7-Way Cuts Power To RV

[steilkurve]

Hey all.

Odd behavior of the 7-Way connector on my gen 2 R1T. I tow an Airstream with it. For all of my first camping season with the Rivian last year, the 7-way connector worked flawlessly.

This year, all of a sudden, it’ll stop powering my Airstream marker lights and backup camera. I notice it most after fast charging and sometimes after first hooking up the trailer.

A hard reset of the vehicle fixes it which points to software glitch I guess. Note unseating and reseating the 7-way plug doesn’t do anything. I’ve checked both male and female ends of the connection and there’s no dirt or debris.

Anyone else has noticed this? And found a permanent fix perhaps?

Thanks for any tips.

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[steilkurve]

And I should also note that this never happens mid drive. It’s always when the R1T and Airstream establish (or fail to) connection.

 

[VSG]

Sounds to me like maybe the 12V breaker is flipping. The hard reset also resets the breaker.

 

[steilkurve]

Sounds to me like maybe the 12V breaker is flipping. The hard reset also resets the breaker.

That’s a good hypothesis but if it were, would it not also be cutting off power to the trailer breaks and turn signals, which this bug isn’t. It’s only affecting the trailer’s marker lights and BU camera. It‘s like only a couple of wires in the 7-way are cut off from 12V power.

 

[MikeWilliams_R1T]

Are you sure there isn’t a short somewhere in your trailer wiring? I pretty regularly tow and haven’t had a problem like this.

 

[VSG]

There are at least two fuses that I know of for the trailer wiring. See https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/interior-passenger-side-fuse-box.8397/page-4

There have been posts in the past from people who had problems with accessory power but not brakes/signals. IIRC it was the trailer trying to draw too much power

 

[steilkurve]

Are you sure there isn’t a short somewhere in your trailer wiring? I pretty regularly tow and haven’t had a problem like this.

Nothing that I can see without opening up hidden junction boxes, but it’s a good point. I’ll take a look at the one where the 7-way cable comes into the trailer.

That said, if it was a short, would it not happen randomly even while driving? For me it never does. It’s always when the R1T and Airstream first try to establish the connection. If it fails to connect, then the hard reboot solves it for the duration of the drive.

 

[MikeWilliams_R1T]

Intermittent wiring problems are tough to find. It could be just the right amount of vibration on the road trips the tail lights against the ground giving you a dead short one second and back to normal the next… until you hit the next bump.

To test the theory, go borrow another trailer (any trailer) and tow it around a few miles to see if you can replicate the problem.

 

[steilkurve]

Intermittent wiring problems are tough to find. It could be just the right amount of vibration on the road trips the tail lights against the ground giving you a dead short one second and back to normal the next… until you hit the next bump.

To test the theory, go borrow another trailer (any trailer) and tow it around a few miles to see if you can replicate the problem.

On a road trip right now so it’ll have to wait but trying out another trailer is a good idea.

That said, I highly doubt it’s a loose wire as it never happens while driving. Everything works fine when I disconnect but when I reconnect, it fails. The trailer was idle in between so nothing moved.

 

[Marchin_MTB]

And I should also note that this never happens mid drive. It’s always when the R1T and Airstream establish (or fail to) connection.

I have only recently (last few weeks) noticed that, at times, my trailer brakes don’t seem to be activating. A reset fixes it. I wonder if our problems are related.

 

[Weck]

Hey all.

Odd behavior of the 7-Way connector on my gen 2 R1T. I tow an Airstream with it. For all of my first camping season with the Rivian last year, the 7-way connector worked flawlessly.

This year, all of a sudden, it’ll stop powering my Airstream marker lights and backup camera. I notice it most after fast charging and sometimes after first hooking up the trailer.

A hard reset of the vehicle fixes it which points to software glitch I guess. Note unseating and reseating the 7-way plug doesn’t do anything. I’ve checked both male and female ends of the connection and there’s no dirt or debris.

Anyone else has noticed this? And found a permanent fix perhaps?

Thanks for any tips.

Mine just started doing this as well with my pop-up, which was working flawlessly prior. It's got old school incandescent lights, so it's not the LED light issue common with newer tow vehicles.

I'll hook up one time and all the running lights are working. Hook up another time and they are not, but brake lights and brake controller continue to work. No amount of unplugging/replugging seems to matter, it's just random and seems to, as you say, occur during initial trailer connection "handshake".

I'm actually camping right now and towed to the site with the running lights not working (Daytime, didn't matter). Got here, parked, unplugged the connection then backed in and leveled, parked, then plugged back in just to see before I dropped the trailer and voila, running lights working again. I'm pretty sure it's a programming glitch so I'm going to report it via the app and hope it gets fixed.

For those who mention a fuse box, gen 2s don't have fuses, it's all electronic.

Also, I did just have my trailer wiring inspected because it kept dropping a braked trailer mid drive and they found nothing physically wrong. I think that was a bad wiring on the trailer (borrowed), and more dumb trailer programming on Rivian's part.

 

[steilkurve]

Mine just started doing this as well with my pop-up, which was working flawlessly prior. It's got old school incandescent lights, so it's not the LED light issue common with newer tow vehicles.

I'll hook up one time and all the running lights are working. Hook up another time and they are not, but brake lights and brake controller continue to work. No amount of unplugging/replugging seems to matter, it's just random and seems to, as you say, occur during initial trailer connection "handshake".

I'm actually camping right now and towed to the site with the running lights not working (Daytime, didn't matter). Got here, parked, unplugged the connection then backed in and leveled, parked, then plugged back in just to see before I dropped the trailer and voila, running lights working again. I'm pretty sure it's a programming glitch so I'm going to report it via the app and hope it gets fixed.

For those who mention a fuse box, gen 2s don't have fuses, it's all electronic.

Also, I did just have my trailer wiring inspected because it kept dropping a braked trailer mid drive and they found nothing physically wrong. I think that was a bad wiring on the trailer (borrowed), and more dumb trailer programming on Rivian's part.

Thanks for the post. Reassuring to know I’m not alone and points to an issue on the Rivian side of the equation.

Thought about it some more. Could it be happening only when we plug the 7-way in while the car is powered on, ie keys detected? Maybe Rivian interprets this as a short somehow and shuts off the ‘electronic’ fuse. If it’s already plugged in when the truck wakes up, maybe it’ll be different. I’ll try putting the R1T in camping mode, lock it up and then hook up to see what it does.

I’ll also report in the app.

 

[Weck]

Thanks for the post. Reassuring to know I’m not alone and points to an issue on the Rivian side of the equation.

Thought about it some more. Could it be happening only when we plug the 7-way in while the car is powered on, ie keys detected? Maybe Rivian interprets this as a short somehow and shuts off the ‘electronic’ fuse. If it’s already plugged in when the truck wakes up, maybe it’ll be different. I’ll try putting the R1T in camping mode, lock it up and then hook up to see what it does.

I’ll also report in the app.

I need to experiment with hooking up the trailer door open vs. door closed, door open I think it keeps the truck "on", versus "push brake to start" if you close the door, connect, and then get back in.

 

[steilkurve]

I need to experiment with hooking up the trailer door open vs. door closed, door open I think it keeps the truck "on", versus "push brake to start" if you close the door, connect, and then get back in.

So this morning we changed site at the campground we’re at and I plugged in while the car was ‘off’ (doors locked and all). 7-way powered everything normally. I’ll continue testing. Hoping this is a reliable fix until the bug is ironed out.

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