robatthelake wrote:
There is absolutely no way that wire Nuts should be used in any RV wiring! Those things are barely adequate in a stationary building! I found them used to connect the Furnace and Air conditioning in our Rig and hidden inside compartments that normally would never be opened for inspection!
I have to disagree with your disagreement. Wire nuts, aka "marettes", are used in buildings all the time including critical installations like in hospitals. The problem is that they are often not correctly used. The professional way to use them is to pre-twist the wires with linesman pliers, trim the end off as needed and then install the wire nut.
RV factories do terrible workmanship when it comes to wiring like the splice in the 1st photo. This was found in the 4x4 junction box in our A-frame. The wire nut was upside down and filled with water (as were a few others in the same box). I moved all the splices in the A-frame area into a watertight PVC box. Third pic is the mini-breaker in the A-frame and from the main + wire off the battery. The splice wasn't even close to being done right and the wire fell right out of the ring terminal when I touched it! The metal boxes RV factories typically use in A-frames are for use in indoor dry locations only.
Splicing stranded wires with a regular wire nut is not easy to get right and needs more care. I prefer to use "vibration resistant" wire nuts in that case for a better and more reliable connection for 120 volt splices, as in last pic. For 12VDC splices, there are a number of methods that work fine *IF* they are executed properly.
Splices for
ALL 120 volt connections are required by code to be accessible and cannot be hidden behind coroplast or anything else.
Although there is the NEC that has a section specific to RVs, the problem is that they never get inspected and there is no gov't agency to complain to. I can't believe some of the electrical issues I've seen. :M
Bad workmanship - pls don't get me started, pffft...