Southern CA mini-meeting this week

[Ray Davis]

Hi All,

Ben (whereisben.com) will be coming down to Southern CA this week. We are talking about getting together informally, maybe going out and getting some pizza.

He's going to spend at least one night at my place in Lake Forest (92630). We are inviting all who would like to come join in for a meet and greet to join us. Not sure if it's Wednesday or Thursday at this point.

If you're interested, either send me email (rdavis@cox.net), or call (949) 463-0707 and let me know which night works best for you!!!

Thanks!

[jello_jeep]

Message on the way Ray.

For what its worth, we could make Thursday night, Wednesday would not be possible.

I PM'd you my cell number.

Thanks..

Warren

[Jeff Bayley]

We can do Wednesday or Thursday. We are still searching for a trailer to buy to take my car and some household good to the new house in Florida. If any locals can tell of a deal on a trailer in California please tell.

[win42]

So Cal Members: On December 26th we are heading South on five toward El Cahon, Yuma and Tucson. Our first night will be spent somewhere between San Juan Capistrano and Solano Beach. my son and family in their 36 footer and us in our 40 ft. Prevo. We need a recomendation of a place to park for the night in that area. I see the State Parks list Max length of 35 feet. Please forward any recomendations. Wish we could join your earlier meeting, but christmas in N. Cal with family is a must do.
Thanks
Harry (530) 273-9124

[jello_jeep]

Harry,

don't know if it would bother you to run onto I-15, but if so, I would try Pechanga in Temecula.

www.pechangarv.com

Once there you could run South 15 to I-8 in into Yuma.

Best of luck, wish you could make it down this week. The Christmas week we will be in Lake Havasu City AZ, so won't be able to come over and say hi, otherwise we would be there.

If you go to Pechanga, check out the Great Oaks Steakhouse... Trust me on this one ;)

[garyde]

Happy Holidays everyone. Unfortunately, I have been out with the flu for the last week. Still recovering. The only positive side is I get to monitor the POG several times a day. Gary

[Ray Davis]

OK, I've heard from a couple, and Thursday seems to be the best night. I live in Lake Forest, where Ben will be parking, and I've got a great pizza place nearby up in Ranch Santa Margarita

What I need to know is anyone coming up in a bus, as that might make a difference in parking. Let's assume we'll meet around 630PM, and get to the restaurant (to be announced) no later than 7PM?

How's that work for all?

Ray

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

[QUOTE=jello_jeep]Harry,

don't know if it would bother you to run onto I-15, but if so, I would try Pechanga in Temecula.

www.pechagarv.com

I think you meant http://www.pechangarv.com/ ?:confused:

Looks like a great RV Desitination.:rolleyes:

Gary:D

[jello_jeep]

Gary,

Sorry for the typo in the url.. I threw a fixin on it ! We lived there for 6 months whilst building a house, so were are a bit familiar with it :)

[jello_jeep]

Ray,

sounds good, not sure what traffic will do from here, I don't usually travel that time of night to OC, but will give it a whirl. Maybe the Ortega Hwy would smile on us going that way in the evening, and be cleared up by the time we paddled home!:cool:

[Ray Davis]

Warren, we look forward in meeting you. Hopefully traffic will not be a killer. I would think the Ortega would be fine. Most of the time when I've driven it, it has not been a problem

[Ray Davis]

Last call. Anyone else like to join us in the Lake Forest/Irvine area tomorrow night? Send me an email to rdavis@cox.net and I'll get you address etc.

Ray

[Ray Davis]

Had a great time meeting everyone tonight! We should do these mini-pogs more often!


596

Left to right: Kathy, Ray, Kellly, Warren, Stephanie, Jeff, Mike, Ben, Ken

[lewpopp]

Is that the famous "Ben, The Digital Nomad" with an unshaven face. Chin whiskers is the reason Verizon kicked your butt off the web. Especially when you pose for the Avitar.

Lew

[jello_jeep]

My goodness, what a distinguished group!

[rmboies]

Another great pic of POG'ers :D Looks like ya'll had fun! One question though, did you get together previously and decide to wear black? :rolleyes:

[Ray Davis]

Nope, no fahion coordinating going on here. Probably just great minds think alike. OK, probably not! :rolleyes:

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Thanks for the picture. Nice to connect faces to names

[jello_jeep]

We were wearing black, mourning the death of reasonable diesel prices in California~!~ :p

3.47 the other day!! Sheesh!!

[Jeff Bayley]

Hi guys. It was great to meet you all. We are still trying to get the trailer lights right. We are stuck at Competitive trailer manufacture here. The owner of this trailer manufacture does not even have a volt meter in his shop. It winds up that he is completeley useless for straighting out any wiring on the bus side of things. Supposed to have someone coming tommorow (Saturday) that know the business end of the how to fix the wiring that America Carriage screwed up. I'll have a "letter to the editor" complaint about their workmanship when I get time. American Carriage and Competitve Trailer...........the Dumb and Dumber of how to wire up trailer lighting. I know more than the trailer manufacture which unfortunatly is not enough to fix it. If anyone has a Prevost Electrician in Orange County that might be available over the weekend I would welcome the referal.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Jeff What is the problem Mabye I can help

[Jeff Bayley]

Joe-

The problem is that American Carriage tried to do a quick "get me out the door" wiring job as a courtesy for taking a trailer off their hands. There is......scratch that......was a converter added reley box in the engine bay that was inline between the gray electrical box in the engine bay and the wiring harness on the bus. This relay box has fuses inside that are not readily apparent until you unscrew the lid to reveal them. Two of the fueses were burnt / bad (the box did it's job when my wiring harness dragged the ground and shorted wires together). These guys weren't getting power at the wiring harness (due to the bad fueses that the didn't know were inside and neither did I) and in their haste they elected to bypass the box altogether and run wires directly into the grey electrical box. They didn't even check with me to approve this (I was right inside the coach). I began asking the right questions about how the extra load on the circuits from the trailer lights was going to affect the operation of my coach lights and when the realized I wasn't a complete door knob they said they would install their own relays in line. So now I've got extra plumbing that wasn't there before as if that box isn't confussing enough already.

The turn signals are on on the trailer in place of tail lights and a few of the coach breakers are tripping despite them saying that ran a seperate power source to the trailer instead of piggy backing on the existing fuses.

There is a wiring diagram of that whole mess inside the grey box but interpretting it and sorting it out is beyond my apptitute and I don't fully understand about the relay's they added. I thought surely that the owner here would be handy enough to tweak it, rearrange the wires , etc, etc. He only knows about HIS trailer that HE builds. I went to reinstall the box they bypassed (all the wiring is till there for this) but the nuts and studs that were holding the old wiring on began to break apart when I went to put fresh ends on the wires and attach them to the relay box.

If/when the guy shows up tommorow that the owner called and knows, he'll either have to fix the work that Dumb and Dumber started at American Coach or he'll decide if we should put it back the way it was which will either require mending this box the best we can to work or tracking something similar down on a Saturday (???).

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Well For what its worth, When you are looking at the plug from the rear and if its that round 7 pin here is what it should be.

The top terminal is brake lights and should be a red wire from the bus.

The 2 terminals one on each side of it(1oclock and 11 oclock) are the marker lights and those wires should be brown and black.

The 2 terminals outside those (3 and 9 oclock) are the turn signals and should be green and yellow. The rest are spares.

If you have 12 volt accessories in the trlr they should be fed by the center terminal and that will be a larger guage white wire. Hope that is of some help.

Oh, 1 other thing, its grounded by the ball so when hooking up if goofy things are going on pull it around the lot and that will help the ground, usually.

[matsprt]

Joe, Great explanation. One question...

7 pin connector

12 = Brakes, 11 and 1 position = markers, 5 and 7 = turn signals, 6 = ground (???) and center = accessory. (with the numbers = positions on a clock)

The only thing I was questioning was the 6 o'clock pin, should it be a heavy black ground wire ?? Is it different on these trailers ??

Standard as in the trucking world ??

Michael

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Yes I think that might be correct. Im not sure though.
Also the 2 leads for markers will randomly split the power to the markers and tail lights so if you loose 1 youll still have markers and tail randomly. Some guys change that so that 1 is for tail lights and the other is clearance.

I like the random method because that way you never loose all of one or the other if one or the other fails.

[Jeff Bayley]

I'm going to try to post the wiring diagram for this 9 pin connector. I'm told this is more in the trucking world than RV world.