Nash 26J Electrical Issue
Hello all. I'm venturing into the RVing world and am hoping to get some of your expertise with an electrical problem I have run into. A little back ground. I purchased a 2002 Nash (Northwood) 2...
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Hello all. This update is much overdue however until last night I was still spinning my wheels so to speak.
12V System. I traced the 12V and everything seemed to be in good working order. This camper doesn't have an inverter but instead just a charger/load manager which is physically plugged into the camper's 110volt system. The draw seemed to be related to a few things. One was an exhaust fan that was broke however the motor was still running. The second was related to the camper's 110 volt which I'll get to in a minute (110volt hot was tied to frame). For now I have basic lights, the ability to run the camper off of LP, kitchen exhaust and possibly the 12v pump (still working on the electric prior to plumbing). During the process I lost the stereo (car type stereo with built in speakers). It will accept/eject a CD so it must have one of the 12V supplies (I believe cars typically have one feed all the time while the other feed is tied to the ignition) and the inline fuse is still good.
110volt. I meant to take a picture of the breaker panel but it was rather interesting. While everything looked cleanly installed something was very wrong. I had a main feed coming in through a 30amp breaker into a bus bar which then fed into 5 breakers all with romex feeds coming out. What was odd is that there were several 6, 8 and 14 gauge wires also hooked directly into this bus bar (not through a breaker). One of the 8 gauge wires I traced was a direct ground to frame. So I had hot coming into the bar then directly grounding into the frame out of the bar. Strange stuff. I could not trace the rest so I just disconnected them all and safe'd them all. After that I had no issues plugging the shore cable into the dedicated outlet without tripping. When I isolated each breaker both of the general purpose were kicking off. After checking each outlet I found one which was completely fried (as well as I found a roof leak which caused it). After removing the outlet from service and splicing the lines I got one of the two general purpose working which fed half of my 110 outlets (from rear bedroom all the way through front kitchen GFCI but skipping every other outlet). The second general purpose was a bit trickier as it fed the outlets in between from rear bedroom (where the panel is located) to front kitchen area as well. Every outlet looked fine however I had an obvious short. After isolating the wires from panel to first outlet I was able to keep the breaker on. Any attempt to connect the next outlet would trip it so I assumed that's where the problem was. However when I jumped to the factory in wall romex to next outlet using a temporary feed it continued to pop the breaker despite eliminating the backfeed to the broken connection. Essentially I have more then one short in that line. Since this line feeds the battery charger outlet and refrigerator 110 outlet (as well as two outlets I can live without) I'm planning on running an exterior grade 12-2 (sheathed along the frame) and running two new outlets for both while safing off the factory outlets/wiring.
My questions are and I apologize for not having a picture to accompany; does anyone have any idea why any wires other then the romex connected to the breakers would be tied into the hot bus bar? I can't find anything that these lead to (they quickly run into a wall) and I believe I checked every appliance and/or outlet without finding the other end. Also why would someone run a ground from the hot to the frame? Do you think this is a case of someone not knowing what they were doing (it was a clean install and not a typical hack job) or am I missing something? I did a search but had no luck finding a wiring diagram for this camper. Does anyone have a suggestion on where I can find one?
I still have to clean up the electric and trace a few 12v wires to light fixtures that aren't working (it doesn't look like any critters got in the walls/ceiling but I sure am having a lot of shorts) as well as I now have to do some wall repairs where the one outlet was. The roof leak looks like it was repaired but I'm going to check that thoroughly once the weather here dries up. My next move is going to be the plumbing. I already started reading up on treating all of the tanks but hopefully that will go smoothly.
Once again thank-you all for your insight.
12V System. I traced the 12V and everything seemed to be in good working order. This camper doesn't have an inverter but instead just a charger/load manager which is physically plugged into the camper's 110volt system. The draw seemed to be related to a few things. One was an exhaust fan that was broke however the motor was still running. The second was related to the camper's 110 volt which I'll get to in a minute (110volt hot was tied to frame). For now I have basic lights, the ability to run the camper off of LP, kitchen exhaust and possibly the 12v pump (still working on the electric prior to plumbing). During the process I lost the stereo (car type stereo with built in speakers). It will accept/eject a CD so it must have one of the 12V supplies (I believe cars typically have one feed all the time while the other feed is tied to the ignition) and the inline fuse is still good.
110volt. I meant to take a picture of the breaker panel but it was rather interesting. While everything looked cleanly installed something was very wrong. I had a main feed coming in through a 30amp breaker into a bus bar which then fed into 5 breakers all with romex feeds coming out. What was odd is that there were several 6, 8 and 14 gauge wires also hooked directly into this bus bar (not through a breaker). One of the 8 gauge wires I traced was a direct ground to frame. So I had hot coming into the bar then directly grounding into the frame out of the bar. Strange stuff. I could not trace the rest so I just disconnected them all and safe'd them all. After that I had no issues plugging the shore cable into the dedicated outlet without tripping. When I isolated each breaker both of the general purpose were kicking off. After checking each outlet I found one which was completely fried (as well as I found a roof leak which caused it). After removing the outlet from service and splicing the lines I got one of the two general purpose working which fed half of my 110 outlets (from rear bedroom all the way through front kitchen GFCI but skipping every other outlet). The second general purpose was a bit trickier as it fed the outlets in between from rear bedroom (where the panel is located) to front kitchen area as well. Every outlet looked fine however I had an obvious short. After isolating the wires from panel to first outlet I was able to keep the breaker on. Any attempt to connect the next outlet would trip it so I assumed that's where the problem was. However when I jumped to the factory in wall romex to next outlet using a temporary feed it continued to pop the breaker despite eliminating the backfeed to the broken connection. Essentially I have more then one short in that line. Since this line feeds the battery charger outlet and refrigerator 110 outlet (as well as two outlets I can live without) I'm planning on running an exterior grade 12-2 (sheathed along the frame) and running two new outlets for both while safing off the factory outlets/wiring.
My questions are and I apologize for not having a picture to accompany; does anyone have any idea why any wires other then the romex connected to the breakers would be tied into the hot bus bar? I can't find anything that these lead to (they quickly run into a wall) and I believe I checked every appliance and/or outlet without finding the other end. Also why would someone run a ground from the hot to the frame? Do you think this is a case of someone not knowing what they were doing (it was a clean install and not a typical hack job) or am I missing something? I did a search but had no luck finding a wiring diagram for this camper. Does anyone have a suggestion on where I can find one?
I still have to clean up the electric and trace a few 12v wires to light fixtures that aren't working (it doesn't look like any critters got in the walls/ceiling but I sure am having a lot of shorts) as well as I now have to do some wall repairs where the one outlet was. The roof leak looks like it was repaired but I'm going to check that thoroughly once the weather here dries up. My next move is going to be the plumbing. I already started reading up on treating all of the tanks but hopefully that will go smoothly.
Once again thank-you all for your insight.
