RE: [A/S] Re: Wheel boot for anti-theft (was trailer lock)

["David & Bret" <dtbw_1999@xxxxxxxxx>]

Be aware that the switch behind the couch is the master 12v cutoff.  Yes it
kills the power to the jack, but it also kills the 12v to things like the
fridge, water heater, furnace, Fantastic Fans, which you may or may not want
powered down while at a campground.  (the fridge and water heater require
12v to run the electronics that control the operation (even when connected
to 120 city mains).  I installed a separate high current automotive relay
(horn relay) in the circuit to the jack.  The relay is controlled by a low
current switch I located near the master switch.  If the master switch is
off, then so is the relay, but I can separately control the jack power while
the master is left on.  By using a relay, the switch only has to handle the
low current of the relay pull-in coil rather than 10s of amp of the jack.  I
used a low current switch with a pull-push action (up for on, down for off).
Once I am finished with using the jack, I kill the power to the jack.
Outside of the theft issue, it bugged me that anyone could come along and
raise or lower the tongue jack which would then transfer excessive loads to
the stabilizing jacks and potentially do damage to them, so this solved both
issues.

BTW, I also installed a switch in the LP gas detector circuit so that I
could kill the LP detector while the unit was in storage (it is the only 12v
item that the master switch did NOT control).  I talked to both the
manufacturer and A/S about doing this and they both assured me that other
than the fact that the LP detector may alarm for 10 seconds or so on power
up (it never has), there was no harm in power it down.

David