Emergency Flashers

[DancinCampers]

Good day all,

I couldn't find this subject through a search, so hopefully I am not duplicating.

If you ever need to leave your TM on the roadside, you can leave all the running lights flashing by inserting a two prong emergency flasher plugged into the trailer connector.  On the 7 pole Bargman connector the tail light & battery pins are next to each other, I am not sure of the numbers.  But they are the two pins which are nearest the connector locking tab.

This of course assumes you have a battery in your TM.

(PS:  This also makes it easier to find your way back to your TM in a very dark campground or crowded WalMart parking lot   ;)  )

Dan  

[ccc6588]

I haven't tried this yet on my brand new 3023, but if I used the emergency flash on my Tow Vehicle, will the trailer also do the same? It would seem logical that this should be the case. ???

[Bill]

Yes, it will.

The original tip was what to do if you have to drive your tow vehicle away (to get help, for example), leaving your TM beside the road, at the site of the breakdown, in the dark. In that situation, the TM's battery will power the lights, and putting the flasher in the Bargeman connector will make them flash. Neat tip, Dan!

Bill

[RockyMtnRay]

Yes, it will.

The original tip was what to do if you have to drive your tow vehicle away (to get help, for example), leaving your TM beside the road, at the site of the breakdown, in the dark. In that situation, the TM's battery will power the lights, and putting the flasher in the Bargeman connector will make them flash. Neat tip, Dan!

Bill

Definitely a neat tip (and I've added a 2 prong turn signal flasher to my "to buy for Spring" shopping list) but it seems to me that it might be smarter to have a RV specific Emergency Assistance plan so that one doesn't have to leave a pricey TM beside the road. The one that's available from Camping World or the Good Sam Club isn't terribly expensive but covers just about any highway emergency.

[ccc6588]

Yes, I did not read the post very well and this would be an excellent thing to know in case of a wild emergency. Say for example you don't think your TV will make another mile or more with the trailer behind it.

I don't recall seeing anything on the manual about this. Can you post in more detail where this device is located and how to do it exactly.

It's definitely a very important thing to know and an excellent tip.

[RockyMtnRay]

I don't recall seeing anything on the manual about this. Can you post in more detail where this device is located and how to do it exactly.

It's definitely a very important thing to know and an excellent tip.

This tip is one you definitely won't see in the TM manual. :)

It's a rather unorthdox concept...if I'm understanding it correctly, you just stick the prongs of a two prong flasher into the correct slots of the 7-pin Bargman plug on the end of your trailer's umbilical cord. The trick is making sure you stick the flasher prongs into the right pins on the trailer's Bargman plug...do it wrong and you could get unexpected results, possibly some sparks and a blown fuse. If Dancin' Dan doesn't post a pic in the next week or so, I'll try to get out to my trailer with such a two prong flasher and take a pic of the right hookup myself.

[DancinCampers]

Hi all,

Below is the diagram off the Bargman website. On the 7-Pin molded connector the flasher is inserted into pin 3 Clearance and Tail Lights (green wire) and pin 4 Battery Charge (Black Wire). You'll notice that these are located on either side of the connector keyway.

A similar connector diagram should be included in the TM manual in the electric brake section, although use of a flasher is not mentioned.

The flasher could also be inserted in pins 4 and 6, but this will only flash the right hand turn signal light.

Inserting the flasher into any other combination should produce no flashing of any kind.

Hope this helps.

Dan

PS: Using pins 4 (Battery Charge) and 1 (Common Ground) has been identified previously as a way to charge the TM battery when it is closed.

http://www.bargman.com/files/wiringdiag.jpg

[arknoah]

Thanks for a valuable suggestion!

[Leslie & Nick]

Dancin Campers -

I know this is an "oldie" but I finallly got around to trying the emergency flasher installation, and it worked perfectly, as described! Hope I never have to use it, but I stuck the flasher in my "electrical" toolbox, just in case.

Thanks for the tip! :)

Nick

[Bill & Lisa]

Stopped by an auto parts store tonight and described what I was looking for. They had never heard of a Flasher for use that way but a little looking we did find a 2 prong flasher. I am not sure it is what everyone has been talking about in this thread. I have included a picture. can anyone tell me if I purchased the right thing? Also there were two versions available - a thermal one and an electronic one. The electronic one is about 3x the price of the thermal one ($7.97 vice $2.78) and I can guess what the difference is (what controls the cycle rate of the Flasher). Based on your experiences is one any better than the other?

Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving
Bill

[Freedom]

That's it! You don't need the expensive one. Just plug the two bladeson the flasher into slots 3 and 4 on the end of the trailer bargeman plug and everything will flash.

[Bill & Lisa]

Thanks for the feed back. DW was confident it was right, I was not....score DW 1 DH 0.
Bill

[Bill & Lisa]

:confused: Got the TM out of the storage site and alongside the house last night to get ready to camp over the weekend and ring in the new year right. Had to try out the flasher (new toy and all) and boy it works great. Definately an attention getter if somone is trying to find your rig in a dark campground. The only problem I have is the unit doesn't want to stay in the pins on the trailer plug. It seems that the gap between the contacts in the plug is twice the size of prongs on the flasher unit. Short of also carrying a roll of duck tape in the TV to tape it in place if I ever need to leave the TM on the road side, does anyone have a better way?

[Freedom]

Very simple, just twist the prongs on the flasher slightly until they fit tight.

[Bill & Lisa]

Thanks, I will give it a try.... :errrr:

[B_and_D]

Reading the post about the rear running lights staying on made me think about this thread. That one is a head scratcher.

We bought one of the flashers just in case.

[FujiPedaler]

What is "don#039t?"

[B_and_D]

Apparently (I know squat about coding, etc.) the older posts show the #039 where an apostrophe is supposed to be.

Anyone have a clue about this? All of the older posts are like this. I think the board went through an upgrade between that time and now.

[MisterP]

These are HTML codes that are artifacts of earlier site upgrades.

If you are interested in decoding them - http://www.ascii.cl/htmlcodes.htm

[Padgett]

1) Actually those as ANSI codes (loong predate HTML & ASCII is a subset) and #039 is the decimal code. On a Windows machine, hold the ALT key down, enter 39, release the ALT, and a ' will appear.

You also may see 0x27 which is the same thing in heaxadecimal (base 16). Back in the early daze of computing there were as many different schemes as manufacturers (baudot, BCD, EBCDIC, octal) but eventually ANSI/ASCII became the standard and even IBM caved.

Back in the early '90s I developed a scheme of "executable ASCII" but that was in another life, far far away.

2) One of these (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000GKAZCW/)works just fine (blinks at about one second intervals) just as mentioned the prongs do not mate well with the bargman and are too short. When I get a round tuit I may make some sheaths/extenders to rectify.

ps there are 11 #194 side marker and clearance lights at 2CP ea = 22 CP plus 2 1157 (tail filament) at 3CP ea= 6CP or 28 CP total.