Part 1 of 2 (hoping to maybe sorta educate some members on the potentially hazardous wiring that may exist within their van/mobile):
Started taking the walls off and found a
lot of substandard electrical work...
*** None of this is owner work...it is all from a "professional shop."
My entire understanding for automotive electrical is based on research, learning from the internet and from working on my vehicles...and all of this is actually really sad. I try to follow boating standards as they're essentially equivalent for an RV - a boat that travels on land.
I'll try to provide some "after" photos when this crap is fixed.
Issues:
1. Not protecting wiring that passes through metal thresholds.
2. Not protecting wiring that is sandwiched between two hard surfaces.
3. Using crimp splices.
4. Grounding every connection to the nearest metal surface - there were 8-9 individual ground connections behind the passenger rear wall panel.
5. Using the wrong size of solderless terminal by using a 0.25" female terminal for a 0.187" male or a 0.11" male terminal.
6. Stripping too much wire for a solderless terminal so the wire is exposed beyond the terminal insulation.
7. Running the shore power thru the fuel filler cavity inside the van, to the drivers pillar, up the wall across the front of the penthouse, back to the rear side door, down the wall, to the old inverter.
----- I just ran 10-feet of ancor 6/3 awg wire from a Smartplug on the drivers side through an Ancor wire seal in the floor in front of the passenger wheel well...about half the distance!
8. Really crappy soldering jobs - fyi, all wire should be encapsulated in the solder.
9. Branching four 12-gauge wires from a single 12-gauge wire in a dual 'y' configuration. the stock 12-ga WH/RD wire under the dash near the fuse panel feeds four 12-gauge red wires for the cheap fuse holders that feed four of the switches near the parking brake release.
10. Not using adhesive heat shrink to protect splices or terminals...electrical tape = a not-so-good laugh.
11. Using only zip/cable ties to secure wiring.
12. Not labeling wiring...except with a sharpie on a fuse holder!
13. Putting individual wires in split loom.
14. Routing wires divergent from an existing bundle or wrapping the wire around an existing bundle in a manner that will make future maintenance more difficult.
etc.
Now...on to the pictures:
behind rear side door...
wire splice from the house battery fuse panel to a rear 12v port + rear A/C...
the speaker wire with the two sets of butt connectors was to power the propane heater...
The penetration into the penthouse area...notice the fuse wire and the wire passing through unprotected metal:
Drivers side cabinet: