Why is buying a motorhome so stressful?

[Dot]

In 5 words, your words, "It would be too dangerous" say no more

[T1 Terry]

In 5 words, your words, "It would be too dangerous" say no more

If you look at this post viewtopic.php?p=145014#p145014 first photo, you can see red and black wires inside what looks like a box in the cupboard, these are all 240vac wires, can you see why I believe connecting the 240v from the generator "would be too dangerous"? .... do I need to say more

T1 Terry

[Dot]

No because I speak English OR "yes you were right Dot" It was a cock up.

[T1 Terry]

No because I speak English OR "yes you were right Dot" It was a cock up.

Umm, I'm T1 Terry, not your previous husband Terry or George .... even Margaret doesn't get the "Yes, you are right" ...unless she actually is right, which is most of the time .... but yes, there are hassles with the way the electrical box is wired.

The change over switch was single pole and the neutral wires connected together, but that was easily sorted with a double pole change over switch that is the same width as a single pole, just hoping I can find circuit breakers that are double pole yet single pole width ... or I'll have to rework the whole circuit breaker box.
Seems the hot water, air con and electric stove were all running through one or the other safety switches .... and from what I remember (and that's becoming less and less as days pass) each of those circuits must have their own circuit breaker because each are 15 amp circuits, but I don't have the room to fit a bigger circuit breaker box ...... unless I can find smaller circuit breakers or make a two row double pole circuit breaker enclosure ....

T1 Terry

[Dot]

No because I speak English OR "yes you were right Dot" It was a cock up.

Umm, I'm T1 Terry, not your previous husband Terry or George .... even Margaret doesn't get the "Yes, you are right" ...unless she actually is right, which is most of the time .... but yes, there are hassles with the way the electrical box is wired.

Excuse me, and I am not one of your past 4 wife's either, you yourself said the wiring was a dangerous set up and I agreed in my words it was a cock up. BTW my late husband Terry was a very smart mechanic better than most and George actually did out motorhome completely by himself and help from me with NO cocks ups. enough said.

[supersparky]

Thats a bit harsh T1, maybe everyone needs to take a step back and have a few breaths.......................
There you go..................
Right. T1 , you can get those double pole RCD's in single width, but they are double the length of normal cb's.
How much top and bottom space do you have?
The original builder hasn't run 240v stuff in 12 volt automotive cable have they? Hope not.

[T1 Terry]

No because I speak English OR "yes you were right Dot" It was a cock up.

Umm, I'm T1 Terry, not your previous husband Terry or George .... even Margaret doesn't get the "Yes, you are right" ...unless she actually is right, which is most of the time .... but yes, there are hassles with the way the electrical box is wired.

Excuse me, and I am not one of your past 4 wife's either, you yourself said the wiring was a dangerous set up and I agreed in my words it was a cock up. BTW my late husband Terry was a very smart mechanic better than most and George actually did out motorhome completely by himself and help from me with NO cocks ups. enough said.

Ouch Dottie, no one was having a crack at anyone's abilities in that post, it was meant as a light hearted joke that we were not married so you didn't get an automatic "you are right (dear)"

The wiring was dangerous in the sense that 12v and 240vac were run together, the danger is a 12v wire coming into contact with a live 240vac wire and 240vac along with 12vdc could be across the 12v battery and any 12v wire, deadly to anyone who wasn't expecting it .... been a few cases where people had died because they touched the positive battery terminal and the body causing 240v to pass through them .....

The problem with the 240vac wiring in the motorhome is the standards relating to motorhome and caravan wiring, certain circuits must be on their own double pole MCB ( miniature circuit breaker) switch. It was not dangerous as such, the limited space meant only 2 normal size MCB's would fit and still have room fore the change over switch.

T1 Terry

[T1 Terry]

Thats a bit harsh T1, maybe everyone needs to take a step back and have a few breaths.......................
There you go..................
Right. T1 , you can get those double pole RCD's in single width, but they are double the length of normal cb's.
How much top and bottom space do you have?
The original builder hasn't run 240v stuff in 12 volt automotive cable have they? Hope not.

Thankfully, no 240vac wired using automotive cable. I found miniature 1P width circuit breakers, but they were 1P+N, so the neutral link was not necessarily cut on a circuit overload, or even by the mechanical switching of the MCB, there seemed to be a very grey area regarding just what was happening inside the MCB.

Then I found these https://www.electrotraders.com.au/safet ... -rcbo-gen3 not cheap, but I'm hoping they will do the job, even if they are overkill ....

T1 Terry

[native pepper]

Had 5 buses have converted myself, always much cheaper in the long run and you know what you've got and none have cost me more than $15000 to buyand that was an ex Adelaide/Darwin/Ayres/Katajuta off road Vovlo which cruised at 120kph and was a fabulous vehicle, had an 18 speed road ranger and diff locks. Most have cost less than $5000. Wired them all myself then had them checked by a sparky and all passed first time. Always made sure 240 volt wiring was a long way from 12 and 24v wiring, heavily insulated in plastic piping and separated inverter 240v from grid 240v. Wired many houses we were renovating. Did my apprenticeship as a renovator and we did everything, plumbers and sparkies just came in checked and signed off on the work, did this house as well but had a sparky help as it was a bit complicated in many ways, especially setting up generator switching as had no idea how to set up the auto start when batteries got low.

About to renovate my current 68 Bedford, don't think we will tour again economics are to sus and very few venues can afford bands now in the bush. So taking out some sleeping facilities, putting in a bigger TV and computer system. Had thought of getting another motorhome, but they cost a fortune and couldn't be bothered doing up another one and like the low profile of the Bedford, allows me to go lots of places other can't because they are to high.

However enjoying my VTX at the moment, passed rego new front tyre and the weather makes for great riding on our fabulous bike friendly roads, just waiting for delivery of a pillion seat then can pick up cool old ladies to have fun with. In negotiations with a bloke for a side car, dogs not happy with me cruising off and leaving them for an hour or so and the dogs in the chair will help with the ladies

[supersparky]

This is the one that I thought may suit your needs, if you have a little bit of extra space in the top of your enclosure.

https://www.nhp.com.au/product/dsrcbh1630ad