david_42 wrote: What's scary is weird wiring in a house. Would you believe an outdoor sodium fixture running off of lamp cord? Running through the walls! Or a live MALE extension cord end under the kitchen sink for the garbage disposal?
Around here it's a lack of education. You want to talk about hillbilly wiring?
In my shop, they had stapled the wiring kitty corner from the box to the light fixtures, nothing in a box and just wire nutted the 14/2 to the fixtures. I wouldn't even think of putting juice to it all, I just tore it all out and installed it properly, drilling holes in the studs, securing it up to the beams with proper staples, terminating it in boxes, I even put a new service in.
For the guy who just abandons wire, if you can't see it how do you know what it's connected to? That's what the guy did with my live thermostat wire, just abandoned it and black taped it, after tying it in a knot with 25 other wires under a staple touching the propane line.
Neat wiring is important, securing it properly where it won't get bruised (nicked), sizing it right, fusing it close to the source with the right fuses, and color coding the wiring properly according to polarity. The OEM wiring was all color coded and sized properly, it had just been "tied into" and "jury rigged" with many of the wrong sizes, colors, and lousy connections. I'm sure it worked and the guy who put it in knew what he was doing when he ran out of the spool and thought he would just tie two speaker wires together to get about the same guage. LOL
I can just imagine some of these inverter installs in a few years when the inverter burns out, the wiring is left in place, and the next owner gets it with no knowledge of what's been rigged, and he's looking at a live 120 volt toggle switch with exposed blades. Yikes!!!!
Jury-rigged wiring by people who don't know better (or don't care) is one thing. Shoddy and dangerous wiring by the manufacturer on a new travel trailer is another thing. My new trailer had several places where the wiring was stretched tight thru frame holes with sharp edges and no grommets. Also pinched wiring, in-line fuses(for the slide motors!)hidden inside walls, etc.
subcamper wrote: in-line fuses(for the slide motors!)hidden inside walls, etc.
That would be really aggravating. And really stupid.
Unfortunately, its a true story. A few years ago the slide stopped working. The first thing I looked for was the fuse, but could not find it. There was no slide fuse in the converter next to the rest of the 12V fuses. So I decided to check the slide switch next. I unscrewed the slide switch and pulled it and some wiring out of the wall so I could do a voltage check at the terminals. I looked into the hole to see how much wiring slack there was. Surprise! I saw the inline fuse holder tucked away inside the hole. I was able to pull the fuse holder out of the hole and replace the fuse which had blown.
I agree, its a REALLY stupid design. Especially since there was no documentation of any kind.
I guess if you made documentation available (like automotive service manuals), that would force you to build two units that were alike!
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. Especially since there was no documentation of any kind.
!
