Vivid Angel
Florida
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I have a 1995 Carriage Commander 5th wheel. The electric outlets and lights have quit working in one of the slides. I've traced the start of the problem to one of the light switches, but I'm unfamiliar with the boxed-switch design used by Carriage. It would seem that the wires should just pass through the box without being cut at all, and the only contact point is where they connect with the metal inside the box, but in the bad switch, the hot wire has been cut in two, and doesn't meet at all.
Does anyone here know the correct way to wire a box switch?
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Itsjustme
Powell River,British Columbia,Canada
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You say that the lights and plugs worked before, but now do not? How many wires in the switch box? We would think the only wire(s) connected to the box would be bare copper grounds. Is there a splice that has come apart in the box? We need more information.
Dodge 2500 V10,Okanagan 27.5 fifth wheel,solar and more.
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restlesswind
Fulltime
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It seems to me that if the switch worked OK previously,it must have been wired correctly,Possibly the problem is somewhere else.
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04.5 Dodge TD SRW
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Vivid Angel
Florida
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What I am trying to determine is if the wire was cut by accident originally, spliced together in the box, and came apart during a trip, or if it was meant to be spliced all along. I have been told by an electrician that boxed switches should not have any cut wires in them, but I wanted to make certain that he is familiar with proper RV wiring.
(The box has a hot wire, a neutral and a ground in it. Whereas in a normal light switch you would have a wire terminating at a screw connection, and then a new one leaving to the next junction, in this box the wires run through a pair of metal pieces that sort of cut through the wire casing, allowing contact with the bare wire underneath, while still allowing for a single run of wire heading out to the next junction.)
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weasel4
Alberta
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I think we're going to need some pictures here to be able to answer you properly.
BTC
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tom_kat
way upstate new york/lake george area
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i would start looking where the wires fold up when the slides come in and out all the bending could have broken a wire.
1985 Class A Holiday Rambler Imperial 33 +1979 Class C Holiday Rambler Statesman 1000 = 24 ft
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davidj54
South Alabama
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Actually, if it's a switch one wire must be broken (the Hot) or it isn't a switch.  I agree that a pic or two would help, but let's see if I can help.
You say that the receptacles nor the lights work. It may be that the switch is a feed through. That being the case the switch would have three wires going to it (actually one going and two leaving). the feed-thru would not necessarily be cut but would pass through the switch with the wires pressed into the insulation displacers. Then there'd be another wire on a seperate set of connectors going to the light.
Now if it's just a light switch there'll probably be 1 wire entering and one leaving. It can be the same wire with a piece cut out of the hot wire. Then the white wire would be stabbed onto the insulation displacers and the black would be stabbed onto them with a piece missing between them.
Now, if I totally misunderstood the type of switch you have it could be that the wires indeed would be cut and wire-nutted together. Then they would have came apart at some time and will have to be reconnected.
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wa8yxm
Wherever I happen to park
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Show me a photo and I may be able to tell you how to connect it but the standard connection looks like this for a 12 volt system
Ground wire-----------------------------------------------------
Hot wire-----------------------/ /-----------------------------
(/ / is the switch)
For 120 volt "Ground" becomes "Neutral" and that's the only change
NOTE: Wire colors may not be consistant on RV's on the 12 volt side so I won't mention colors.
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daverl3
lafayette,In
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david54 has it right. If the wire isn't broken, you cannot turn off the power.
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