Part 11: Electrical Installation

20101216-20110109

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The Trip

We had been waiting for a bunch of parts to come from our vendors.  As it is with most things, they did not arrive in synchrony.  So, we had to wait until we had the required parts before moving on to the next set of actions.  The original plan was to have the high-current DC switches and fuses contained in an external tool box.  This box would also provide a home for the 30 amp electrical cord and other utilities.  The tool boxes were ordered in October, but I needed various sizes that were not commonly available.  After much web work, I found that San Diego Trailer Supply would order the required boxes.  The only bad news was that the boxes would not arrive until "January".  On December 30th, they called and stated that the boxes had arrived and that I had to come pick them up.  A whole pallet of boxes, about $3K worth as it turns out.  Since the mog had leaking brake seals due to a driver error causing an over-heating situation (all I will say is that I was not driving), we secured the 1017, attached my flatbed trailer and headed to get the tool boxes.

The Photos

The photos below are what we saw.

We had a small "accident" with our tire crane.  During testing, I discovered what I consider to be a design flaw in the control switch.  Basically, the switch is two push buttons.  No problem there, but the issue is that the direction control solenoid valve on the hydraulic motor can change directions nearly instantly.  Meanwhile, the pump motor is ramping down causing the boom to whip back and forth.  With a 400 pound tire/wheel combo at the end of the cable, that would produce interesting results.  The problem only occurs when you are retracting the cylinder.  I attempted to rework the switch, but during testing, a small bit of stripped insulation from one of the wires I was working on got caught inside the switch mechanism.  On the next test run, the motor stuck in the "on" position, driving the cylinder into the stop.  But, since there was another few inches of travel left on the cylinder, it did a great job of bending the frame.  Make no mistake about it, hydraulics are strong.  The solution to the problem, aside from unseating the lodged debris from the switch, was to fabricate a switch assembly that would prevent the issue from happening again.  And, since I was at it, I folded in a switch for the winch motor as well and placed it on the same control dongle.  I also added several safety circuits to prevent things from getting "sideways" again.  After the construction and installation was complete, we needed a full-weight test.  The new control dongle is the gray box at the extreme left of the photo, at the bottom and is only partially visible.  Kathleen assisted in the test but was none-too-happy about being close to a full-size XM47 on the end of the winch cable.  Note the expression on her face.

All components of the system performed as designed and we were both pleased.  Kathleen was especially pleased when that big tire was close to the ground and not over her head.  The crane picked up the wheel/tire combo without missing a beat.

We had to install flooring for the tire crane area, but before we could do that, we had to paint one of the can racks.  Above, Kathleen suits up for a bit of wire wheel work in preparation for painting.

The can rack is a standard-issue unimog rack that I got from Rob Pickering.  The frame needed a bit of reinforcement, but was generally in good shape if you like olive-drab.  The color scheme for the 1017 is black and white, so a repaint was in order.  Above, Kathleen got all the old rust off in preparation for priming and painting.

Sometimes, I do things that I do not understand.  I am not sure why I did not take a "real" photo of the crane control dongle, but this is the best I have.  The solution to the whipsaw effect was to separate the direction control from the motor control.  All that was required was to select the direction of the valve and hold it constant while the pump was in motion.  That was a costly discovery.

The electrical system for the 1017 is somewhat complex.  There are lots of "things" and of course, the truck itself is 24V and the camper is 12V.  And, most electronic components available here in the US are 12V, so a 24->12V converter will  be required in the cab.  But, I include the diagram here for reference to get a feel for the scope of the effort.

My inverter had finally arrived.  I ordered one from a discount marine store on the web and it arrived damaged.  3 weeks were expended "discussing" the issue, but it was finally resolved.  My response was to order from a different vendor that was more reputable.  That unit, a Xantrex 2KW device, arrived with no damage.  The planned installation area was under the couch area.  But, upon inspection and much to my dismay, the area was crowded with plumbing.  To install the (heavy) inverter in the correct location would require removal of the existing plumbing and a re-routing of the pipes.  Simple things are never simple.  In the photo above, you can see the PEX pipe that was used in the Hi-Lo camper.  The inverter is the gray box at the right of the photo with the tools on it.  The plywood panel will serve as the base for the inverter and the mount for the high current power posts.  The sheet metal box at the left is the wheel well for the trailer.

The guys that assembled this camper did not even put the water pump in straight.  The angle above is the way it was.  That, of course, will change in short order.  One of the other side effects of their "design" was that the space under the couch was unusable for storage.  So, there were multiple reasons for re-plumbing the cabin.  Plus, as I planned the effort, I discovered that pex fittings are not commonly available.  The ones that are available are very expensive, $6+ per fitting and I could not find a local vendor for the pipe either.  So, the pex has gotta go.

I got my tubing cutters out and nuked all the pex pipe.  The pipe will be replaced with standard reinforced plastic tubing, commonly available at hardware stores.  There were a ton of wires back there and none were labeled.  Great care was required.

Happily, I was able to re-use the AC wiring and for whatever reason, the AC circuits were much better designed than the plumbing.  Installation of the inverter was straightforward but required creation of an AC sub-panel to provide circuit breakers for the inverter circuits.  An expensive trip to West Marine got me what I needed.  Note the 150 amp DC fuse in the photo above.  That fuse is for the house hydraulic lift pump motor.  Their original design had no fuse or circuit breaker on that high current line!

The house lift pump lines were run from the power posts around the front of the inverter to a pair of feed-throughs visible at the top of the photo.  The pump is mounted in the wheel well on the other side of the feed throughs.

In the middle of our efforts, the tool boxes arrived.  Since the mog had brake issues, and I have no other truck except the 1017, we had to suspend our efforts in the camper to get the boxes.  Once things were secured, we lowered the top.  That action required electrical completion of the DC circuits.  Once the top was lowered, I took a few photos of the inside to show clearance of the components.

There is still some room left above the refrigerator, so I may build a shelf or cabinet there.

Once we had our tool boxes, we had to "undo" some of our electrical controls.  The board above was designed to fit inside one of the tool boxes to provide both physical and weather protection.  This board had to be disassembled to move to the next step.  Interestingly, initial construction was required to test the tire crane, so no effort was wasted.

There were a whole pallet of tool boxes.  In the shot above, I had already removed one layer of the pallet to inspect the boxes.

The boxes looked good: robust and the sizes that I ordered (always a nice gesture), so we moved ahead with fabrication of the mounts.

The boxes were intended to fit between the cross members on the camper, outboard of the main frame.  Attachment straps were fabricated with threaded ends added.  The photo above shows a test fit.  We rejected this design and came up with an alternative that had less offset between the box and the descenders.

Once the box was satisfactorily installed, we could then proceed with the balance of the electrical installation.  Stand offs were added to the mounting board to provide an attachment point for mechanical protection of the components.  The blue switch is the "crane enable" switch to prevent a damaged dongle from engaging the winch or pump unintentionally. Ooh,that would be bad.

Ingress and egress holes were cut into the tool box to allow routing of the cables into the box.  A Plexiglas cover was cut, drilled and installed.  Note the access holes for the 2 switches.  In addition, the external water connection was added to replace the stock connection.

Once the tool box was in place, we could finish the wiring above.  All the wiring was sanitized and placed in looms.  The new plumping is visible at the bottom of the photo.  All things being equal, I would have preferred to not mix plumbing and electrical for obvious reasons.  But, to meet that criteria would have required a massive re-do of the whole system.  So, we did it with care and checked our work multiple times.  But, one thing for sure, if a hose were to burst or a connection were to come loose, it would be very interesting.

The right side of the compartment is visible in the photo above.  Note that the water pump has been mounted vertically to provide more room.  Also note that the old water ingress point has been decommissioned; the old fitting did not have a pressure reducer and therefore you had to add one outside each time before use.  My ingress fitting has a built-in reducer preventing potential mistakes. I just have to remember to NOT use the old fitting.

The final tool box configuration with the coiled 30 amp cable stowed in place.  Also, the shore water hose was installed and tightened.  This whole segment was a ton of work.

The final act was to install the remote control/monitor for the inverter.  There was just enough room behind the face of the cabinet to install it without generating an interference with the drawer.

This segment of actions was many days worth of effort, but mostly pretty easy.  The only bad part was working on your knees bent over attempting to get things connected.  But, somehow, we survived.

Next up: more tool boxes.  As we were finishing up this segment, the wheels that I had ordered finally arrived.  They are on the plate as well.


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Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2011, all rights reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.