Time for Some 2015 185RB Baja Repairs & Upgrades

[Bob K2]

I purchased a 2015 185RB Baja this year. It's in really good shape on the inside but has some exterior issues & typical travel trailer poor quality issues to be addressed. Thanks to some inspiration in this forum, I set to work.

First up was prepping the rusty front frame & tongue. The paint there is pretty thin and gets beat up well by road debris. Also notice the two unused holes in the front rail of the frame: A great invitation to vermin. The third hole is being used as the passageway for the wiring harness.




The PO had a friction style swaybar but I use a Fastway E2 trunnion style weight distribution hitch, so these holes have to go. The rust here is an exemplar for what the entire front frame looked like.


I sanded, scraped, and washed. I also hit several spots--bad welds, etc.--with a die grinder. Then I topped it off with several coats of Rustoleum primer and topcoat.

 

[Bob K2]

I purchased some rubber plugs from eBay to fill the swaybar mounting holes.


It was also a good time to make the torn up, rusty old brake warning sticker go away.


I purchased 1-inch flush fit rubber plugs to fill the unused holes in the front rail. That'll at least help keep critters out.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07LDCYLFV

 

[Bob K2]

Next up was a little de-badging to get rid of the free advertising. This free advertising was on 3 sides of the trailer. A heat gun with a plastic scraper was sufficient. Once I lifted up an edge, I could remove 98% of the stickers without needing to continuously use the heat gun.


I discovered it was new stickers on top of old dealer stickers, so I still have a bit more work to do to remove the old, crusty adhesive.


The Hopkins levels work terrifically. As a bonus, I can see the front level from the driver's seat, so I can pull up onto my Andersen Rapid Jack and level out left to right without getting out of the truck to look at the front level.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CXBAJBO
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XXXVHRH

 

[Bob K2]

Next up was tackling electrical components. What a mess.

The trailer brake wires had lots of corrosion and loose crimps.


Jayco, in its infinite wisdom, used a spade connector as a butt connector to join the three wires, and then crushed the end of the spade connector & shrunk the shrink tube down over the whole thing. The end was still open to the world so of course the wires were corroded.


I wanted to get rid of the big loop of excess white wire to minimize the chances of catching it on something. As I began cutting away the wire to shorten it, I discovered that nearly the entire lengths of both white wires were corroded. I ended up tossing all of it.


After getting clean wire, reattaching with self-soldering shrink tube butt connectors and wrapping everything in wire loom, it was a much more compact package. The zip ties secure the ends of the electrical tape so that they don't unfurl.
https://www.amazon.com/Haisstronica-Connectors-Electrical-Waterproof-Case（25WHITE/dp/B07C3NBTJ9
I jacked up the trailer body away from the axle to see how much extra I needed for suspension travel. I'll have to keep an eye on this the next time I'm offroad to make sure I measured correctly. The wire clamp lost all of its rubber, so I've got a piece of loom in there until I can replace it.

 

[Bob K2]

Tackling the spider web mess of wiring on the tongue was the next project. I started off with just trying to get a handle on everything with zip ties. That lasted for a couple months. Then I noticed all of the corrosion and realized I needed to take everything off and start over.


A previous grounding bolt had sheared off at some point, and the new one was corroded.


A jumble of bare wires everywhere.


The connectors were poorly crimped and wiggled on the wires. Because they were open to the world, there was corrosion 1 inch up underneath the insulation. I had to trim the wires before moving on.


I replaced these with hydraulically crimped marine grade terminals covered with adhesive marine grade shrink tube. Those little inspection ports in the ends of the terminals got filled with some silicone.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HJXHX1K
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07S68F2GW

 

[Bob K2]

On to the junction box. It was also not weatherproof in any fashion so there was corrosion up underneath the residential style wire nuts. Additionally, workers had put the wire nuts on so tightly that many wires had a significant number of strands sheared off. I needed to trim these wires back before putting on new terminals.


I used marine grade ring terminals on all wires. In hindsight, I should have trimmed off about half of the heat shrink tube. The tube and glue really stiffen up that portion of the wire and that made for difficult installation inside of the new junction box. Ratcheting crimpers with interchangeable dies are da' bomb.
https://www.amazon.com/Hilitchi-Insulated-Terminal-Electrical-Connectors/dp/B019L71VUK
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008EW92LY


The new weatherproof junction box is a Pollak PK52248.
https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/Pollak/PK52248.html. While there are myriad 7-stud boxes like this on Amazon, I opted for the 10-stud box from Etrailer in order to get more room and the option for future expansion. I also put flexible mesh wire loom (from eBay) on all wiring harnesses and secured it with regular heat shrink tube. I mounted the box with new stainless steel screws.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BP3QX96


By the way, we don't need no stinkin' hot knife. To cut the mesh loom, I clamped a razor blade in a pair of vise grips & heated up the blade with a propane torch. It cut the mesh loom like butta and kept it from fraying.


It was a tight fit, especially with the 10-gauge power and ground wires, which made me glad I opted for the 10-stud junction box. The terminal bodies wanted to get in the way of each other. To make space, I used as spacers some of the extra nuts that came with the new junction box and stacked the wires on the studs. That way, I didn't crush or tear the ring terminals by forcing them all together. An appropriate number of stacked washers might work, too, and then only 1 nut would be needed.

 

[MrKABC]

Wow!!! Nice job!! I am liking that Jbox. How hard was it to separate all of the wires and line them up neatly like that?

 

[Bob K2]

Wow!!! Nice job!! I am liking that Jbox. How hard was it to separate all of the wires and line them up neatly like that?

I'd say tedious, but not hard. A small pair of needle nose pliers to move the wires around and a screwdriver to push the ring terminals down onto the studs helped quite a bit. A 3/8" deep well socket was indispensible.

Another lesson I learned was to use the ring terminal that was the exact diameter of the stud rather than the next size up. The larger size was tougher to maneuver and tended to get caught on the stud threads more. As I mentioned, shortening the shrink tube on the ring connectors by about half would have helped quite a bit, too.

 

[Bob K2]

Finished up the electrical work today.

Put everything up front in loom. I also combined the two separate chassis ground points on the front tongue into a single ground point for easier maintenance and fewer failure points. Got rid of the rusty galvanized mounting screw and used a stainless steel screw with a generous helping of dielectric grease on everything.


The original ATC fuse holder wasn't the greatest quality and the fuse legs had started to corrode, so I replaced it with a 10AWG ATM fuse holder that should stand up to the weather a lot better. I had to replace my breakaway switch so rather than wiring it into the same terminal as the main POS connection (like the original setup), I put it on its own terminal so that I won't have to destroy the POS terminal if it ever needs replaced again.


The right wheel brake wiring was in the same shape as the left, so it got the upgrade treatment, too. The wires were also connected at the factory by using a female spade terminal as a makeshift butt connector and then crushing the terminal.


The self-soldering, self-sealing butt connectors worked nicely.


With fewer wires on the right side, I was able to get the new loom back into the factory retainer.


I took a smart tip from someone and taped a wiring diagram inside of the J-Box cover. Also needed to put some washers (not included) on the cover closure bolts to keep the bolt heads from digging into the plastic.

 

[JFlightRisk]

Very nice work!

 

[Bob K2]

One of the first things I upgraded on the trailer was the propane tank bracket. The trailer originally came with one of the most rinky dink brackets I've ever seen and it was poorly connected to the weak crossmembers on the tongue. The tank and bracket rocked around with ease. Not sure how Jayco ever came to the conclusion that such a bracket would be suitable for an "offroad" trailer.
Apparently Jayco upgraded all Baja trailers with a better bracket at some point after 2015 because my dealer was able to get a hold of the better bracket.


The bracket attaches directly to the frame and is rock solid.


Here's the label if anyone else would like to upgrade.

 

[Bob K2]

And one last fun upgrade for the day. The trailer stereo doesn't have Bluetooth capability so I bought a Bluetooth receiver for it. Now my wife and I can stream music to it from our phones.

It took me a minute to find the "fade" feature on the stereo so that I could turn the outside "rear" speakers off and leave just the inside "front" speakers on.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZB6S69P

 

[Bob K2]

I made some improvements to the Fastway e2 WDH today. I really like the concept but the hardware included leaves something to be desired.

I discovered that even when the bolts are placed in the link plate holes directly next to the frame, reaching the required 65 lb-ft of torque caused the bottom of the link plates to bow inward and the portions of the link plates next to the frame to bow outward just slightly, thus losing contact with the frame. (Sorry for the sideways pics. Not sure why this forum can't handle portrait orientation.)



I bought some ~1/2" I.D. stainless steel tubing to use as bushings to prevent this bowing. I cut the tube to a couple millimeters shorter than the frame rail width so that the link plates would grip the frame nicely before the bushing would stop the bolt from tightening down any further at the 65 lb-ft of torque. The bushings have the added benefit of preventing the bolt threads from chewing up my brand new paint job as I tighten.


I also added an additional bolt and bushing to the very bottom hole because even the new bushing on the bottom of the frame rail wasn't sufficient to keep the bottom of the link plates from bending toward each other. This extra bushing serves as a lever of sorts that allows the bolt next to the rail to tighten nicely and compress the link plates flat against the frame rail. The grade 8 washers are spacers to prevent the bushing from slipping into the link plate holes. For some reason, the holes were a touch larger at that position. Next time I'll use stainless steel tubing with a larger inner diameter.


Fastway only includes lock washers--no flat washers--with the kit. The lock washers ate into the link plates quite handily and the nuts tore up the L-bracket metal quite nicely. I added various 1/2" flat washers throughout to stop that from happening.

 

[MrKABC]

Dang it @BobK now look what you made me do! I have just purchased based upon your links above:

• Ratcheting Crimper
• Solder Butt Connectors
• Ring Tongue Assortment
• E-Trailer Waterproof J Box
• Stainless Steel Hardware

I'm going to do the J box mod like you did. My inspiration was boondocking this weekend - got all set up, but no 12v power. Scratching my head - the battery is charged, no blown fuses, I get power when the generator is plugged in, so what could it be?

I immediately thought of you and this thread - pulled the J box cover and sure enough, rat's nest of poorly put together wires and cheap wire nuts. I didn't even get the good red ones like you did!

The problem turned out to be a loose ring tongue connection at the (-) battery terminal. It "looked" good but when I probed it with a DVM I could hear arcing, meaning the battery cable wasn't contacting the ring tongue that was bolted to the battery! After pulling the cable off and hammering it for a bit my cheese ball repair worked and I could resume my weekend.

I'll be redoing my terminal connections and ensuring the wiring is done "right" now.

 

[Bob K2]

I didn't even get the good red ones like you did!

Yikes! If my red wire nuts were the "good" ones, I'd hate to see the garbage Jayco put on your brand new TT.

Please post some pics as you work. I love seeing new ideas of how to accomplish a task, especially with electrical.

 

[Bob K2]

This may seem like a piddly improvement, but this'll make on-road repairs a lot easier.

I needed to clean the pilot tube and Mr. Sparky on my refrigerator. Good grief, the phillips head screws were clearly put in with an some type of automatic screwdriver while the refrigerator was out of the RV. I struggled with getting any type of screwdriver in there and getting enough pressure on them to break them loose.



I replaced the phillips screws with hex head sheet metal screws. Removal with a ratchet will be effortless for future maintenance.

 

[Bob K2]

The PO put a skirt on the trailer and the fasteners were attached with zinc sheet metal screws that were rusting away and leaving streaks down the trailer. The screws also wanted to loosen up after just a single trip. I got the impression that water had gotten into many of the holes and had started to soften the wood.



My wife helped me shoot some silicone into each hole and I replaced all of the screws with stainless steel sheet metal screws (Menards). I'm hoping the silicone will keep the screws from loosening and seal out moisture.



There seems to be nothing behind the aluminum siding near the very front of the TT and the screws in those locations (1-1/4") just go into air, so I've got to figure out a way to fasten to just the aluminum siding. I'm thinking rivets, but I'm not sure if there are rivets that small (#6 size). Any other suggestions?

 

[Bob K2]

Another member here did some painting to protect bare frame wood from the elements and that inspired me to do the same when I replaced the upper plastic vent frame for the refrigerator. I was concerned that water could easily drip down onto the wood next to the aluminum siding or get blown into the louvered frame on windy days.


Both the upper and lower refrigerator areas got a few coats of spaceship silver.



I am pretty sure that excess heat caused the upper left portion of the upper frame and cover to deform...which resulted in the connectors misaligning...which resulted in the connectors breaking. So I'm going to look into putting a small DC fan in it to help with ventilation.

 

[MrKABC]

@Bob K - I have the goods! I'm ready to start on the project. Any last minute tips, hints, or suggestions before I begin?

 

[Bob K2]

@Bob K - I have the goods! I'm ready to start on the project. Any last minute tips, hints, or suggestions before I begin?

Just a few more thoughts come to mind:

• Be careful about how high up on the beam you mount the main body of the junction box. I put mine snug up against the underside of the trailer but forgot that the cover overlaps the junction box. Almost didn't have enough room to get the cover on.
• Put flat washers on the bolts that hold the cover onto the junction box or else the hex heads will dig into the plastic cover as you tighten them.
• Get to know the crimping tool. I'm not home so I don't remember which dies I used for that particular terminal. IIRC, I had to be very careful about choosing the die that would give the proper crimp and I didn't close the handles all the way because that resulted in crushing the barrel and tearing the heat shrink covering on this particular style of terminal. I also didn't strictly stick to crimping blue connectors with the blue slot on the die, etc. I analyzed and chose whatever slot I thought would fit that particular heat shrink covered terminal the best. Positioning inside the die, depth, orientation, etc. are critical. Consider doing a few practice crimps. Practice with the terminals you won't use because I think there's juuust enough of the smallest stud hole terminals in that kit to get the job done.
• The crimp dies do indeed leave unsightly crush marks in the heat shrink tubing on the terminal; however, these largely disappear when hit with the heat gun.
• I didn't do a very good job of thinking about how to make sure the wire bundles were completely sealed where they entered the rubber grommets into the junction box. The bundles fill up the grommet holes pretty well but it's not perfect. You may wish to think about that if you want them to be perfectly watertight.
• Next time I will apply a healthy dose of dielectric grease or Ox Gard to the terminals, studs, and nuts inside of the junction box.

I don't think those Seloky silver marine grade terminals can be crimped with the Tool Aid ratcheting crimp tool. They're closed barrel terminals and too tough. (Maybe the smallest barrel ones can be crimped using the "non-insulated" dies.) I think they either have to be soldered or crimped using a different, more robust crimp tool. I used a manual hydraulic crimper: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HJXHX1K