1986 Holiday Rambler Imperial Limited 38 diesel pusher

[RobbW]

After a big search (Search Tempest) found a seemingly rare (NADA has no listing) 1986 Holiday-Rambler Imperial Limited 38 (really 39'9", called a 40 '87 on). 28k on the odometer, 12.5 k Isuzu diesel genset, Its built on a Gillig bus chassis, aluminum frame, with a 250hp Cat hidden behind the tire cover.

Bill of sale shows $177k original price, and we're grateful to have it. We've rebuilt the air shifter (old school mechanical marvel), worked through engine starting problem (bad house batteries were drawing current through isolator to require charger boost at start) pulled all the carpet and laid vinal planks, insulated walls for subzero Temps in Colorado, and moved gas line and rebuilt old hydro-heat ducted heater.

Biggest problem now is the rats nest electrical system. Through layers of switch plates and zip ties it seems that there has been 3 additions to the original system. There are 2 glass tube shape breaker panels, untold number of inline glass fuses, 5 solenoids, 3 isolators, 2 d8 batteries, 2 golf cart batteries, 1 battery for the genset, 1 2lede charger, 1 in house converter, a PACS 1500 sine wave inverter, a 120 volt panel with 2 subs, and a breaker mounted in a cabinet opening.

Grounding problem has me pulling everything apart for a wire brush and d-electric grease. But the wads of wire are astounding. There is one place where there are 7 connectors laid on top of each other for positive source.

How can a break this down into bite size pieces? The ledes on my ohm meter don't seem long enough. I've contacted both Gillig and Holiday Rambler for an electrical schematic with no joy. Not sure it would matter with the overlays.

I've ordered the 450 piece soldering shrink wrap kit from Amazon and will be reworking all wire ends and adding blocks.

but.. in a circuit that has a dash switch, an inline fuse, a circuit breaker, and a thing, is there a quick way to find the piece causing a circuit failure? Or is it just this process x 100 slightly identified circuits?

Any wisdom is appreciated..

Edit, no paperclip to attach pictures of sales brochure and option list.. How do I upload pictures?

[Goodsammember68]

I'm looking through my gillig stuff and I think I have a electrical schematic for this from Holiday Rambler

[Goodsammember68]

Hello I'm Lloyd I have the same coach as you and same electrical issues the wiring is a joke I'm doing a complete redo replacing everything   has a propane gen set replacing that with diesel gillig chasses I got it the interior two new rooftop errors new refrigerator new four burner stove with oven convection micro range hood took all the cabinets apart redoing them now I'm into the wiring what a mess I even replaced the paneling inside and also put a new headliner in and I'll tell you the forward air conditioner on mine the aluminum stiffeners that run side to side weren't welded correctly so it developed the leak the water would Pond around the rooftop air conditioner I put 40 ft of aluminum square tube and some flat aluminum to stiffen that up all these that I've seen even the newer ones have roof problems right around the front air conditioner the rear is good because there's cabinets that are close to the air conditioner to support it my phone number is 440-283-7097 I don't answer it too much too much spam but if you want you could text me we could trade information I have another engine that I bought for this and it only had 98 hours since it was new from Caterpillar there's nothing wrong with the engine in my coach but I couldn't pass this deal up they use this engine in sprinkler systems in high rise buildings so they were never under load and the oil was changed every month they were brought to temperature but never under a load I pulled the heads off of this one because I am a diesel mechanic also to see if anything was dropped down in the cylinder in the inside of the engine looks new so while you're in the refurbishing mode you might want to check for water damage up near your front air conditioner and I just looked at a 91 Limited and it had water damage up there and you could see the headliner was sort wavy thank God for the aluminum frame you don't have a bunch of dry rot LOL well have a good one good luck on your project

[MrWizard]

with Me, if something has (3) items of circuit protection, fuses , breakers etc..
in one feed circuit to that item

its time to eliminate (2) of them

(1) fuse/breaker per item

get some wire marker numbers, and label the wires,
make a list of the ID numbers and what the circuit is
as you do the clean up

[mountainkowboy]

Pick up a "sounder" it sends a tone through the wire and you use a battery powered remote receiver for tracing.

[Son_of_Norway]

Wire tracers and circuit breaker finders help. Whenever anything goes wrong that I can't trace I just run a new wire.