Embedded Files
ABS Roof Repair
Stepper Door Inspection
Do I have Brakes
Maybe, you can look under your trailer to find out. The brakes are easily identified on the back of the wheels. If you do not have brakes you can see through the wheel holes.
Here you can see the back plate of an axle without brakes. This is a common axle and is ready for brakes to be added if needed.
Adding a Battery
On a Coleman this is one of the easiest things to do. On the tongue by where the trailer light harness comes out, there is a little white plug with a black and white wire coming into it. This is the prewired battery plug. If you are a new owner of the trailer, look everywhere in the trailer just in case the previous owner happened to have the battery harness. This is a two wire harness usually black and white with a gold self resetting breaker on it. If you find it great if not you can buy one here. Once you have a harness then it is simple as plugging it in and connecting it to a good deep cycle battery. Some people mount the batter on the same bracket as the propane or it is easy to add a battery mount in front of the propane.
Here is the plug that the battery harness will plug into.
Simple Battery mount.
Patching holes in canvas
How the Coleman lift system works - 1994 to 2012
The Coleman lift system is a screw drive system connected to a series of pullers. When you crank the lift handle a screw pulls on four separate cables that in turn lift the four corner lifting posts. The ratcheting you hear when you lift the roof is the locking device to keep the roof up. This is done with a simple friction brake. When you crank the roof up a thread moves the extension tube (where you insert the crank handle) in and applies pressure on a brake disc that will hold a sprocket firm and the top will be locked by the ratchet you hear on the way up. When you lower the top there should be a turn or two of the crank handle before the top starts to lower. This turn is unscrewing the extension tube slightly and removing the pressure on the brake pad. This will allow the sprocket to slip and the ratchet not to hold the top up. You then can lower the top by turning the handle counter clockwise and this unscrews the lift threaded rod and lowering the cables lifting the roof.
My coffee pot...
A few years ago I found the perfect camping coffee pot when we camp with site power. It is a simple Cuisinart coffee maker but it has a stainless steel thermal carafe. This will keep our coffee hot for hours and not be susceptible to breaking.
My Cuisinart coffee pot overflows.
I kept having problems with coffee overflowing from my thermal cara. I had been using it for a year or so. I cleaned it by hand regularly. I called Cuisinart and they informed me that the lid must be bunked up and I should.d order replacement. We'll paying for a replacement and the shipping was not an options. It took awhile but I found in a forum how to clean coffee pots. I'm talking about being able to remove the coffee stains and gunk without scrubbing. Boil a pot of water. Add powder automatic dish washing detergent to the water and pour it into your dirty pot or even cup. I had cleaned my pot with white vinegar since I thought that is the best cleaning solutions for coffee pots. But when I used the boiling water and dishwasher detergent it turned black.it immediately dissolved all the coffee gunk! I did that a few times until it ran clean. My travel cup that was permanently stained came out looking like new without any scrubbing. Just a little help for anyone out there.
Will my battery charge from the flat 4 pin trailer plug?
No, the battery will not be charged with the flat 4 pin connector. Your year (1999 and older I think) camper should have a removable trailer plug. It can be disconnected at the 6 or 8 pin plug (can't remember exactly right now) and you could replace the flat 4 pin plug with a round 7 pin plug. With the round plug there is a power input that could charge your battery if the tow vehicle is hooked up properly.
This way of charging is very slow and not the suggested method. Get a good charger for at home and top your battery off after and before each trip. Also remember to disconnect your battery when you are not using the camper since the propane detector is always on and will drain the battery.
LED lights
I rarely camp without power connections but this fall my wife reserved a site on the river with a view that made it worth it. Knowing I needed power for the furnace I looked at the lights to extend the battery life and power the furnace. I believe the largest draw on the battery is the lights, especially since my family has a habit of turning all of them on and leaving them on. Well I decided to adventure into the LED changeover. After some searching I found that it is a very easy conversion. Using a Warm White LED build we changed over the lights in minutes and my battery lasted for days this trip. I can't believe I was able to change the lights and have my wife's approval on the color and brightness. Using five LED boards and the conversion plug it was as simple as removing the bulb, finding the right converter for the LED and making sure the polarity was right. With LED bulbs it matters if you have the positive on the right side unlike conventional incandescent bulbs. So after turning the light on and switching the LED plug to make it work, I just had to stick it up in place of the old bulb. Five bulbs does a whole camper (2 per light fixture and one outside). I even was able to convert my fan light combos.
Trailer lights
Most of the lights on the outside of the trailer are made by Bargman
Outside connectors and door
These are made by JR Products
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