Electrical mess

[Ukrainian_Kozak]

I was doing some solar wiring for my traler and that brought me to the under bench space where elective fuses and convertor are located, and it looks kind of very messy and if I would see this in my house I would say that would be an electrical code violation...
Do you guys know what kind of standards are applied to RV trailers?
The issues that I have problem with:
1. In one space high voltage and low voltage wires are mixed without clear separation.
2. Multiple wires are coiled and just lying on the floor loose without any fasteners.
3. Wires are twist-joined and jast hanging under the bench without any electrical box
4. Wires are going inside the wall/floor through bare hole, not fastened and not protected against rubbing on hole edges.

Since I opened it up I basically had range of feelings from oh my got I have to fix all of now to jayco will have to fix it, but probably won't... to everybody's trailer is like this so I don't have to worry.

What do you think?


Jay flight Slx 174BH Baja

[triplebvalp]

One of the first things I did to my new FW was open every hatch and, with wire ties in hand, start bundling wires properly. I haven't got behind the interior control panel yet, but will do the same.

[oldmanAZ]

Originally Posted by Ukrainian_Kozak

snip...
everybody's trailer is like this so [you] don't have to worry.

We may not like it, but (and I hate this phrase) 'It is the way it is.'

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by Ukrainian_Kozak

3. Wires are twist-joined and jast hanging under the bench without any electrical box

The wires that are wire nutted and not in a box are all 12v, all 120v lines will be in approved boxes or fixtures. As to the two being mixed, your breaker/fuse panel is too and meets NEC code.

As was mentioned we may not like it, but they are built to RVIA code and standards.

[Jagiven]

We may not like it. Unfortunately they are all built that way. While in there, with the shore power and battery disconnected tighten up all the terminals for the fuses (12V) and circuit breakers (120V).

[Tunce the traveler]

Mine looked like that too but everything works fine and after 7 years and 1,000s of miles on bad roads nothing has come loose. Do what Jagiven suggested and you should be worry free.

[Mustang65]

Here is what ours looked like. Another mess was in the 4x4 electrical box on the frame where the battery cable, TV cable and other cables came together. That is where I had connection issues when we first got the TT. The picture does not show the mess a little farther back. I then put foam spray into the holes (4) to keep any critters out.

Don

My Registry

RVing with SOLAR

[RoyBraddy]

My 2008 Starcraft off-road 14RT POPUP camper ELIXIR 30A Power Distribution was wired like you are showings. The problem was the ELX-30 Power Distribution unit only had two 120VAC Circuit breaker position and three zones 12VDC fuse positions... The 120VAC lines used romex wiring which was routed through a couple of electrical junction boxes but the some 10 zones of 12VDC circuits were all grouped behind the distribution panel using the large YELLOW twist nuts before feeding the three fused zones in the distribution panel. This also had a high amp REVERSE POLARITY fuse position...

That was the first electrical mod I did to my trailer to get rid of the RATS NEST of wiring behind my ELIXIR unit.

I replaced my brand new ELIXIR unit for a WFCO 8900 Series Power Distribution unit which supported five large size 120VAC circuit breakers and Eleven 12VDC Fuse positions along with two high wattage 12VDC fuse positions for the Battery Bank REVERSE POLARITY protection...

After staring at hugh rats nest of wiring I really had bad feeling of removing all of the 120VAC and 12VDC connections but they were all routed here from the various zones in the trailer it went rather well breaking all them out and rerouting into the WF-8900 Power Distribution. I did have to replace a couple of 12VDC zones as they was not long enough to feed the the single 12VDC Fused positions. Most of my 12VDC wiring was using the 2-conductor 'BOAT WIRING' so I ordered some of that from AMAZON.

My electrical plan looks like this now...

Roy's image

The WFCO 8900 series panels was larger than the ELIXIR unit so I had to modify the mounting hole which was not a big effort. Changing the ELIXIR unit out for the WF-8900 units only took about three hours of work

I now have seven 120VAC Circuit breaker positions and eleven 12VDC fused positions with the new WF-8900 series power distribution.

Google Image

This WF-8900 came with a WF-8945 45Amp Converter/charger unit mounted in the bottom compartment which I left installed but installed a larger capacity PD-9260 60AMP Converter/Charger unit to support my larger battery bank I was wanting to add.

The PD926C unit is mouned stand along clouser to the main battery bank master DC Blue Sea MAIN control switch. I use circuit breaker control for each of the two converter/charger units I have and this allows me to use either one of them by just turning ON-OFF Circuit breaker. The WF-8945 is a good back-up unit to use but we all know this WFCO Power Converter does not work well with its SMART MODE Charging like the PD-9260C does.

Along with all this re-wiring I also decided to use the PVC juntion boxes going through the floor of the poup and used interconnecting flex PVC3/4-inch tubing to route all of the 12VDC 2-conductor wiring getting from Point A to Point B. Being an off road POPUP trailer I did not want to drag any of my cables from the possible underbrush when going through back woods remote areas. Everything now is accessible with a few pass throu areas getting form the top side cabinet areas. All wiring is now running inside PVC protected tubing... Something like this floor plan drawing...

Roy's image

My floor plan showing my setup is shown here...


google image


Roy's image

Since installing all of this in 2009 it still pretty much looks the same today. I have changed a few things but didn't upgrade my drawings haha...


Roy's image

Roy Ken

[wabirch]

This above post and a pot of coffee this weekend sounds good to me, nice job with this uograde.

[Ukrainian_Kozak]

Originally Posted by RoyBraddy

My 2008 Starcraft off-road 14RT POPUP camper ELIXIR 30A Power Distribution was wired like you are showings. The problem was the ELX-30 Power Distribution unit only had two 120VAC Circuit breaker position and three zones 12VDC fuse positions... The 120VAC lines used romex wiring which was routed through a couple of electrical junction boxes but the some 10 zones of 12VDC circuits were all grouped behind the distribution panel using the large YELLOW twist nuts before feeding the three fused zones in the distribution panel. This also had a high amp REVERSE POLARITY fuse position...

That was the first electrical mod I did to my trailer to get rid of the RATS NEST of wiring behind my ELIXIR unit.

I replaced my brand new ELIXIR unit for a WFCO 8900 Series Power Distribution unit which supported five large size 120VAC circuit breakers and Eleven 12VDC Fuse positions along with two high wattage 12VDC fuse positions for the Battery Bank REVERSE POLARITY protection...

After staring at hugh rats nest of wiring I really had bad feeling of removing all of the 120VAC and 12VDC connections but they were all routed here from the various zones in the trailer it went rather well breaking all them out and rerouting into the WF-8900 Power Distribution. I did have to replace a couple of 12VDC zones as they was not long enough to feed the the single 12VDC Fused positions. Most of my 12VDC wiring was using the 2-conductor 'BOAT WIRING' so I ordered some of that from AMAZON.

My electrical plan looks like this now...

Roy's image

The WFCO 8900 series panels was larger than the ELIXIR unit so I had to modify the mounting hole which was not a big effort. Changing the ELIXIR unit out for the WF-8900 units only took about three hours of work

I now have seven 120VAC Circuit breaker positions and eleven 12VDC fused positions with the new WF-8900 series power distribution.

Google Image

This WF-8900 came with a WF-8945 45Amp Converter/charger unit mounted in the bottom compartment which I left installed but installed a larger capacity PD-9260 60AMP Converter/Charger unit to support my larger battery bank I was wanting to add.

The PD926C unit is mouned stand along clouser to the main battery bank master DC Blue Sea MAIN control switch. I use circuit breaker control for each of the two converter/charger units I have and this allows me to use either one of them by just turning ON-OFF Circuit breaker. The WF-8945 is a good back-up unit to use but we all know this WFCO Power Converter does not work well with its SMART MODE Charging like the PD-9260C does.

Along with all this re-wiring I also decided to use the PVC juntion boxes going through the floor of the poup and used interconnecting flex PVC3/4-inch tubing to route all of the 12VDC 2-conductor wiring getting from Point A to Point B. Being an off road POPUP trailer I did not want to drag any of my cables from the possible underbrush when going through back woods remote areas. Everything now is accessible with a few pass throu areas getting form the top side cabinet areas. All wiring is now running inside PVC protected tubing... Something like this floor plan drawing...

Roy's image

My floor plan showing my setup is shown here...


google image


Roy's image

Since installing all of this in 2009 it still pretty much looks the same today. I have changed a few things but didn't upgrade my drawings haha...


Roy's image

Roy Ken

Awesome! Couple questions about shore connection outlet, is it a drop in replacement for that factory plastic pull through hole? Or you need to make a bigger/smaller hole?
What about the cover/lid - How good is locking? Can it disengage on the road and start flapping in the wind?

Jay flight Slx 174BH Baja

[RoyBraddy]

Originally Posted by Ukrainian_Kozak

Awesome! Couple questions about shore connection outlet, is it a drop in replacement for that factory plastic pull through hole? Or you need to make a bigger/smaller hole?
What about the cover/lid - How good is locking? Can it disengage on the road and start flapping in the wind?

Jay flight Slx 174BH Baja

My original POPUP trailer had the pull out 30AMP electricl cord to plug into the camp groound pedestal. I replaced that with a 25-foot cable that plugged into the shore power connector using the twist lock connection. This mod was from ETRAILER.

About the only time I have used the short cable with one end plugged into the trailer twist lock connection from the 120VAC output from the 1500WATT Power inverter 120VAC 20-amp connector was after being setup at a camp ground... The 1500Watt Power Inverter takes alot of DC Current from my battery bank (around 120AMPS DC when fully loaded down) Sometimes I find I like to power up my 120VAC receptacles inside my off-road trailer and this is an easy way to do. All of my camping drains associated with using HDTV and several other low wattage items like computer charger, small fan, usb chargers etc I use my second 600W PSW Power Inverter feed two emergency power Extension cords that are secured to a couple of the cabinet tops inside the trailer. The max drain on my batteries using the 600WATT Power Inverter is around 50AMP DC current when fully loaded down...

My external Battery Bank using three each 85AH batteries) is only rated at 255AHs capacity. I get by each day/nite run off this battery bank and then have to recharge the next morning having my off-road trailer connected up to my 2KW generator for three hours to get back to the 90% charge state.

Being a Ham radio guy and wife likes to watch TDV etc we probably use more battery power each day/night time period then most folks do. I am showing around 300WATT (22-24 AMPs DC CURRENT) draw from 6PM to 11PM each day/night run off-grid. We are all lit up just like at camp grounds having electric and can run almost everything in our trailer except Air Conditioning and high wattage microwave use...

All of this was installed in early 2009 and just last season my three GP24 85AH 12V Interstate Batteries started not to holding their charge any more... Looking into a new battery bank now... Got several years out of my 12V Interstate batteries...

Most all of our camping is off-grid places...

Roy Ken