Electrical Nightmare

[cfsoistman]

We did a little driveway camping this weekend. Friday night watched a little TV, everything worked fine. It was a bit chilly so I plugged in a spaceheater and no problems. We've used this heater on numerous occasions and never had any problems. Some time during the night the heater stopped running as well as all of the receptacles that aren't on a GFI. My first though was a tripped breaker, nope, next I check my inverter since the power runs through it to the inside panel, nope both outputs were fine. I tracked it down to an open neutral in that circuit. After disassembling the motorhome and looking for every junction box I could not find any wiring probems. However FR had to bury one somewhere in the floor that is not accessible. I found two junction boxes under the bed, one under the large slideout, one inside the dinette bench above the one under the slideout. Thank God for my friend John Lamb. He came up to give me a hand trying to trace this issue out. We turned off the breaker and used an extension cord and radio to test each junction box and receptacle. We found if connected to the wires in the junction box under the slideout everything on the driver's side worked but the passenger side was still dead. When connected to the wires in the junction box under bed everything worked so the main feed's neutral had to be broke in that mysterious junction box. We ran a new wire from the panel to the junction box under the bed and disconnected the old wire and wire nutted it off behind the panel. Everything is back to normal but what a nightmare that took from 9:00 AM until 6:30 PM to fix. Most of the time was looking for the junction boxes. This is definitely one of those issues that you wished FR had a wiring diagram. Tracing wires through this RV is really not a simple process. I'm just glad it happened over the weekend and not this week while I'm staying at the York Fairgrounds for the TCA Train Meet. Thank God there are people in this world like John who gave up his Saturday to help me.

[buzzards27]

Another possibility is that FR nicked a wire with a screw or nail and broke the neutral. As a kitchen installer I have nicked one wire the same way and hung an upper cabinet on a copper water line... it happens.

[jojo bamboo]

I'm not suprised to hear that.
I have a 2008 Georgetown 373,
They must use one set of wiring
and one set of hydraulic hoses
(slideouts and leveling legs)
for ALL there RV's
I've been under mine and see a lot
of extra hose & wire thats folded back and forth
and then tied with plastic tie ties.

I don't think they put them self-out
when it comes to routing of these things.
so much for American quality.

[cfsoistman]

In my case there is next to no visibility to the wires other than where they run down through the floor. They then run over my black and gray water tanks and are not visible at all under the coach. It could be that mysterious junction box I couldn't find may be above those tanks? My personal opinion is they could have done this simpler than they did. There's a big opening behind the electrical panel where all the wires run through the floor. That junction box could have been located there and one feed run to the driver's side and the other to the passenger side without all of the crisscross wiring they did.

[louis cherry]

I had the romax to the hot water heater go bad over the tanks like that.

[buzzards27]

LOL, I cannot figure how FR would ever screw up a few wires now and then....

ForumRunner_20111011_125225.jpg



http://travel.webshots.com/photo/225...40295863efqqIW

[cfsoistman]

Originally Posted by buzzards27

LOL, I cannot figure how FR would ever screw up a few wires now and then....

Attachment 8425



IMG_0674 pictures from travel photos on webshots

They are much easier to trace out without a outter shell.Careful walking past this coach, You may get hung!!!!

[Chuck692020]

This is a different shop in this pic. That is plant 34 sunseeker / lexigton line not to be confused with plant 15 Georgtowns! We run ours totally different then they do!

[buzzards27]

I understand. The photo and the thread title go hand in hand.

Actually, the wiring is not as bad as the photo looks. While there is room for mistakes and mishaps the guy doing the wire the day I was there seems to have things under control.

Originally Posted by Chuck692020

This is a different shop in this pic. That is plant 34 sunseeker / lexigton line not to be confused with plant 15 Georgtowns! We run ours totally different then they do!