Wiring mess behind converter panel

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?

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.

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

You could do it but there's no good reason to. They are fine the way they are.

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

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.

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.

Joe417 wrote:
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.

There is NO REAL GOOD "REASON" to "neaten it up"..

I also work in "Electronics" and one of my BIGGEST "peeves" is those folks who think neatening up the wiring has any benefits other than making it look pretty and using up thousands of unneeded wire ties :M

Sure it can be pretty-fied but the poor sap down the road that may end up NEEDING to find that one lone bad wire in a tightly wrapped and wire tied bundle has one heck of a lot of CAREFUL work in CUTTING all those wire ties without causing more collateral damage in the process.

Even worse when the wires that are already darn near too short are bundled tightly to the point of risking damaging the connections with any movement..

To me that looks pretty darn normal and is better than many other RVs may have.. My current TT HAD ALL the battery "grounds" for ALL the runs wire nutted BEHIND the paneling.. Only ONE 8 ga white wire came out of the wall and went to the converter battery ground connection.. Found that when I was rebuilding my TT.. Made for a "neater looking" job, but boy what a mess that would have been trying to find a bad ground connection.. Not to mention, 8ga would have been pretty light for five 10A fuses, one 7.5A fuse and several 15A fuses all on ONE ground.. It was one huge wire nut.

I would just leave well enough alone and be happy there is some slack in the wires and if you ever need to trouble shoot you won't be cussing yourself out down the road while carefully unbundling your handy work..

You could always tidy it up a bit with some split loom which would make wires easy to remove if necessary.

I've done it but doing it right involves using wire markers both sides of the bundle and twisting lacing all the wires onto a nice braid. Ask the DW how to braid. Looks pretty too. Pretty much neuters effects of induction. Yes you have to disconnect all the wires to braid them.