Electrical Dumb stuff RV manufacturer style

[MSCH]

take a look at these 2 photos and you will see Heartland had one 50 amp auto reset circuit breaker in series before the battery disconnect switch, which then supplied power to a bus bar with five 50 A circuit breakers in parallel... doesn't make much sense, does it?

It doesn't work well in practice either, as the 50 A auto reset CB will keep tripping and resetting while running the hydraulics jacks and such... which now explains why I used it as that 50A CB as a junction block.

 

[Wayne]

one 50 amp auto reset circuit breaker in series before the battery disconnect switch, which then supplied power to a bus bar with five 50 A circuit breakers in parallel

Um, what in the world?

So was there supposed to be a circuit breaker between the battery and the disconnect switch? I can understand protecting the conductor with a 200A breaker, but it should be next to the battery, not willy-nilly in between and certainly not a 50A.

 

[MSCH]

Um, what in the world?

So was there supposed to be a circuit breaker between the battery and the disconnect switch? I can understand protecting the conductor with a 200A breaker, but it should be next to the battery, not willy-nilly in between and certainly not a 50A.

that is how it was.. did not make much sense. and it was causing a problem.. so it is now a junction block.

 

[dnewton3]

With perhaps the exception of the ultra-expensive rigs (Newell, etc; something I've never had the privilege of being in), I've come to the conclusion that nearly any part of the RV industry is about as cheap as they can get away with and still operate on the sliver-thin edge of customer acceptance.

The examples (such as yours above) just resound around the industry.

I just took a call earlier today from a friend who recently bought a brand new Coachmen Leprechaun RV on a Ford E350 chassis. He could not figure out why his house battery was dying intermittently. Turns out they had some of the wires mis-marked for the main house 12v system. I had to try helping diagnose over the phone (nearly impossible), but we did figure it out. All it would have taken was some color coding tape on the wire leads, or some labels with "+" and "-" ...

The RV industry is its own worst enemy!

 

[MSCH]

FWIW most of the parts used on any RV are from one of several suppliers. aka the stoves, AC's, pumps, fixtures etc all are sourced from a couple places.. Installed by people paid on piece work.

not a recipe for great build quality.
which explains why I will never buy a new RV again. prefer used where someone else already ironed out the problems.

 

[Azjeff]

which explains why I will never buy a new RV again. prefer used where someone else already ironed out the problems.

Crossing fingers hoping the previous owner fixed the build issues. We bought our 3 year old trailer that had seen little use from a guy who wasn't an RV guy, he didn't know what he didn't know. I got to do all the fixes and there were a few.

 

[MSCH]

Crossing fingers hoping the previous owner fixed the build issues. We bought our 3 year old trailer that had seen little use from a guy who wasn't an RV guy, he didn't know what he didn't know. I got to do all the fixes and there were a few.

FWIW the fun part of owning these things seems to be how many things you will have to repair over the life of the vehicle.
Just be glad you can do it yourself.

I also remember we were staying at the Coal River Lodge in northern BC, a place on the Alcan that had 6 Sites with electric and water and a few non electric sites and out of the 6 RV's that were there, clients were working on 4 of them. I had just dealt with a flat tire 100 miles north of there, don't know if I should count. https://coalriverservices.com/

 

[dnewton3]

Here's a photo from my buddy he just sent me a few hours ago (same exact brand new Leprechaun I spoke of above)...
He just found this; ground lug cleary not screwed down.
I jokingly told him to quit looking for problems; he'll just make himself mad.
Sadly, this is the second EL issue he's discovered after taking delivery just a month ago.
He bought it up in northern IN, and he lives in TN, so going to the "selling dealer" is out of the question in terms of distance.
Local dealers in TN will "put him on the wait list for service" ....
I told him it's easier (and likely more reliable) to just find the issues and fix them himself.

 

[Wayne]

He just found this; ground lug cleary not screwed down.

And it's contact surface is painted. It may or may not cause problems, but if it were mine, I would remove the paint before tightening.

 

[ctechbob]

And it's contact surface is painted. It may or may not cause problems, but if it were mine, I would remove the paint before tightening.

Bare minimum put a star washer under it. I hate using sheet metal screws for grounds though. Too likely to work loose, but it doesn't look like there would be a great place to put a bolt and nut in there. Although, on second glance, he could use a stupidly oversized (for that small ground) bolt and nut in that 1/2" looking hole to the left, or the one peeking out on the right.

I'm sure my Grey Wolf is chock full of those things.......what I can't see won't bother me......yet.