Landing gear switch for 5th wheel.

[Traveling Dan]

Hello fellow RV'ers,
While trying to set-up I discovered that my landing gear switch burned up along with the connectors. I cut back the wiring 4" from the switch and the wire seems fine. I replaced the in-line fuse but when I went to re-connect a new switch I discovered that I do not know the proper pattern to reattach the 4 wires.
I have a white, yellow, red and black wire that need to be attached to the 4 post connectors on the back of the switch. I purchased the switch at the Campers World near Eau Claire, WI and asked the staff if they would please see if one of their repair guys would know which wires to plug in where and I was told they were all too busy working to be bothered. I'll not go there again.

I'm in the dark here folks and sure could use some help. Thanks!

 

[Rene T]

Welcome to the forum.
Do you by any chance have rear electric stabilizers?
Telling us the year, make and model of your RV will really help. Maybe one of our members has the same RV could look at theirs.
Does your old switch still have the burnt wires attached to it?

 

[Ex-Calif]

What Rene said but as important is the model and make of the landing gear equipment itself.

99.9% of RV accessories are 3rd party items. Is there any documentation of the LG system you got? Switch wiring is very common to have in the installation paperwork.

Educated guess is you are gonna have up, down, power and ground. In a pinch you should be able to flash out the ground and power. Then flash out the switch. The final step is to figure out up and down.

It's a 5 minute job to do it. It's a 20 post exercise to explain it in forum - LOL...

 

[donn]

Red, black battery plus and minus. The other 2 wont matter for the moment. Just connect them and test la ding gear. If its wrong simply swap the off 2. To prove things out using your volt meter to verify battery plus

 

[donn]

BTW those landing gear switches are notoriously under rated. The 30A draw from the landing gear can burn them up in a hurry. I would recomend you buy a heavy duty reversing relay that can handle the load. Then you can use the switch to control the relay.

 

[Traveling Dan]

Welcome to the forum.
Do you by any chance have rear electric stabilizers?
Telling us the year, make and model of your RV will really help. Maybe one of our members has the same RV could look at theirs.
Does your old switch still have the burnt wires attached to it?

Hello and thanks for the REPLY.
The wires were taken off so the pattern was lost. To quick to shoot!
I have a 2003 Forrest River Sandpiper with elbow grease landing stabilizer pads in the back. I couldn't find anything on you tube either.

 

[Traveling Dan]

What Rene said but as important is the model and make of the landing gear equipment itself.

99.9% of RV accessories are 3rd party items. Is there any documentation of the LG system you got? Switch wiring is very common to have in the installation paperwork.

Educated guess is you are gonna have up, down, power and ground. In a pinch you should be able to flash out the ground and power. Then flash out the switch. The final step is to figure out up and down.

It's a 5 minute job to do it. It's a 20 post exercise to explain it in forum - LOL...

Ha, yup 5 minutes would do it if I knew what I was doing Once I have the 4 wires hooked-up to the proper connector I'll be good to go. The problem is, is if I hook them up wrong it will either pop a fuse which is a dime a dozen or I might fry the switch at $20 a pop. So far what I have seen is the yellow goes on the upper left hand side, black below that, white wire on the upper left and the red below that. I just want to research more to be sure that's correct before I put power to it and possibly fry the switch.
Thanks!

 

[Traveling Dan]

BTW those landing gear switches are notoriously under rated. The 30A draw from the landing gear can burn them up in a hurry. I would recommend you buy a heavy duty reversing relay that can handle the load. Then you can use the switch to control the relay.

Thanks for the advice Donn!

 

[Traveling Dan]

Thanks for the comments and advice everyone. Once I have it up and running I'll reply with the correct wiring pattern.

 

[Rene T]

HSo far what I have seen is the yellow goes on the upper left hand side, black below that, white wire on the upper left and the red below that.

Dan, you’ve got the yellow and white going to the same post. I think you meant the white goes on the upper right. Don’t want to confuse the OP.

 

[Ex-Calif]

This looks like the diagram. Even shows those weird cross over straps in a schematic way. Looks like hot and ground are the middle connectors.





This may be a different system as the blue is subbed for white. It's not that difficult a switch.

 

[ChasA]

That is typical direction-reversing switch wiring.

 

[Traveling Dan]

Thanks to all hands!
For some reason one of the existing wires had no power so when I replaced the switch I added a new red wire off the POS post on the battery, ran that through a fuseable link (30A) and to the upper left hand side terminal. The existing white wire went to the upper right hand side (I stand corrected Rene!) and the 2 wires coming off the motor - red left bottom, black right bottom and now everything is working great.
I didn't mean to make such a big deal out of this but I am an electrical savant and didn't want to toast a new $20 switch. Now I can fly South and not have to worry about that.
Thanks again everyone and happy camping!