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myredracer's avatar
myredracer
Explorer II
Apr 01, 2015

Wiring mess behind converter panel

Am just in the process of tidying up the mess 'o spaghetti behind the converter. Is there any reason why I shouldn't bundle the pos. or neg. wires (each in their own bundles) with zip ties?

Also, when I disconnected all negative wires and the ground wires from the buss, the radio stayed on. What would cause this? Not sure how it would still get it's negative supply.

  • There's no reason "not" to do it.

    Messy wiring issues are a pet peeve of mine. I've cleaned up the mess on all the campers I've ever had.

    By doing this on my TC, I found a wiring path where the Mfgr. had brought the main ground into an external lighting junction with 10 awg and then taped off to carry the ground on to the fuse box with 12 awg wire.

    This probably would never have caused a problem but, I work in electronics and couldn't leave it alone.

    When you get them neatened up you'll not only have more room for your project, if you do have an electrical problem, it makes issue easier to figure out.

    Good Luck with your project.
  • Cut some 1/2" long pieces of rubber or plastic pipe of various sizes, slit one side, then slip the wires into the rings as required. It will look a lot better, and you can easily remove a wire or two if required.
  • RoyB's avatar
    RoyB
    Explorer II
    I called my wiring groups in my 2008 OFF-ROAD POPUP a "RATS NEST"... It was using a three zone 12VDC group where all the wiring was divided up in the three groups and tied into the ELIXIR Converter/fuse panel using many large YELLOW wire nuts. All of the 120VAC ROMEX cables were also grouped together using large YELLOW wire nuts feeding the ONE 120VAC 30AMP Circuit breaker Very professionally done hehe...

    Being OFF-ROAD some I ended up with poor 12VDC connections making it unreliable.

    I ended up replacing the ELIXIR Power Converter that only had one 120VAC Circuit breaker and four 12VDC fuses with a WFCO WF8900 series power distribution panels that had 5 LARGE 120VAC circuit breaker slots an 11 12VDC fuse positions including two REVERSE POLARITY fuses.

    I had all of the wiring already run to the this area so it was not a hugh effort converting over to a more modern Power distribution center. i did have to re-wire a couple of circuits to make the wiring longer to reach some of the interior fuse positions...

    I went over-board abit and enclosed all of my 12VC wiring inside PCV flex conduit that ran under the floor areas so that underbrush and things associate with my off-road trips would not drag any of my wiring off under the trailer. It seems the original install of wiring would go through a large hole in the floor of the trailer and then go in any direction under the floor to get from POINT A to POINT B. Now everything is enclosed in PVC CONDUIT and PVC JUNCTION BOXES and all large holes holes coming into the trailer area are very well sealed against insects and whatevers. I also increased the DC wire size to #14 and some #12 2-conductor cable wiring using what is called BOAT WIRING cable.

    This pictorial sort of describes what I ended up with...


    I can also run RG cables or other wiring runs to any point of the trailer using the PVC Conduit.

    My DC CURRENT SAMPLE circuits are all bundled together in thier own PVC CONDUCT paths.

    My 120VAC ROMEX cables remained unchanged which are stapled to interior walls of the interior cabinets running around the trailer.

    Worth the effort for me as I am always running new mods and changes like all good Ham Radio guys do...

    Roy Ken
  • You could do it but there's no good reason to. They are fine the way they are.
  • You could do it, but if you have problems with induction or interference you would just have to undo what you did until you find the problem. Sometimes you can loosely tie bundles and it wont be a problem.

    The radio may be grounded to the frame of the RV and not at the power control center. JMO
  • GordonThree wrote:
    bundling wires makes them look nice but also increases cross-talk, especially in high amperage low voltage DC wires (em induction, etc)

    that jumble doesn't look too bad, and it's normally hidden behind a panel right?


    Yes, normally hidden but I'm trying to create a little more space for a control box for some electric heating I'm going to install.
  • bundling wires makes them look nice but also increases cross-talk, especially in high amperage low voltage DC wires (em induction, etc)

    that jumble doesn't look too bad, and it's normally hidden behind a panel right?

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