Electric Front Jack

[Brittany Dogs]

Well here's a tip that falls into the category of "don't do this."

I have an electric front jack on the tongue. I love it and find it a worthwhile option. From day#1 I protected this jack with a black bag made for this exact purpose. It has a nice drawstring opening and you basically put the bag over the jack and draw the string tight so that the wind does not blow it off. The bag was purchased at Camping World.

When I come back from camping, the TrailManor unit goes into the garage and the trailer gets a bath as well as the coolers and anything else that needs cleaning. The last step for me after the cleanup is to put the battery minder on the Bergman connector using the adapter I made and that brings the batteries up to full charge and floats once the last little bit of charging is done.

This time was different. The battery minder was not going from red to green after sever days of charging. Most times the batteries need so little of a top off that the minder often goes green in a matter of 4-8 hours. This time after several days it was still red.

Did I accidentally leave the refrigerator on DC? Nope, I did that once and I'll never make that mistake again.

I would turn on an outside light on the trailer and the bulb was bright so I didn't have a large current draw draining the batteries way,way down but figured something still must have been left on.

So during winterizing yesterday, (a short year for camping and I'm sad) I went searching for the current draw.

The propane detector is off on my unit when the bathroom wall is down, so that's not it. A check of current draw was saying 1.2 amps. Ahhh, clue, that's typically a light. The oven light was off, so that's not it.

So I started pulling fuses. The last of all the fuses was the front electric jack and the current dropped to almost nothing once I pulled that fuse.

Dog gone it, the front jack light was accidentally left on and never noticed under that black weather protection bag. The bezel for the lamp was slightly burned and melted a bit. We never used the light and well, time to put electrical tape on the switch to keep it from being flipped on again.

So if you use one of those black bags, and if your front jack has a light on it, I suggest taping it in the off position.

[mecicon]

Glad you found the source, nicely written.

[tentcamper]

Glade you found it. I have found a few time I have left the LED lights on the jack on. I don't notice it until it's night because they are not that bright.

If you'r keeping it in the garage, why put the bag on the jack??

Read like a real mystery! Thanks.
Do you have a cut off switch on your electrical line?

[RottieMom]

Moaboy, what do you mean by cut-off switch?

[funpilot]

I see a battery cut off switch often mentioned. Is it easy to install? Is there a brand that you would recommend? Thanks

Ignore...saw videos. Too easy. This video I liked because it showed a way to do it without putting holes in the trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZYKZqEX6ys

[Bailey'sMom]

While I don't cover my electric jack I have found many times that I accidentally turned on the light. In fact it just happened again yesterday. Each time I think, "gee, I really should tape that to the off position" yet I still haven't done it. One of these days I will.

Got a kick out of your post.

[tentcamper]

I have only had a need to used the jack lights once. Not sure they are of any value. But they are a nice marking gimmick.

[Redtail Cruiser]

Cmboyd & funpilot, there is a variety of products on the market that can be integrated into your 12volt electrical system to serve as a cut off switch.

I used a simple 20 amp rated light switch, which I placed inside a weather proof electrical box with a weather proof switch cover. I simply mounted the box to the inside of the tongue frame next to the battery boxes. I then ran two #10 awg wires from the switch thru a weather tight cord grip connector into the battery box with battery ring connectors on the wires. My TM has two 6volt golf cart batteries wired in series, so I removed the wire that went from the positive side of battery one to the negative side of battery two and replaced it with the two new wires from my cut off switch. Now when I park the trailer for any extended time, I turn the switch off and save the battery charge.

[RottieMom]

Tim, thx for explaining the cut-off switch.