As you probably know, I bought a pop up camper. Well, this is how it all went down.
I originally intended to get a travel trailer, but decided at the last minute that it would be too heavy for my 2010 Kia Sedona to pull. I'd already gone to U-haul and had them put a hitch and trailer brake controller on the van already, so buying the camper seemed a good idea.
We found the camper, went to look at it and it all seemed perfect. Paid the guy. Hooked it up to the van and fired it up.
Nothing. No lights, break lights or blinkers. Problem number 1.
We carefully towed it back to our house and tried to back it into the driveway, where we found that due to the incline of our drive and the camber of the road, the bottom of the hitch was scraping the driveway. Problem number 2.
We instead took it to a local storage place, where I decided to set up the camper to check it all out.
I turned the handle the wrong way. Jammed up the lift system. Problem number 3.
Ok, time to start tackling these problems one at a time. First, take the van into U-haul and make an appointment for them to check on why the lights aren't working. Young stoner/technician tries to change a fuse which pops in his hand. He announces there's a short and proceeds to take all day to track it down. We take the van to the camper and hook it up. Success! the lights work. Problem number 1 solved (or so i thought). I also buy a hitch that is raised a few inches higher than the original so that the camper won't scrape the driveway. Problem number 2 solved.
Shortly after that, an ESC warning light comes on in the van. Julie parks the van, only to find it now stuck in park. We use the emergency release to get it out of park, but realize that we now have no brake lights and, if we engage cruise control, the brakes don't disengage it. Big problem. We take the van to Kia to let them diagnose the issue. We get a call from Kia to ask who the heck installed the hitch, as it was the worst wiring job he'd ever seen.
Wires pushed up against the muffler had melted through the shielding and shorted out, popping fuses left right and center.
Or so I thought...
In the meantime, I found an RV repair guy who came out and repaired the damage i'd done by turning the handle the wrong way. Cost me a couple of hundred bucks, but this was less than i'd expected so problem number 3 solved.
We go pick up the van from Kia, with it's nice shiny new hitch and notice an issue right away. The hitch has a flat 4 pin hookup.
The connector on the camper is a round 7 blade connector.
After calling around to see what my options were, I called into (a different) U-haul where the staff was surprisingly professional and helpful. For 20 bucks they installed a new connector on my van. However, this is merely a converter so it was on the understanding that it wouldn't have a power line to charge the camper battery, but at this point I didn't care anymore. I am not going to camp anywhere that doesn't have a power hookup so I can live without battery power for now. I can get that extra line put in later if I want to. I agree and they put on the new connector. I drive home and hook it up to the camper.
Nothing.
At this point, i'm ready to pour gasoline over the camper and give it up as a bad job. Instead, I drive back to U-haul and have the guy check his work. He discovered he hadn't earthed it properly and fixed it.
So everything is fixed. My van is working. My camper's lift system works and I have working lights.
Now if i can get a weekend that isn't forecast for thunderstorms, I may actually get to go camping one of these days...
