The next day we were headed out for our next destination. We planned to go to Arkansas, but the location in Arkansas we were going to was about a 12-hour long drive from where we currently were in Tennessee. We decided to break it up into 2 six-hour days so we planned to stay at a Cracker Barrel that night.

We wanted to get on the road before 10:30 so that Ryan was set up and ready to take his work meeting from the car. We woke up early, had breakfast, and got everything ready for travel. We hitched up the truck and were excited to see that we were on schedule. 

Before getting on the road, we always go through a checklist to make sure we are ready for travel. The checklist includes checking that the hitch is locked, the landing gear is raised, mirrors are adjusted, the emergency brake on the trailer is in place and the lights are functioning.

As we went through the checklist everything was all set to go…until we got to the lights.

On Tuesday, we had that problem with the electrical wire. The left turn signal wasn’t working for a moment, but then it seemed fine so we thought it wasn’t a big deal. It turns out it was… Now, none of the trailer lights would turn on.

We obviously cannot drive if the lights on the trailer don’t work because the surrounding vehicles wouldn’t know when we were breaking or turning. This problem definitely put us behind our schedule now.

We had to call Grand Design, the company that made the RV. They were trying to help, but they couldn’t figure out what was causing this issue. It was weird that all of the lights were affected. I also called Country Campers, the place we bought the camper, to see if any of their technicians had any idea what was possibly wrong. It’s difficult over the phone, but we hoped they could at least point us in a direction for things to check.

None of the suggestions worked. Country Campers said it could possibly be an issue with the truck, but we didn’t think so because all of the lights on the truck worked fine. They told us that even if the lights on the truck were functioning that does not necessarily mean its not affecting the trailer since the trailer connects to a different area than the truck lights.

Grand Design said they would send out a technician who could help us and they would cover the cost of the repairs, but we would be responsible for the cost of their travel time, which was $165. We set up the appointment, but they wouldn’t be able to get to us until the following day so we were stuck one more night at this campground. Thankfully, Grand Design said they would also cover the expense of the extra night. Grand Design was very accommodating. This was the main reason we chose a Grand Design model, we had read excellent reviews about their customer service.

After we set up the appointment, we started feeling nervous that the truck was actually going to be the cause of our problem, not the camper. We had a couple of other issues with the truck prior to this so we were really hoping the truck was not the cause of our recent problem. We didn’t want to pay for the camper tech to drive all the way out to us just to find out the camper was fine so we asked for help from a fellow RVer nearby.

We asked if we could plug our camper into his truck to see if the camper lights would turn on. If they turned on, we would know it’s our truck causing the issue, but if they don’t turn on then it must be the camper.

He agreed to help us and we tried hooking up the camper to his truck with the extension cord and without the extension cord to see if that made a difference. The lights still did not work with this other truck, but when we disconnected the camper from his truck, the camper lights flashed for a moment. I thought this was strange, it didn’t do that with our truck.

We were still thinking it was the camper since the lights wouldn’t turn on with the other truck, but I felt like something wasn’t adding up quite right. It didn’t make sense that the lights would turn on for a brief moment when hooked up to the other truck. The lights didn’t flash with our truck so something was different between the two but we didn’t know what.

We were about to call it a day and just wait until tomorrow to see what the camper tech had to say when another fellow RVer walked by. He saw we were having issues and he offered his assistance. He said he knew a lot about the electrical work so he might be able to help. He went back to his RV, grabbed a couple of tools, and came back over.

He started testing the truck first using a multimeter. He was checking to see if the trailer connection on the truck was functioning properly. After some time messing around with various things, he said he believed it was in fact the trucks doing. 

At this point, it was 4:10 in the afternoon on Thursday. I called SO MANY auto repair shops to see if anyone could fit us in just to check to see if this guy's assessment was correct. All of the places in the nearby area closed at 5:00 so obviously, no one was able to help us and they said they couldn’t fit us in until the following week. Now we were worried that if it was indeed the truck, we would be stuck in TN for longer than the 1 extra night.

I made one more call, assuming it would go nowhere, but was ecstatically surprised that they agreed to take a look really quickly if we could get the truck there before they went home. I drove like a madwoman on a mission to get this truck over there. It was 15 minutes away, but there were hardly any cars on the road. 

Back home, driving 15 minutes down the road between the hours of 3 and 7, resulted in an hour-long drive! I LOVE the country for this reason. NO ONE IS AROUND!!!

We got the truck to Carr’s Auto Services at 4:45. The mechanic had just taken off, but one of the other guys said he could take a look really quick. This is another reason I love this area. Everyone in the south is so friendly. If we had brought our truck to a place back home around closing time, they would have said “screw you, I’m going home” and I wouldn’t have blamed them.

Here, the guy didn’t mind staying a little later so that he could help us. He was even nice about it and didn’t give us an attitude. After looking at a few things, he agreed that the trailer connector on the truck was not functioning properly. He said it could either be a blown fuse or a bigger issue that would require a new trailer connection system. He said to bring the truck back tomorrow and they would take a closer look at it to see what needed to be fixed.

We canceled the appointment with the RV tech since we didn’t want to pay for the travel if the camper was fine. Then the next morning we brought the truck back to the auto shop. We also brought the extension cord for the camper so they could see what we were using. It would have been nice if we could have brought the camper with us, too so that they could look at the whole setup, but we obviously weren’t able to do that.

They said they opened at 8:00 and if we got the truck there when they opened, they would get us in before starting the work on the other cars they had there. Since we only have the one vehicle, we had to sit in the waiting room while they looked at the truck. It was so nice of them to get us in first since they knew we would have to sit there all day until they finished with our truck.

It only took about an hour for them to look at the truck and figure out what the cause was. It turns out that the extension cord we got from Country Campers was faulty and was blowing a fuse on the truck, which resulted in the dysfunctional trailer connector. This was frustrating since we had just got the cord three months ago, but at least it was a much cheaper and simpler problem to fix than needing a whole new trailer connection system for the truck.

This also explained why the lights momentarily lit up when we plugged into the other guys truck. We had most likely blown his fuse, too! Fortunately, it is a quick, easy, and inexpensive fix. We stopped at Auto Zone on the way back to the camper so we could pick up a couple of extra fuses and Ryan went over to the guy that helped us to tell him about the issue. 

It turns out that we did in fact blow his fuse, but we gave him one of the fuses we had just bought and he and Ryan were able to fix it without any problems. He seemed to appreciate that we were honest about the situation and were willing to help him out since he had been willing to help us. 

Once we returned to the campground, we hooked up our camper to the truck and everything was functioning as it should be. We were unable to use the extension cord, but at least we could safely tow the camper now. We just had to keep in mind that if we made any tight maneuvers, the cord would likely get disconnected. We really only had to make those tight maneuvers when backing the camper into a campsite so it shouldn’t be a problem. 

We still wanted to have an extension cord to avoid putting too much strain on the camper cord since it was a tight reach so we stopped at Camping World in Knoxville, TN to pick up a new one. We had to pass through Knoxville anyway to get to Jackson, TN where we were staying overnight at Cracker Barrel so we didn’t have to go far out of our way.

We found a new extension cord that works perfectly and we explained the whole situation to Country Campers, the dealership where we bought the camper and had the hitch installed. They were very helpful and agreed to reimburse us for the cost of the auto shop and new extension cord since it had been their cord that failed. It is always great when companies are willing to take responsibility and handle the situation accordingly without causing additional stress and aggravation. We were very appreciative of their help.

All in all, this turned out to be a very minor problem with a small, unexpected expense, but we were very happy with the outcome. We were now only 1 day behind schedule, but it could have been a lot worse. We were also fortunate that the campground in Arkansas that we had booked for Friday night allowed us to push back our reservations one day without charge. In the end, we were very lucky and so grateful to everyone who helped us with this problem.