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Managed to catch a cold/flu from the STC, now I feel like worse shitte than I did before and I gotta shitte load of work to do. To top it off, while we were still on the return journey home the next job was already in the yard, so they decided to get a bit of a head start. Cabling some how ended up short circuit, burnt from mid way down the van through to the front boot and back to the battery pack under the bed. What a mess Charlie, so now we have to take photos as we strip each lot of cabling out to show how the damage started a chain reaction resulting in such mess, but the take away is this could have all been avoided with a fuse at the battery positive rather than on the front power board in the boot. When the wires started fusing together the batteries fed directly into the short circuit well before the fuses.... just another example of poor caravan manufacturer wiring practices.

T1 Terry

Sound like some one ran over a china man all that bad luck

Yep,

a fuse or breaker at every power source is needed to stop a meltdown if the loom rubs though.

Question for everyone using the DC-DC redarc things;
Do you have fuses on;

a) both sides off the DC to DC conveter and
b) at the end of the wire of each wire going to each battery?


Same with Li setups; do you have a fuse at the panels and at the battery terminals?

Both are power sources and will melt looms if they rub though in the middle.

Sound like some will have to much work bro leave mannum now

Every cable must be protected by a fuse rated at the safe max working load of that cable. Each time the cable gets smaller a new fuse is required to protect the smaller cable as it would catch fire before the fuse melted at the battery end. The cable that started the whole mess was supposed to be protected by a circuit breaker... but the contacts welded together probably quite some time before this event, if you use circuit breakers test that they actually work regularly, your RV and even your life might depend on it.
The next must not do is to cable tie 12v cable to 240vac cable because if it does burn it could/would link the 240vac and the 12vdc together when the exposed conductors touch. 240vac must be in its own conduit that separates it from the (extra) low voltage cabling, split conduit isn't enough.
This van is a product of one of the best known caravan manufacturers in Aust and the van is as it was supplied from the dealership..... very scary stuff. The insurance people were surprised that we considered the van repairable, most electrical fires result in a burnt shell.

T1 Terry