12V Wiring short in slideout

[TheBobster]

I have a 2008 Rockwood Signature UltraLite which has one dinette slideout on the driver's side. I began having trouble with the 12V overhead dinette light shorting out and noticed it was happening whenever I took the slideout in or out. The 12V light over the kitchen sink also shorted. I inspected the wiring along the outer edge of the slideout and it was fine. Underneath the trailer on the opposite side near the door there is an access in the underbody skin to access that ram side of the slideout screw. I opened that access by removing 8 1" screws and removing the access cover. Then I had someone else operate the slideout switch to bring the slideout to its inner position. As the slideout came in the 12V wiring looped out of the steel screw channel and when it was all the way in the end of the wire was frayed beyond belief with bare copper wire shredded into a tangle of strands. As I looked I could see what caused the problem. The large loop which extends when the slideout is brought in had obviously been catching on some of these 1" access panel screws and got chewed up. SOLUTION: I replaced a few feet of the wire by splicing in. Then I covered the whole loop of wire with one of those corrugated split-side wire covers. Finally, I replaced the 1" panel screws with 1/2" screws which are adequate to hold the panel and less likely to grab the wiring. I RECOMMEND DOING THIS PRE-EMPTIVELY EVEN IF YOU HAVEN'T HAD A SHORT (YET)!