Nifty Ammeter for campers

[dresslered]

I have always had this unsettling feeling when carrying my camper down the road and not knowing whether or not the camper connection had broken loose. I always found that I was constantly checking the exterior lights, refrigerator, etc. at rest stops to see that they were still functioning properly. Even worse, imagine getting to the campground and finding warm beer! The dreads of driving hundreds of miles with a “dark” camper prompted me to come up with a solution.

I rectified the problem be adding a digital ammeter (green LED to match the interior lights) to the “return” line (ground) of the camper. I had already re-wired the seven-pin connector into the bed for ease of connection as well as bumping up the factory wire size and it was a real easy task to add a remote shunt to the return line.

The ammeter clearly displays all loads returning from the camper. In other words, I can see that the battery is charging and the perimeter lights are all on as well as other temporary accessories like the refrigerator turning on, brake lights, turn signals, etc. I have found that such a simple indicator gets a great deal of my attention during a long road trip—and never, warm beer!