My wiring plans

[mikeschn]

Have you inhaled all the information you've been looking for?

Mike...

[bdosborn]

I'm personally boycotting Schumacher products. They tout that they have a warranty X long. It doesn't mean squat, when you send something in they have a flat fee to repair/replace it. I had a charger die on me, after paying the fee and shipping, it would have been cheaper to buy a new one. What kind of warranty is that?

I went ahead and bought the Schumacher in March and its now dead. The cooling fan failed and the unit doesn't display voltage anymore. The only thing it was doing was floating my battery in the garage. I should have listened... I give it two
Bruce

[brad vk2qq]

Hi Guys,
Newbie here. I have scanned through this entire thread and didn't see any mention of this product which might help with 12v distribution.

It's called a RigRunner from West Mountain Radio ( www.westmountainradio.com ) It is available in several sizes, uses Anderson PowerPoles for the connections, and everything is fused. The unit I bought a couple of months ago has one input and 8 outputs and is working nicely, admittedly it is under my desk, but I think it will suit my trailer perfectly. It certainly tidied up all the twisted wire connections.

Brad.

[cracker39]

Kerry, I only got through the first two pages of comments. About your diagram on page 2, and my question may have already been answered later. I thought of using a solenoid in place of the selector switch between the battery and converter. When the converter is turned on, the solenoid gets activated from the conterter and the nomally open from the battery closes and the normally closed from the converter opens and current from the converter goes to the system while the batery is cut out. Would this work?

[toypusher]

If you are looking at the drawing on page #7 (This is the latest, I think), the switch labeled "Master Switch" is just a system cutoff switch and does not toggle between the converter and the battery. The converter is a battery charger/converter and supplies power if it is plugged into shore power, otherwise the battery takes over. This configuration does not need a switch to change back and forth between the battery and the converter/charger.

In answer to the solenoid, I don't know much about solenoids, but is seems that it would work fine.

BTW I ended up not going with the converter/charger. I have 110VAC and 12 VDC systems that a separate. I will carry my battery charger with me to 'top off' the battery if it is necessary.

Kerry

[Ken A Hood]

Should the "cut-off" switch be between the battery and the fuse? Or should the fuse be close to the battery, then the "cut-off" switch then the rest of the circuits?

Thanks, Ken

[asianflava]

Should the "cut-off" switch be between the battery and the fuse? Or should the fuse be close to the battery, then the "cut-off" switch then the rest of the circuits?

Thanks, Ken

I put my fuse before anything. I said in another post (or it could have been this one) you want your fuse as close as practical so that there is less "unprotected" wire. Also, if there is a problem with the switch (highly unlikely) the fuse will protect the wire from the fuse to the switch. Contrary to what people think, fuses are to protect the wire, not the load.

[GeorgeTelford]

Hi Joanne

Give me the loads and I will calculate the wire and fuse sizes

[kayakrguy]

Hi guys,

Re calculations etc for wire sizes...I just got a very well-written book 'The 12 Volt Bible for Boats' (second edition 2002) by Miner Brotherton revised by Ed Sherman, International Marine/Mcgraw-Hill.

I got this on Amazon for 3.51 + 3.49 postage. It is written for laymen, is up to date technologically re equipment, components techniques and provides simple formulas for calculating wire size and other electrical equipment needs. This may already be familiar to members of the board, but it is new to me. An EXCELLENT resource for do it yourselfers...

Jim

[jdjernigan]

Here's a question for some of you electrician types out there...

and I apologize if this was already asked, but can you use regular household A/C circuit breakers in the plan on page 7 for the D/C circuits?

Does it matter to circuit breakers whether its A/C or D/C?

Are circuit breakers prefered over fuses?

Joe

[cracker39]

I cannot answer that question, although I doubt that they should be used even if they can. Consider that a 400 watt AC device uses 3.6 amps, but a 400 watt DC device uses 33.6 amps.

Check out www.waytekwire.com. They have inexpensive AC and DC circuit breakers that are ideal for trailers. I believe that Madjack uses them in his TD. Waytech has DC breakers that plug into fuse slots.

There seems to be a problem with their web site at the moment, I can't access Products. This is the catalog request link.

[jdjernigan]

Thanks Dale....guess I need to brush up on electricity 101. I found the web sight was up and running...found what I need! I appreciate your help! Joe

[TD4FREEW/CTD]

I cannot answer that question, although I doubt that they should be used even if they can. Consider that a 400 watt AC device uses 3.6 amps, but a 400 watt DC device uses 33.6 amps.

i dont mean to be a nit picker, but AC and DC have nothing to do with current draw. its all about watts/volts. or amps x volts. of course, one could assume that when using DC power it is generally 12 volt. but its not always safe to assume that AC is 120 volts, as there are plenty of low voltage AC transformers available, although, i cannot see one being utilized in a TD.

not trying to butt in, just want to minimize confusion.

[WoodyGA]

Hi Guys,
Newbie here. I have scanned through this entire thread and didn't see any mention of this product which might help with 12v distribution.

It's called a RigRunner from West Mountain Radio ( www.westmountainradio.com ) It is available in several sizes, uses Anderson PowerPoles for the connections, and everything is fused. The unit I bought a couple of months ago has one input and 8 outputs and is working nicely, admittedly it is under my desk, but I think it will suit my trailer perfectly. It certainly tidied up all the twisted wire connections.

Brad.

awww, dang... obvious solution! I shoulda thought of this, since I'm a ham too.

Woody
KG4EFO

[reiltear]

Just to kick the "dead horse" a little more, I would like to add that the NEC has pretty specific rules for color codes, which might clarify everyone's schematics in the future:

Grounding conductor: bare copper or green insulation

Grounded or neutral conductor: white or gray insulation

Hot conductor: any other color

The above applies mostly to residential wiring.

Another consideration: I will not use single stranded wire for any kind of mobile application subjected to vibration - it is bound to break sooner rather than later. I would definitely go with multi-stranded types(the more strands, the merrier, the wire will be more flexible).

In these days of sky-rocketing copper prices I would also spend some time figuring out what sizes the wires have to be. I think it's an overkill(and waste) to use 12AWG wire for just a few lightbulbs.

Everything else is really great and useful in this thread! Thanks!

Great holidays to everyone!

Ilya