ELECTRONIC MELTDOWN

Split loom, grommets and if you need serious protection split an old piece of heater hose/3/8" air line/garden hose/etc and use that as your shielding.

Secure everything with wire clamps, I use the cheap'ish ones like these:
RubberInsulatedCableClamps.jpg


Use high quality wire.

Run your grounds to the frame of the truck.

Toss in a resetting breaker or two.

You should be good to go.

I've rewired a couple complete car projects and if you take your time, route everything and plan everything out before you zip tie, loom, tape, clamp anything it goes pretty well.
 
Mark Ingalls:

the fuse in your house battery ground side is there to protect that wire in the case where
the house batt ground is doing double duty due to an upstream failure of a "normal" ground path.

the reality is this: lets look at a simple example of a stereo radio. if the radio is fed via wires that go direct to the battery then both wires should be fused. if the radio is mounted to chassis ground, and the main chassis ground strap-to-batt-negative fails, the radio ground wire will become the only remaining ground for all chassis electrical. I know it seems ulikely but i have owned a 57 chevy pickup and the prior owner removed that braided ground strap and saw no need to replace it.

if the radio is fed by one fused hot wire to the battery and relies on chassis for its ground return then this problem does not exist.

there is a big difference between the two situations.

the camper is not ground to chassis, its insulated by wood. it needs a two wire feed. both wires should be protected in my view.
 
Run your grounds to the frame of the truck.


Its a personal preference but I feel its much better to take the negative line (also called ground by some) all the way back to the battery and not rely on the truck frame to transmit current back to the battery.
 
Mark Ingalls:

the fuse in your house battery ground side is there to protect that wire in the case where
the house batt ground is doing double duty due to an upstream failure of a "normal" ground path.

the reality is this: lets look at a simple example of a stereo radio. if the radio is fed via wires that go direct to the battery then both wires should be fused. if the radio is mounted to chassis ground, and the main chassis ground strap-to-batt-negative fails, the radio ground wire will become the only remaining ground for all chassis electrical. I know it seems ulikely but i have owned a 57 chevy pickup and the prior owner removed that braided ground strap and saw no need to replace it.

if the radio is fed by one fused hot wire to the battery and relies on chassis for its ground return then this problem does not exist.

there is a big difference between the two situations.

the camper is not ground to chassis, its insulated by wood. it needs a two wire feed. both wires should be protected in my view.


Adopting the most ignorant possible PoV, I cannot recall finding a fused ground in any motor vehicle I have ever owned, nor are they permitted in the NEC, nor are they permitted in the ABYC standard previously cited. If it was such a grand idea, then why is it not found anywhere but in my camper.

Just sayin'...
 
Its a personal preference but I feel its much better to take the negative line (also called ground by some) all the way back to the battery and not rely on the truck frame to transmit current back to the battery.


X2
 
Adopting the most ignorant possible PoV, I cannot recall finding a fused ground in any motor vehicle I have ever owned, nor are they permitted in the NEC, nor are they permitted in the ABYC standard previously cited. If it was such a grand idea, then why is it not found anywhere but in my camper. Just sayin'...


no no thats wrong, in the specific case i described it is required. if you run two wires direct to the battery from a grounded device, like a radio, both must be fused at the battery. it is not needed if you use a chassis ground.


i am looking it up....the nec says:

FPN: For information on low-voltage systems, refer to
NFPA 1192- Standard on Recreational Vehicles, and
ANSI/RVIA 12V-2005 Standard for Low Voltage Systems
in Conversion and Recreational Vehicles

now to find that...
 
I put a multimeter to the blue top battery and it is still putting out 12.8V, the threaded posts are a bit bent/melted. Do you think it is still good / safe to use? No other noticable damage.
 
You know that never occurred to me, that is a really good tip. I'm betting a bunch of rights are set up properly for this kind of protection. Thanks!



Me either. Its such a short run from my camper battery it didn't occur to me I could run into the same problem going the other way. Thats gonna get fixed asap.
 
I put a multimeter to the blue top battery and it is still putting out 12.8V, the threaded posts are a bit bent/melted. Do you think it is still good / safe to use? No other noticable damage.


It could be fine. If the only damage is on the posts and it is still holding a charge I'd run it. Maybe take it in somewhere and have them load test it to be sure it holds actual amps and not just the correct voltage at no amps.
 
I put a multimeter to the blue top battery and it is still putting out 12.8V, the threaded posts are a bit bent/melted. Do you think it is still good / safe to use? No other noticable damage.

A multimeter measuring voltage from a battery will draw very little current(amps) from said battery. A battery may be in poor shape and still produce sufficient volts under the very light load of a multimeter so as to appear that the battery is good. The true worth of a battery is how much current it will produce underload. If you measure the voltage of the battery while it is under load (for instance your furnace or some other DC powered motor), and the voltage drops very little, then you should be confident in that battery.
 
A multimeter measuring voltage from a battery will draw very little current(amps) from said battery. A battery may be in poor shape and still produce sufficient volts under the very light load of a multimeter so as to appear that the battery is good. The true worth of a battery is how much current it will produce underload. If you measure the voltage of the battery while it is under load (for instance your furnace or some other DC powered motor), and the voltage drops very little, then you should be confident in that battery.


X2
 
If a hot wire was very close to a brake line you could boil the brake fluid and cause temporary failure. Best to have the brake system pressure tested but my guess is the system is fine.
 
Well I conquered my electronic fears and have rewired everything. I had the battery load tested and it checked good.

I've got the ground wire attached to the frame and I'm showing 13.8 volts going into the battery separator, 12.8 coming out.

I thought I had it in the bag but for some reason my house light/fanastic fan will not work and keep blowing the 10A fuse in the camper panel. The rear floods work as does the water pump. Any ideas? I must have something dorked up.
 
Well I conquered my electronic fears and have rewired everything. I had the battery load tested and it checked good.

I've got the ground wire attached to the frame and I'm showing 13.8 volts going into the battery separator, 12.8 coming out.

I thought I had it in the bag but for some reason my house light/fanastic fan will not work and keep blowing the 10A fuse in the camper panel. The rear floods work as does the water pump. Any ideas? I must have something dorked up.


I am "not sure" you can charge a battery with only 12.8V.

I am sure that there were tap con splices connecting my fan and lights buried in the ceiling of my 2000 Hawk. I replaced the bogus factory wiring with wire nut splices located where I can check them inside the light fixture over the sink. Splices should never be located anywhere but inside a box or fixture IMOHO.

You might have a short circuit inside your ceiling.
 
I am "not sure" you can charge a battery with only 12.8V.

I am sure that there were tap con splices connecting my fan and lights buried in the ceiling of my 2000 Hawk. I replaced the bogus factory wiring with wire nut splices located where I can check them inside the light fixture over the sink. Splices should never be located anywhere but inside a box or fixture IMOHO.

You might have a short circuit inside your ceiling.


Thanks Mark.

FYI, I did take my rig back to the RV place that originally wired it and he agreed the batteries should have been fused and offered to take care of it which I appreciated. I may just take it back to him to troubleshoot, this is probably beyond my skill level. My fears are that something may have happened internally to the camper. I really hope that is not the case. I'll check into the 12.8V issue. Thank you.
 
Well I conquered my electronic fears and have rewired everything. I had the battery load tested and it checked good.

I've got the ground wire attached to the frame and I'm showing 13.8 volts going into the battery separator, 12.8 coming out.

I thought I had it in the bag but for some reason my house light/fanastic fan will not work and keep blowing the 10A fuse in the camper panel. The rear floods work as does the water pump. Any ideas? I must have something dorked up.


I had a problem with my pre-wired solar wires. One day the solar quit working. You may have a related problem. If you follow the wiring in the roof (that would include your lights and your fans and the solar pre-wiring) you will see that they come down on the drivers side in the front, they go behind the folding front panel and are taped with duct tape to the back of the front panels....then continue on down into the frame/cabinets.

You can use a mirror and a flashlight to see back there and check things out.

The problem is where the wires bend behind the panel. The solar wires on mine had a problem where one of them was broken. The light wires were also severely damaged.....the insulation was just about worn through. If I were you I'd look behind the front panel and see condition of the wires. If yours are like mine and somewhat compromised.....they may have melted together back there. If that is so....it is good news because you can still get to the wires there. If the wires melted in the roof it will mean a re-wire job for the lights and fans and the solar pre-wiring up there.
 
Suni,

I was thinking about that 1 volt drop you had across the battery separator so I went out and checked my truck today.I measured the voltage on each side of the separator and the voltage drop across the separator and got a little over a 1 mv drop. If you're getting a 1 volt drop you may have fried the contacts in the separator.
 
Thanks Dick, I'm going to go see the the company that did the shoddy job in the first place, I'll get them to replace it.

I think I've also found the reason the lights aren't working. After checking behind the front panels as Leadsled suggested and not seeing anything, I also took the whole front cabinet panel off the truck last night. I found one wire that is pretty melted in the camper wiring, the sad part is it disappears into the camper skin at the back of the camper, pretty pissed off about the whole thing at the moment, this is turning into a major red ass.
 
Thanks Dick, I'm going to go see the the company that did the shoddy job in the first place, I'll get them to replace it.

I think I've also found the reason the lights aren't working. After checking behind the front panels as Leadsled suggested and not seeing anything, I also took the whole front cabinet panel off the truck last night. I found one wire that is pretty melted in the camper wiring, the sad part is it disappears into the camper skin at the back of the camper, pretty pissed off about the whole thing at the moment, this is turning into a major red ass.


"Lawyer."

You know, I don't like it; don't like "Doctor" either. But when you need to , you need to...
 
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