Electrical Begins While Polyurethane Dries

March 28 2009 by Darrin.

The walls for the head (combined Thetford cassette toilet / shower stall) are finished, and the last coat of polyurethane is drying on them.   Here’s the wall panel with the door opening…

Without kicking up too much dust, I started the breaker panel pre-wiring while the poly was drying.  This is the main electrical distribution center for the camper, and covers both AC and DC circuits.  It’s got about three times the circuits of the average RV, but in this camper you won’t kill everything in your living space if, for example, you cell phone charger shorts out in a DC (lighter) outlet.  Here’s the front of the panel…

 and the back…

The panel itself is from Blue Sea Systems and comes with six or eight breakers installed at the factory.   I install many more, and also break the AC distribution buss so that the bottom three AC breakers will only work with shore power or the generator.  While the inverter is large enough to power those circuits (individually) the load on the 600 A-Hr battery bank would be far too high and cause terribly premature battery failure.  Battery limitations are something 99/100 RVers don’t understand, and often they are riddled with poor electrical system performance!

Next step: Install those panels and cut the small opening for the cassette toilet access hatch.  Maybe tomorrow.  Anna’s a pizza artist, and I smell one cooking now.  No chance I’m going back to the shop tonight.

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