How to Wire Fiberglass Campers

Fiberglass vehicle campers, or shells, provide convenient cover for cavities in the back of pickup trucks. To use them properly, you must install wiring throughout the camper. Doing so lets you connect rear signals with the vehicle, which makes for safer driving and provides light inside the camper. The job involves a few tools and basic electrical wiring knowledge.

Instructions

1

Find the automotive wiring in the back of the truck associated with the brake lights, using the test light tool. Do the same for the wiring that runs internal automotive lighting. Use your owner's manual for wiring references if necessary. Recruit a helper to press on the vehicle brake, triggering the brake wire signal until you find it.

2

Hold the wire cutters in one hand and the targeted wire in another. Cut the brake light wire for the positive current vs. the negative one. This is typically a black wire. Use the wire stripping feature on the cutter tool to bare both ends of the cut wire.

3

Insert both ends of the wire into two different butt connectors. Crimp them onto the wires tightly by pressing a crimping tool on them.

4

Switch the wire cutter tool and separate a segment of 16-gauge wiring. Make the segment long enough to cover the camper's internal distance to where the camper's brake light will be installed. Allow slack for going around curves internally rather than in a straight line.

5

Use the wire cutter tool to strip the ends of the new wire segment you cut in Step 4.

6

Connect one loose end of the 16-gauge wire to the original brake light wiring that now has a butt connector. Connect the other end to the camper brake light. Run a section back and connect it to the remaining brake wire end.

7

Run a new black wire segment from brake light to ground by drilling a bolt into the truck frame, then connecting the black wire via a ring terminal crimped onto the end. Use a power drill and bit to make a hole in the truck frame, if necessary. Pop a screw in, secure it, and attach the ring terminal to it.

8

Follow the same process in Steps 2 through 7 to connect an internal lamp inside the camper shell. Attach the wiring to the internal lighting wire of the vehicle rather than the brake light wiring.