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Old 09-10-2013, 08:38 PM   #1
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1987 Sunline Saturn 16' travel trailer pigtail wiring diagram

My wife and I purchased a 1987 Sunline Saturn travel trailer in Sacramento California this past August and found that the wiring had been modified to fit a four blade hookup. The battery does not charge when being towed so it's only good for about four days using it just for interior lighting. I believe it was originally a seven prong pigtail hookup and I would like to fix the wiring back to original but when we purchased it there was no literature. does anyone know the proper wiring for the pigtail or a hand drawn diagram would do. It would be tremendous help if someone had the wiring diagram for the trailer as I intend to replace all the marker lights and interior lighting as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
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Old 09-11-2013, 05:59 AM   #2
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This may help. It is the standard wiring diagram for a trailer and except for the battery charging colors, the back up lights, they all pretty much match up.

Trailer Wiring Diagrams | etrailer.com

Do not know the model number of your Sunline. If it has electric brakes and someone converted it from 7 wire round to 4 wires flat, then they elminated the brakes which is not a good thing along with the battery charging circuit.

I have some pictures of mine at home I will post later on how the 7 wire cable from the truck is fused and feeds the trailer battery and camper. I will post later tonight. Do not have access to my pile of pics right now.

Hope this helps

John
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Old 09-11-2013, 09:00 PM   #3
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My trailer is a single axle 16 footer that we tow behind our Jeep Grand Cherokee, the four prong trailer hookup looks modified and the only hookup I see with a line for the battery is either the six or seven blade hookup. I went on etrailer.com and found it very useful but without either an owner's manual or wiring schematic I have now way of knowing what the actual pigtail hook up is. I will try to find an owner's manual for it, hopefully on this site. Thank You for your help.
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Old 09-11-2013, 09:07 PM   #4
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This may help if you want to do some upgrades and redo this wiring setup.

Sunline put a battery disconnect on my camper so you can flip the switch off when done camping so the LP detector or anything else left on does not drain the battery dead while not being used in a week or two. This is optional, you can always unhooked the negative off the battery are each camper out too.

You will also notice 2 little black wires by the disconnect switch. They are for the emergency break away switch that needs to be on your camper. One wire goes direct to the battery, the other wire sneaks into a junction box on the A frame header






Now to the junction box. The 7 wire cable from the truck has to tied in somewhere. Your may have a box inside the camper, up front and may be under something up front. In a cabinet, under a couch etc. I do not know what floor plan you have. It may be nothing more than a wood cover. If no such thing exists or you cannot find it, start at the power converter, assuming you have one. Look for he heavy red battery lead wire and follow it all the way to the battery. It should go through that junction box if one still exists.

On mine which is newer they put that junction box on on the A frame header. See here






Those pics are for a "non" slide camper. The 7 wire needs to come into a box somewhere, inside if you have one or you put a new one on the A frame header. In that box you need a 30 amp fuse in the truck charge line that then goes to the battery. This protects the truck wiring.

Then in that box is the blue brake wire. The wire feed form teh brake come into the box and then joins with the emergency break away switch and then into the blue of the 7 wire cable.

In my setup there is a 30 amp self resetting circuit breaker. Then is between the battery and the inside camper power converter. Helps protect against a short.

Since yours was converted to a 4 wire flat cable, we nor you have any idea what is left that was original. You need to end up with a fused battery charge line, a fused heavy wire to the battery and the camper power converter and the emergency break away switch tie in.

If you can find that junction box inside, some of these parts may exist.

Hope this helps and good luck. If you cannot figure this out, ask away and takes some pics of what you find.

John
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Old 09-11-2013, 09:26 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaterader View Post
My trailer is a single axle 16 footer that we tow behind our Jeep Grand Cherokee, the four prong trailer hookup looks modified and the only hookup I see with a line for the battery is either the six or seven blade hookup. I went on etrailer.com and found it very useful but without either an owner's manual or wiring schematic I have now way of knowing what the actual pigtail hook up is. I will try to find an owner's manual for it, hopefully on this site. Thank You for your help.
Hi, you where typing while I was too....

I do not know of a wiring diagram from Sunline on the actual 12 volts trailer lights/brakes exists. We have one for a 2004 T2499 (my older camper) however it only shows the 120VAC and the inside 12 volt DC. Not the trailer DOT wiring.

We can help on the pin outs but we do not know in your camper what was ripped out. And you may not either.

Do you know your model number? Someone may have the same year/model and their system is intact and can help where to look on your floor plan.

A question on the brakes is, are they even still there? Crawl under the camper and look at the back side of the wheel plate area for 2 wires hanging out of each wheel. Do these even exist?

While this one is mine, yours should have something similar


The 7 wire trailer lighting circuit is not too complex. It is the E trailer and add the fused battery charging part, the emergency break away switch for the brakes, and the power convertor tie in to make it a camper. If you come up totally dry, let us know. I can draw up a wiring diagram if needed.

Keep feeding up what you can find and can't find from my replies and we can help point you a little to what you have or do not have.

Good luck

John
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Old 09-11-2013, 09:28 PM   #6
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Look here in our files section for what we do have, which is a lot. Including a brochure for your year camper to download then by the floor plan back into what what model you have

Sunline Coach Owner's Club - Sunline Owner's Files

That link is the tab on the top of the forum labeled "FILES", click it and it will bring you to that linked place.
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Old 09-12-2013, 06:29 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnB View Post
Hi, you where typing while I was too....

I do not know of a wiring diagram from Sunline on the actual 12 volts trailer lights/brakes exists. We have one for a 2004 T2499 (my older camper) however it only shows the 120VAC and the inside 12 volt DC. Not the trailer DOT wiring.

We can help on the pin outs but we do not know in your camper what was ripped out. And you may not either.

Do you know your model number? Someone may have the same year/model and their system is intact and can help where to look on your floor plan.

A question on the brakes is, are they even still there? Crawl under the camper and look at the back side of the wheel plate area for 2 wires hanging out of each wheel. Do these even exist?

While this one is mine, your should have something Sinclair


The 7 wire trailer lighting circuit is not too complex. It is the E trailer and add the fused battery charging part, the emergency break away switch for the brakes, and the power convertor tie in to make it a camper. If you come up totally dry, let us know. I can draw up a wiring diagram if needed.

Keep feeding up what you can find and can't find from my replies and we can help point you a little to what you have or do not have.

Good luck

John
Thank you John, this invormation is extremely helpful. it's suppose to rain today so I may not be able to do any research but I will try to take some pictures of my trailer and the wiring as it is set up right now. I will check to see if the brakes are hooked up and if not I will rewire them on the seven prong pigtail I have purchased after I find the fusebox you have spoken of. My trailer does have an inverter under the sink to the left and I can see the fusable link for the battery outside near the battery (pictures to follow later). I will check the files for an owner's manual for my trailer, I am not sure exactly where the model number is stamped on this trailer, do you have any idea? Again thank you for your help, with a little luck I can get this done before fall, we want to take the trailer out again soon.
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Old 09-12-2013, 06:40 AM   #8
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Have you unwrapped the tape on the trailer pig tail to see how many wires are there? Sunline seems to use the standard color code for the trailer wiring but if there are only 4 wires in the pig tail they have been creative with their wiring.
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Old 09-12-2013, 08:58 PM   #9
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Have you unwrapped the tape on the trailer pig tail to see how many wires are there? Sunline seems to use the standard color code for the trailer wiring but if there are only 4 wires in the pig tail they have been creative with their wiring.
No I haven't but I found out today that my trailer does have brakes. I posted an album of the trailer, I have not been able to find the model number posted anywhere on the trailer but I do have the VIN , it is as follows: 1LC2S1G17HD161218 hopefully someone can figure out the model from this info.
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Old 09-12-2013, 09:12 PM   #10
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1987 Sunline Saturn 16 foot Travel Trailer

I've attached some photo's does anyone know what model this is so I can download the owner's manual that someone hopefully has on this site.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg IMG_0023.jpg (84.6 KB, 20 views)
File Type: jpg IMG_0031.jpg (81.4 KB, 19 views)
File Type: jpg IMG_0028.jpg (102.9 KB, 17 views)
File Type: jpg IMG_0026.jpg (85.4 KB, 17 views)
File Type: jpg IMG_0034.jpg (81.3 KB, 17 views)
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Old 09-12-2013, 09:21 PM   #11
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Quote:
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I've attached some photo's does anyone know what model this is so I can download the owner's manual that someone hopefully has on this site.
1987 Saturn T-1661
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Old 09-13-2013, 05:14 AM   #12
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Hi Robert,

Good deal on the pics! They really help us see what you have and are up against. Great!!!!

A manual, see here in our files section for all the "owners" manauls we have.

Sunline Coach Owner's Club - Sunline Owner's Files - Sunline Owners Manuals

Heads up though it may not get you what your looking for in this case. The owners manuals where not model specifc and only changed when big things in the cameper models changed. A manual for 2005 or 1985 both have very good info for a camper in how it realtes to using a camper. Just not how to fix a camper.

I see Sunline Fan helped you out sort out which floor plan you have. In the files sections again there are brochures and finding your year and then seeing the outside pics of the windows etc you can back into a model number. Which he did. And now that we have a model number, we can look up your floor plan. Pictures made this possible.

Odds are high that the junction box for the original 7 wire cable tie in was under the couch in the front. That is a pure guess... on my part but it is where many others up front in the campers showed up. The run of wire is shorter on the 7 wire cable and it makes practical sense they would put it there.

Someone in the past has posted a picture what the inside of that junction box looked like. I "think" Steve Collins did and maybe others too. I hvae a foggy memory of Wannabe's posting it but one to many campers and I may have it mixed up. I'll attempt to hunt for it later tonight unless someone else pops in with it or better, you find it!

Somewhere in the life of the camper a prior owner yanked apart the wireing of the original 7 wires plug. Now you have to sort out what they left in place and start reconstructing the missing pieces.

Hopes this helps and good luck

John
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Old 09-13-2013, 06:33 AM   #13
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Oh that's a mess looks like there is some extension cord involved. My T1700 has no junction box it's just wired right to the plug and the battery connections are separate. If you can find where they cut off the cable that would be a good place to start. I don't see a brake away switch for the brakes if your going to repair the wiring that should be included. I'm also thinking the "extension cord" goes to the rear and is hooked up to the rear lights looks like some orange wiring along the frame.
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Old 09-14-2013, 06:35 AM   #14
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1987 Sunline Saturn pigtail repair

You're right Mainah, the orange extension cord is for the extra set of tail lights that someone added to the back of the trailer, when I rewire I will hook up both sets in parallel so that I only have one set of wires going to the pigtail. I am also going to try and find a breakaway switch for the trailer, John thought it might be in the front under the seat but it wasn't and doesn't appear that it ever had one there nor does it look like it was frame mounted, I'll just have to do some more searching under the cabinets and seat inside. Here is a few pictures of what the inside looks like right now before anything has been done.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg IMG_0042.jpg (69.3 KB, 8 views)
File Type: jpg IMG_0041.jpg (58.2 KB, 7 views)
File Type: jpg IMG_0040.jpg (82.2 KB, 10 views)
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File Type: jpg IMG_0038.jpg (71.2 KB, 10 views)
File Type: jpg IMG_0043.jpg (57.4 KB, 10 views)
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Old 09-14-2013, 03:51 PM   #15
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Nope the brake away switch mounts on the tongue one wire goes to the battery the other is inline with the brake wiring. I do not believe the smaller campers had a junction box it's point to point wiring. I will bet your camper wiring is all still there hopefully they did not cut it. That extension cord I'm sure has some pretty small wire most likely #16 wire and they don't do real well out in the weather. Take your tail light lens off and see if you wiring is still there. If you open the little trap door on the converter that's where you'll find some fuses for the lighting.
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Old 09-15-2013, 07:25 AM   #16
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Nope the brake away switch mounts on the tongue one wire goes to the battery the other is inline with the brake wiring. I do not believe the smaller campers had a junction box it's point to point wiring. I will bet your camper wiring is all still there hopefully they did not cut it. That extension cord I'm sure has some pretty small wire most likely #16 wire and they don't do real well out in the weather. Take your tail light lens off and see if you wiring is still there. If you open the little trap door on the converter that's where you'll find some fuses for the lighting.

Yep', I found the fusebox under the refridgerator, it connects to the inverter at that point and a hot lead goes to the battery, I also found the hot lead outside near the tongue with the inline fuse, I'm sure when I take the tape of the leads I will find that it has been taped inactive. I'm still hopeful I can find a diagram of the lead colors going into the pigtail on the trailer, if not I will just have to find each one separately and match them to the leads on the female connector of my jeep grand cherokeee.
Thank you for your help.
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