wiring electrical AC and DC ---Pictures please?

Anything electric, AC or DC

Postby Miriam C. » Thu Aug 28, 2008 11:14 am

:applause: :thumbsup: You all have wonder electric pictures. Thanks so much.

I just remembered I gotta get a battery tender. :D
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Postby Miriam C. » Sat Apr 25, 2009 10:17 pm

bump
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Postby wlooper89 » Sun Apr 26, 2009 4:10 am

I put most things electrical in this tongue box. The trailer came with a platform so it was convenient to do that. This box I added fits the platform almost exactly. There is a 30A power inlet on the side. AC and DC wires exit the box in back and go under the trailer to junction boxes inside an enclosed tail light compartment in the rear.

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This is the box with lid open. I put in a meter panel and automatic charging relay above it for fun. They were not at all necessary. The sealed battery is in a box under the converter.

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At the front of the tongue box is a switch panel. The strange shape allows the hinged upper level to clear the tongue box latch. I would have left out the Battery Tender, circuit breaker and fuse panel had I known that my converter would make them unnecessary. The converter has its own fuse and CB panels. And as a 3-stage converter it can maintain the battery without a Battery Tender.

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This is another view of the switch panel. I used a lot of Anderson connectors and other plugs/sockets so that all of the components in the tongue box can be unplugged and removed. Colored electrical tape and labels help me put it back together. For example I can remove the converter to get to the battery box. Things are tight but it works. There are two vent holes in the back of the tongue box and I am in the process of putting a cooling fan on one of them to exhaust warm air from the converter.

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This view shows the switch panel installed. The charging relay was not yet in place when this photo was taken. On the left are a red master fuse holder and GFCI. The black boxes contain shunts and an AC transducer for the meters. I used industrial strength Velcro from Home Depot to mount components, boxes, fuse, fire extinguisher and the light. A strip of Velcro in back keeps the converter in place. Some things are just held in place by other components.

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This is the converter showning fuses and circuit breakers underneath a lid. In this photo the converter had been removed to install wiring for the automatic charging relay. The little frame I made for the converter has a panel underneath on which I mounted a DC positive barrier strip and DC negative bus bar. AC bus bars inside the converter are accessable by removing the upper portion. The converter could have been mounted in a panel opening but I elected to keep it close to the battery and power inlet.

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Inside the trailer things are very simple. All lights are DC. There are two reading lights and two AC outlets in the sleeping area. Also accessible in the sleeping area are two DC outlets in the cabinets. Under the cabinets close to the doors there are switches on each side for exterior porch lights. In the galley are two lights, two AC outlets and two DC outlets. Wiring is in place for a 12V DC flip down tv, dvd and radio combo for the sleeping area. Maybe we will add that later. :thinking:

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Postby Off Grid Rving » Wed Jun 16, 2010 9:21 am

I have to figure out how to wire this beast up on my camper!

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Postby S. Heisley » Tue Sep 14, 2010 9:28 am

Miriam:

I forgot all about this thread until you posted a request in the "Silver Nugget" thread!

My documentation would probably be too big and detailed for here (too many pictures). But, if you click my album, you can find most everything that I did there. Because album page numbers change with additions, the easiest way to find them is to select the 6th page from the last and then go forward. (I.e. if the last page in the album is page 12, start with page 6.)The picture title tells the story on most but some also have comments.

However, below is my preparatory work, which is not in sequence with the other pictures because this work should be done long before the actual electrical wiring is done.

Calculating my electrical and battery needs was done by creating a spreadsheet:

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Deciding how the wiring would be run was done by creating a flow diagram. Some people use special programs (I used simple Excel to create mine.) but you could just sketch it with a pencil and paper, as others have done.

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