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Old 06-14-2015, 08:38 PM   #41
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I finished the rewiring today. All connections at the front of the trailer are now inside junction boxes, using 3-M ring lugs. It sure cleaned up the area. No more crimp on connectors, and wads of electrical tape.
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Old 06-14-2015, 09:13 PM   #42
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Originally Posted by Dennis mn View Post
I finished the rewiring today. All connections at the front of the trailer are now inside junction boxes, using 3-M ring lugs. It sure cleaned up the area. No more crimp on connectors, and wads of electrical tape.
Nice work.... I have redone my connections up in that area and it is a crazy mess hidden away.

One thing I did not see you mention or if you did I missed it - did your trailer not have a fuse right off the battery and another inline on the hot wire right inside with all that mess of wires under the rat fur? My 92 did/does. Should/would that not have prevented the fire?
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Old 06-14-2015, 10:17 PM   #43
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Nice work.... I have redone my connections up in that area and it is a crazy mess hidden away.

One thing I did not see you mention or if you did I missed it - did your trailer not have a fuse right off the battery and another inline on the hot wire right inside with all that mess of wires under the rat fur? My 92 did/does. Should/would that not have prevented the fire?
My trailer has a 20 amp inline fuse at the battery, not one inside where the rat fur used to be before the fire. The fuse would have prevented an issue if it had been a short curcuit, but I'm pretty sure that the problem originated from high resistance in the squeeze on connector joining the hot wire comming from the house battery to the hot wire from the truck. That was the connector that was completely burned beyond recognition. The area of contact at that connector was marginal to carry the 20 amps that the fuse allows and if there were a bit of corrosion, it would get even hotter!
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Old 06-15-2015, 04:29 AM   #44
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You should post a few pictures of your wiring job.
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Old 06-15-2015, 05:47 AM   #45
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There's a battery at EACH END of that black wire
so there should be a fuse at each end. There's a 30 amp fuse in my truck and a resetting breaker by the battery in the Casita.

Every time this subject comes up there's a big discussion about what type of connection is best, approved, not approved, as done in the military or in short each person's preference. From there it branches off to what crimp tool is better.

One thing is for sure almost ANY THING is better then 3M insulation piercing connectors

Nobody is going to convince anyone their way is better

Scamp does not have a monopoly on the rats nest where the 7 pin cable connects to the trailer. A long time ago I installed a terminal strip protected by a box mounted in the closet where it's dry eliminating the Casita's original rat's nest covered by a piece of "Casita wood" that takes up a good amount of floor space in the closet. Without the rats nest it's not needed

I used crimp on connectors that I soldered too then covered by heat shrink tubing that there is also a debate about what kind is best I was taught a connection needs to be both electrically and mechanically secure. Common sense tells me it should be protected from the elements.




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Old 06-15-2015, 10:20 AM   #46
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My trailer has a 20 amp inline fuse at the battery, not one inside where the rat fur used to be before the fire.
Hummm.... wonder why a PO might have removed the one that is normally found on the hot line coming from the tug, as far as I know it is part of the standard wiring on Scamps to have it in addition to the one right off the battery. Hope you added one when you redid the wiring as you do need to protect the trailer from the power coming from both the onboard battery as well as from the tug when towing.

I know on mine the one on the hot line from the tug blow due to a small oops by a party doing some rewiring on my tug side and the fuse on the hot line inside the trailer behind the rat fur was actually hard to locate in order to replace - as the wire had lots of tape over it. I had to run my hand down the wire just to feel the lump under all the tape to find it.
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Old 06-15-2015, 11:30 AM   #47
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Hummm.... wonder why a PO might have removed the one that is normally found on the hot line coming from the tug, as far as I know it is part of the standard wiring on Scamps to have it in addition to the one right off the battery. Hope you added one when you redid the wiring as you do need to protect the trailer from the power coming from both the onboard battery as well as from the tug when towing.

I know on mine the one on the hot line from the tug blow due to a small oops by a party doing some rewiring on my tug side and the fuse on the hot line inside the trailer behind the rat fur was actually hard to locate in order to replace - as the wire had lots of tape over it. I had to run my hand down the wire just to feel the lump under all the tape to find it.
There may have been a fuse in the molten mass that I removed after the fire. I am protecting that line with the fuse in the truck wiring harness (as the old truck) along with a curcuit breaker in line at the trailer.
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Old 06-15-2015, 12:21 PM   #48
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The correct size of in line fuse [rated to the size of wire used and the load ] installed as close to the battery as possible is invaluable .
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Old 06-15-2015, 01:27 PM   #49
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Not much to see, just no mass of electrical tape. I suspect, and hope the real protection of this circuit is from the fuse up by the battery in the truck. The CB is just a belt and suspenders approach.
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