground plane to be any commonality if any.

Well I had a camper that the only thing that seperated the 110 and the 12v was flipping a switch .. i am thinking it's possible .. needless to say .. the vermin in the middle of the night is also a high possibility.

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