Lance ELectrical Hookup - Diesel Forum

Hoss350 · 05-04-2006, 11:03 PM

I needs me some advice. Fixin&#8217; to buy a new (to me) camper. It&#8217;s a 1994 9.5&#8217; Lance 480. It is in excellent condition, and it is an excellent deal. The only problem is that the electrical will not work (currently) with my beast.

It appears as though Lance has their own, special electrical hookups. It looks like a 6-prong hookup, but it is actually (I think) a 7-prong, with three on each side, one in the center. There is also a big gap at the top between the ones at the side (they are not evenly spaced). I&#8217;ve never seen anything like it. Anybody know what I&#8217;m talking about? I need to find the female end of said doohickey (or find an adapter from a regular 9-prong) to hook it up.

My old camper also hooked up at the rear (the trailer hookup) and had a pigtail so you could still tow a trailer. This camper hooks up front, so I either need to make an extension to hook it up in the rear, or add a front hookup to the beast.

Okay, here is where I get all technical and such&#8230;

I need a hot wire to recharge the battery when the truck is on. Where can I get a hot off of my truck? The rest, I can do myself, but I need to know where I can get a Lance hookup.

Thanks in advance&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;

707727747 · 05-05-2006, 09:25 AM

ok,so you've pulled a trailer and had a camper on before....i have hooked up [wired] a few trailers and campers....if your camper hangs down to the bumper it might be easier to change the plug on the camper itself [ mark wires that go to brake running lites etc using lite then cut it off]then add to the the camper wire with long enough lead to hook up at the back to fit your current setup...check the truck plug setup with a lite..there is prolly a hot wire[with ignition on][if you have camper package] there already. get lazy and go to an auto elec place and they'll do it right. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif[/img]

SteveHeywood · 05-05-2006, 10:31 AM

Go to any Lance dealer and ask them for the female plug. It's unique to Lance, make sure you get the service dept. to draw you a wiring diagram. Then punch a hole in the left front corner of the inside of your box. I wired mine into the factory harness where it ran below the left front corner of the box.

The other problem you will have concerns cab height and the cabover portion of the camper. Pre-2000 Lance campers will hit the cab of any year Super Duty. You will need to fabricate a spacer to go under the camper, ask the Lance dealer how thick it needs to be.

Hoss350 · 05-05-2006, 10:50 AM

[ QUOTE ]

The other problem you will have concerns cab height and the cabover portion of the camper. Pre-2000 Lance campers will hit the cab of any year Super Duty. You will need to fabricate a spacer to go under the camper, ask the Lance dealer how thick it needs to be.

[/ QUOTE ]
You're kidding! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img]

That totally sucks. Very dissappointed to hear that. What should I make the spacer out of? Dimensional lumber?

kehale · 05-05-2006, 03:21 PM

You're going to need about 2" in your bed.

You can use some rigid insulation and a rubber mat on top of that to save weight.

I'm sure you have the tie-downs already chosen or installed. The most common are happijacks and tork lift brand.

The plug is proprietary to Lance. See a dealer for the female part of it. The power wire is 6 gauge so that you can run the 3 way fridge from the alternater while driving. Typical trailer brake wiring (7 pin type) won't allow enough current to the fridge.

I would also check out RV.net in the truck camping forum. There's a lot of info there and people are usually quick to answer your questions.

Post pics, if possible.

Hoss350 · 05-05-2006, 04:59 PM

[ QUOTE ]
You're going to need about 2" in your bed.

You can use some rigid insulation and a rubber mat on top of that to save weight.

[/ QUOTE ]
Not a bad idea. Thanks, I think you may have solved my problem!

[ QUOTE ]
I'm sure you have the tie-downs already chosen or installed. The most common are happijacks and tork lift brand.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, I have torklift frame mounted ties. I have a camper now, already, but it plugged in at the rear, in my existing trailer jack, so I will need to do some wiring on my truck to run my new lance.

[ QUOTE ]
The plug is proprietary to Lance. See a dealer for the female part of it. The power wire is 6 gauge so that you can run the 3 way fridge from the alternater while driving. Typical trailer brake wiring (7 pin type) won't allow enough current to the fridge.

[/ QUOTE ]
Okay, now I get why Lance went proprietary on it. I have decided to go with a 7-pin anyway. I never run the fridge off 12V, it doesn't work very good, and tears the fridge up. It is either 110, LP, or off.

[ QUOTE ]
Post pics, if possible.

[/ QUOTE ]
I may have to do that. SHould look pretty good with the new camper on there...

kehale · 05-05-2006, 06:58 PM

Check here for what one person did with the foam insulation.

http://www.stuver.com/trips/2006-04-...pex/index.html

Plugging in the rear is one sure way to make sure your fridge doesn't work on 12volts. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] You really need a dedicated wire to the loom for the camper. Newer campers have cut outs to the truck so you can't accidently drain your trucks battery.

Here's a link to my truck and camper.

camper pics

klhansen · 05-05-2006, 08:03 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I need a hot wire to recharge the battery when the truck is on. Where can I get a hot off of my truck? The rest, I can do myself, but I need to know where I can get a Lance hookup.

[/ QUOTE ]

You should have a hot wire (well as soon as you install a relay) in your truck running to the rear bumper area. If you have had a 7-pin there, you probably used the blunt cut wires on the factory harness to wire that in.

I believe the wire color in the harness running inside the left frame rail is orange (also should be heavier gauge than the rest in the bundle). The relay goes in the small 2-relay box under the hood next to the fuse panel. It's the one (box) closest to the firewall. Don't remember which one is the power relay (other is for backup lights IIRC), but you should be able to track it down with a test light. You'll also have to install a Maxi-fuse in fusebox for the circuit that feeds the relay.

I'm in the middle of doing the same thing, but the Lance I got is a 2003, and while the book had the weird wiring, the plug that's on mine is a standard 7-pin (maybe they wised up or someone changed the plug, but it looks original). I'd install a standard 7-pin on the camper to get rid of the weird connector.

I mounted a standard 7-pin inside the bed for the plug-in, routed the cable (need 6 feet) thru the left front stake pocket and down in front of the fuel tank. I plan on splicing it into the harness tomorrow.

Let me know if you need add'l info on the power feed or wiring colors. I can get them for you from the instruction sheet that came with my trailer tow harness package.

On the older camper I just sold, I screwed 2x4's flat on the bottom to get it to clear the cab. That made it 1-1/2 inches higher and gave it enough clearance without a bed pad or anything else.

Old_Dog · 05-06-2006, 02:42 AM

[ QUOTE ]

Okay, now I get why Lance went proprietary on it. I have decided to go with a 7-pin anyway. I never run the fridge off 12V, it doesn't work very good, and tears the fridge up. It is either 110, LP, or off.

[/ QUOTE ]

The reason the fridge doesn't work well on 12-V is that there is typically
too much voltage drop under load from the truck's alternator/batteries to
the reefer... When the dealer installed my Lance camper he ran the
#6 or #8 wire from the left front truck battery thru a cut-out relay then
to the Lance female connector mounted in the bed on the left front side wall.
There was way too much voltage drop -- especially with the long
run on a crew cab. To further exacerbate the problem, the dealer connected
the Lance negative return power lead to frame ground near the connector!
That's also against the NEC. I tore the dealer's power wire out and
replaced it with 1/0 or something like that. And installed a negative
return to the battery, ditching the dealer's frame ground. This was
overkill for the camper, but I did it because I also added two more RV
batteries and have plans for high current radios. Now, the voltage
at the Lance battery in the camper is about where it should be with the
refer running from 12-V. The refer pulls about 19-amps in the 12-VDC
mode. Now I can actually run the refer from 12-VDC and recharge the
three RV batts while driving down the road! Works great.

Lance also went too small on the power wires in their power cable from
the camper and in the special bed mounted female socket. Although the
wire length isn't too bad, I plan on beefing those power wires up to
further reduce the voltage drop under load. All these little voltage
drops add up and degrades the refer's performance in the 12-VDC mode.

FYI, when recharging my RV batts and running the refer, I've seen the
camper and RV batteries draw up to 70-amps. Putting the total load on
the dual-alternators (camper, RV batteries and the F-350's load) up
around 100-amps. More with headlights, A/C, etc turned on... But the
dual-alternators share the load making it a comfy 50-amps or so per
alternator.

With this setup I always run the refer in 12-VDC mode when driving down
the road. With the three 100-AH RV batteries I can pull off and stop
somewhere for a few hours without worrying about flattening the batteries,
the refer warming up, etc. When I get back on the road the
dual-alternators have plenty of juice to recharge the batteries, run the
refer, etc. I love the tri-mode refer...

--Old_Dog

Hoss350 · 05-08-2006, 04:20 PM

Awesome, helpful post! I went and finished my installation (barring two things) this weekend. I disconnected the factory plug at the trailer wiring near the bumper, and probed it to find out which wires did what. Hooked it up, hole-sawed the female end in, and voila! Super-simple. EXCEPT.....

[ QUOTE ]

I believe the wire color in the harness running inside the left frame rail is orange (also should be heavier gauge than the rest in the bundle). The relay goes in the small 2-relay box under the hood next to the fuse panel. It's the one (box) closest to the firewall. Don't remember which one is the power relay (other is for backup lights IIRC), but you should be able to track it down with a test light. You'll also have to install a Maxi-fuse in fusebox for the circuit that feeds the relay.

[/ QUOTE ]
I have no power in the orange wire. THe relays are in place. So, I figure it must be a maxi-fuse. I am missing one maxi fuse in the box. However, since I do not have an owner's manual, I have no idea what the numbers on the box lid actually coincide with, and what amperage they should be.

WHat maxi fuse runs the aux. trailer power? What amperage should it be?

2nakiller · 05-10-2006, 02:07 AM

From the Ford manual I found in my glove box.
Maxifuse 30A in Power box location #16 for the battery charge circuit and #28 for the Backup light circuit.

Ford color code

Brown/White = Running Lamps
Black/Light Green = Backup lamps
Dark Blue = Trailer Elect. Brake feed
Dark Green = Right Turn/Stop Lamp
Yellow = Left Turn/Stop Lamp
Orange = Battery Charge
White = Gnd

This list should be good for '99-04 F-Super Duty Series F-250 thru
F-550

2NA

Bigfoot62 · 05-13-2006, 01:55 PM

[ QUOTE ]
The plug is proprietary to Lance. See a dealer for the female part of it. The power wire is 6 gauge so that you can run the 3 way fridge from the alternater while driving. Typical trailer brake wiring (7 pin type) won't allow enough current to the fridge.

[/ QUOTE ]

Here's what I did when I had a Lance. I hooked up the electrical on a standard 7-pin RV plug. Used an "extension cord" (male plug, female plug and about 8' of RV cable) to plug it into the factory plug under the bumper. Ran the frig on LP ALWAYS (works better on LP than 12 or 120 v, anyway)
JMHO - worked for me.