Mysterious camper wiring issue

Here is the issue.

The brake lights, running lights and turn signals work great... 

EXCEPT when the running lights or headlights are turned on in the truck. 

If the truck lights are on, then the camper running lights work, but the brake lights and turn signals do not.

This happens not just when connected to our truck, but when we connect to other trucks too. (Thanks for bringing your truck over today, Rob).

We've scoured the interwebs, and the advice is to:

1) check all the grounds (done)

2) check for a weak ground by adding a jumper wire from a good ground (on the frame)

 to each light assembly 

(that doesn't change anything, so a weak ground isn't the issue)

(but it did help us identify a weak ground in one of the camper running lights, which we fixed)

3) make sure there isn't an exposed or pinched wire anywhere in the camper.

Say what?

This is overwhelming.  David checked many places but how can you check them all? 

Has anyone experienced this? Or have a suggestion?

It's also worth mentioning that David hard wired a separate ground wire from the tail light assembly 

to the trailer frame. Those suckers are grounded.

This was all ok in summer when the days start at 5 am and it's light until after 10 pm.  But the days are getting shorter every day people! There will be a time soon when we need to pull the camper somewhere in the dark, with the truck headlights on.

Suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

Here's a relaxing photo of the last place we took the toaster camping. A cedar forest on the Kootenai National Forest near the Montana/Idaho border.  

UPDATE SEPT 11, 2013

Thank goodness for the Tin Can Tourist group on Facebook! People had several suggestions, which David tried, and now the problem is fixed! Huzzah!

He wired the lights backwards, I believe. He reversed the wires and now it works.  The internet is just amazing. Thank you friends! Now we can travel at night.  We are unstoppable.

Oven repairs (second attempt)

Things are going well. We've take the camper on many weekend trips. There are tons of beautiful places near Missoula to explore. Here's the toaster in the Bull River Valley recently.

We're down to three remaining issues, and they are proving a bit tough to solve.

They are: a wiring issue with the signal/brake lights (they won't work if the headlights are on), the oven, and the trailer brakes.  I'll leave the brake discussion for another time (it's been a long day), and put the wiring issue in a separate post.

Let's start with the oven.

The burners on the stove top work great. However we can't get the oven going.  Propane never seems to enter the oven. Today we took apart all the gas lines, blew them out, turned the propane on and off, while checking different points in the system, etc.  After a thorough investigation, it appears that the problem is either in the safety valve or the pilot mechanism.  Above you can see David warming up the sensor on the safety valve- if you do that, you can hear a CLICK and after that point you can blow through the supply line.  If there is no flame (ie the pilot light isn't lit) then no gas should be allowed through the valve.

The problem before that, then, is how to get the pilot light lit. Even after cleaning out everything possible, we can't get propane to come out of the pilot light assembly.  It may be easier to just replace this. Where can one get a 1966 Holiday Oven pilot light assembly? If you know, please tell us. I checked at vintagetrailersupply.com without success.

It could be the safety valve too. If it were possible to replace both, it would be very satisfying. We will continue looking for repair information and/or replacement parts.

It is also possible that we are missing a step in the basic process of trying to turn on the pilot light. The control knob does NOT have a setting for "pilot", and it is not possible to push the knob in (some ovens have that).  There is just an on/off switch for the main supply. 

If you have some ideas about this, please leave a comment, or even email me if you don't like commenting on blogs. marilynjmarler@gmail.com

We are perplexed.

UPDATE 9/10/13

David got the pilot light to work- it turns out that there is a little screw at the end of the assembly that opens or closes so you can adjust the flame size. It was completely shut, and hence no propane was coming out.  

The heater pilot also works. However the burners still don't come on.  So the remaining possibilities are 

*broken thermostat

*broken sensor on the safety valve

*broken safety valve in general

We did find some replacement safety valves on eBay but they are $80.  We may end up getting one just to rule it out... and who knows, maybe to just start hoarding replacement parts! I called a local RV service shop and they said it would be extremely hard to get any parts for a '66 Holiday Oven for a camper.

UPDATED UPDATE 9/10/13

David fixed it. The problem was that the heater pilot was coming on, but not burning high enough to touch the thermocouple (sensor) on the security valve.

So... the solution was simply to adjust the heater pilot. And the control for that is hidden behind this knob...

Voila. That's the adjuster, between 12 and 1 o'clock. Clearly labelled "HTR".

If we'd had an owner's manual the whole repair would have taken mere moments! 

Step 1, open pilot valve at the tip, and 

Step 2, adjust the heater pilot flame with the super secret lever.

I hope this helps someone else with their classic camper oven!

Let's bake some muffins!