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Lonesome54 · 10-30-2017, 11:12 AM

Never hurts to over document things like wiring or plumbing and such... Found out number of times helping brother with his coach took pictures of things like control boards and fuse placement.. Live in different state but he often calls about stuff I have pictures of to help him

Alreadygone · 10-31-2017, 02:45 PM

I agree lonesome. So the tree went in the storm and the RV is safe.

Gordon or Charles, I am posting a couple picture of some wiring in the RV that I don't know what they are. I think one is a connector , but not sure about the other. Thanks for any help.

beamisl · 10-31-2017, 05:09 PM

Well Charlene, Good thing you got it moved!

Have you named your rig yet? Lynne

I miss mine.

Harley1994 · 10-31-2017, 05:58 PM

Good Afternoon, Busy time of the year, and it has to rain every other day,

. Just getting ready for winter, yes it's coming,

. Jen, the pic with the large wiring looks like a 12 volt ground block, where they lump all the grounds into one place and since they are large I would say they might go to the chassis battery, starter ect. The other one is 120 volt wiring.

cwk · 10-31-2017, 10:33 PM

I agree with Terry. It looks like a common ground point. My Fleetwood TT uses white wires for the ground on 12VDC. You will note that not all of the wiring attached to the ground block are white. Two of them are brown. That's what can make working on an RV interesting.

It is not the same color coding you find in most automobiles. Usually red is hot and black is ground. Although, I remember working on VW bugs. mini-buses, and campers years ago: brown was ground. I guess brown looked like earth or soil to the Europeans.

If someone, other than the original manufacturer, has worked on the rig wiring there is no telling what colors may be used for what purpose. DIY types do not always follow standard conventions. Then, some of the after market devices added have their own color coding. For example, an RV may use WHITE for ground and another color (possibly BLACK) for 12VDC hot. An added device may use RED for 12VDC and BLACK for ground. That is why you should take photos (color photos, of course) of things before you disconnect them; especially if you want to reconnect them in the future. And, take notes and photos of things that you reconnect. I would suggest printing them out and keeping them with the rig's manuals.

The last photo is Romex 110VAC wiring. Here, BLACK should be 110VAC HOT, WHITE should be NEUTRAL (connected to ground back at the circuit breaker panel), and GREEN or BARE wire should be GROUND. This is the same as residential 110VAC house wiring. So, when you plug in your toaster, or hair dryer, it works the same way as it does in your house.

Just take your time, ask questions, keep notes, and this will all work out fine. No need to fear electricity. Just need to be very respectful and connect everything properly.

RockyMtnRide · 11-01-2017, 07:29 AM

........

It is not the same color coding you find in most automobiles. Usually red is hot and black is ground. Although, I remember working on VW bugs. mini-buses, and campers years ago: brown was ground. I guess brown looked like earth or soil to Europeans. ......

Before retiring I worked in the factory automation world. Standard color code for DC circuits has mostly followed the European model with Blue as positive and Brown as negative.

Gordon Dewald · 11-01-2017, 09:26 AM

Did a bit of wiring on the coach (added some LED lights). Opened the cabinet and found two large wiring harness bundles about 1 1/2 in diameter. Every wire was yellow or white. WGO is very helpful. They provide access to all of the diagram and charts plus a very helpful customer service. Turns out yellow is hot and white is negative. There is a number printed on each wire about 3" apart that lists the function of the wire. I downloaded and printed the wire identification chart. 36 pages.

Alreadygone · 11-02-2017, 06:25 AM

Thank you all, Sorry for the delay in response , we are still without power here in Rhode Island. Lynne we have not named it yet, still getting a feel for her.

So with that grounding block should I trace it to its owner and also can I move it? Also Terry if those go to the chassis, starter,etc, they are really far away, why did they do that?

and that 110 romex picture,That is just a connector, correct?

I will send a picture, but a lot of the yellow wires have wire caps on them, like they were not being used.

I absolutely love electricity and plumbing, that is what I should have done with my life. It doesn't scare me, but there is a lot I don't know. There is a rainbow of colors for the wiring, red, yellow, white, brown, green and of course the 110.

Gordon, Fleetwood sent me a bunch of wiring diagrams, but they were copies of copies and I couldn't read most of it and didn't really know where the pictures when to with no labels. I am sure someone with experience would be able to look at them and know what they are showing.

Let's hope the power goes on today

Thank you
Jen

Harley1994 · 11-02-2017, 06:40 AM

Good Morning, Going for 65* today,

, November AND 65 I'll take it. Have someone coming to look/buy the Toter today, fingers crossed he's not a tire kicker,

. With the sale of the Toter comes a LOT of upgrades to the MH, Hmmm, 400 hp bigger turbo, LOL, (really just new tires ect.) Jen, sure hope the power comes back on, The reason those heavy grounds are up there is most likely they go to hyd. jacks, generator, those types of items. that 120 pic looked like some type of connector, not sure why, but they won't use a box to connect wiring, (at least from what I've seen)

user113 · 11-02-2017, 02:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alreadygone

So with that grounding block should I trace it to its owner and also can I move it? Also Terry if those go to the chassis, starter,etc, they are really far away, why did they do that?

and that 110 romex picture,That is just a connector, correct?

I will send a picture, but a lot of the yellow wires have wire caps on them, like they were not being used.

I absolutely love electricity and plumbing, that is what I should have done with my life. It doesn't scare me, but there is a lot I don't know. There is a rainbow of colors for the wiring, red, yellow, white, brown, green and of course the 110.

Jen,

The grounding block is just one connection point that is used for convenience. The ground wires need to get back to the negative terminal on the battery somehow. With a ground block they often run one really big wire from the block to the battery and ground a bunch of smaller circuits to the grounding block rather than running all the little wires to the battery individually. You may use it in exactly the same way, but you don't have to. Move it to wherever is convenient for you.

The gray plastic thing in the Romex picture is a splice. Perhaps the cable was accidentally cut, or something was moved to a new location and the cable was not long enough. Personally, I don't like splices in 110v wiring. I will usually just run a new single run of wire rather than patch it like that, but that's just me. You do not need to retain it if you do not need it.

Wires terminated with caps can be removed completely. They may have been there as "prewiring" to add a feature at a later date, or something that had been installed there has been removed. It's easier and cheaper to prospectively run wiring that might be used later and just cap them rather than trying to run them after the walls have been closed up; similarly if something was removed, it's easier to just cap the wires rather than completely fish them out.

As to the colors, there is not really any specific rhyme or reason to many of the colors in automotive wiring other than once installed, the identity of a particular wire can easily be determined at the other end by the color. As noted above, Europeans often choose brown for 12v ground, others often choose black for the same reason, but don't assume anything about any random wire just because of its color. Looks like your MH uses both brown and white for grounds.

David

cwk · 11-02-2017, 03:33 PM

Jen,

Good comments and explanations by others.

Just be sure not to confuse any 12VDC wiring with 110VAC wiring. The results will not be good.

BTW, all of the 12VDC wiring I found was stranded wire. All of the 110VAC was solid conductor Romex. That may not be true in your rig, though.

That 110VAC junction block looked like the back of a 110VAC outlet/box device that I would find in my Fleetwood TT (Travel Trailer). It is very shallow (the walls are very thin) and uses prongs to pierce the wiring and make the electrical connection. Obviously Fleetwood used them; probably for size, cost, and speed (labor cost) of installation.

I also found that instead of running a large wire from the 12VDC ground block back to the battery, they chose to run a large wire from the ground block to the metal frame underneath the TT. At the battery they ran a large wire from the NEG terminal to the frame.

The problem was that the connections to the frames were exposed to the elements. They had rusted and became weak connection points. When I first got the rig, every time I turned on more than one light they all dimmed. Turned out to be a bad ground. Cleaning the ground connections to the frame solved the issue. Later I actually ran some new wires as I chose to move/replace the control panel/fuse block in a new location. Fun, fun, fun!

guardrail53 · 11-02-2017, 09:37 PM

Terry, good luck with the Tot'r sale! Fingers crossed! Great on the 65*! Hope it last's but we all know the S*** is on the way!

On the 400 HP and a bigger turbo, drive it first, and see how it does, and I am betting that the 10+ MPG and the current performance will change your mind!

You do have the bigger motor than most of that era, and the Power Tech diesel generator!
(most come with the 5.9 Cummins and a propane genny)
I thought the same thing, "I think it is the Trucker in us", that I would do the same to Mona, but after driving her, and getting the great fuel mileage, I just left it stock! I ask the PO about the same thing before I bought it, and he told me the same as I now think!

He did put a new turbo on Mona before I got her, and I think he put the stock one back on, I never checked the #'s for sure! Rail!

Harley1994 · 11-03-2017, 06:19 AM

Good Morning, Fellow came and looked at the Toter, he was looking at it for a friend that lives in Plattsburgh, which is a few hours away, (sound familiar Rail) before he made a long trip for nothing, sounded promising he might also be interested in the TH too,

, be nice to sell both at the same time,

. who knows with this stuff. Rail, I hear you on the trucker thing, we never wanted to shift on the hills, and be left behind when that big ole shiny rig blew the doors off on the hills, MORE POWER!! (Tim the Tool Man, loved that show), I know, we'll probley take it on some short trips to feel it out before any big decisions on that. But if it all works out we will make it as good as it can be so we don't have to do any major stuff later, (famous last words)

Pa Miller · 11-03-2017, 06:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harley1994

Good Morning, Fellow came and looked at the Toter, he was looking at it for a friend that lives in Plattsburgh, which is a few hours away, (sound familiar Rail) before he made a long trip for nothing, sounded promising he might also be interested in the TH too,

, be nice to sell both at the same time,

. who knows with this stuff. Rail, I hear you on the trucker thing, we never wanted to shift on the hills, and be left behind when that big ole shiny rig blew the doors off on the hills, MORE POWER!! (Tim the Tool Man, loved that show), I know, we'll probley take it on some short trips to feel it out before any big decisions on that. But if it all works out we will make it as good as it can be so we don't have to do any major stuff later, (famous last words)

Hey while your thinking bout upgrades and mods, I put that safe t plus steering stabilizer on my old rig and it sure made driving it alot better , no hands coming to center haell I think I could do some really longer hauls with mine ... Before I was wore out at 450 miles.. I think you'd like it !!