Electrical Panel Inspection...oh oh

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by sameo416

As I was posting on fb was thinking, “Now how to answer the people who aren’t sure how to take the cover off the panel safely?”

It's not the taking the panel cover off that's a safety issue, it's the what you do after.

Comfort levels have sure changed over the years. There was a time when the average person wouldn't dream of opening up a panel at home and would hire an electrician. Now the view seems to be "if Home Depot sells it that must mean that it must be a DIY item."

One comfort level that I've never reached is hot swapping out a panel although some do.

Ron

[sameo416]

Originally Posted by Ron in BC

It's not the taking the panel cover off that's a safety issue, it's the what you do after.

…

One comfort level that I've never reached is hot swapping out a panel although some do.

Ron

I was thinking about a metal panel cover that you touch to a hot as you’re pulling it off, lol.

Hot swapping a main breaker is a good way to meet some local fire fighters. The fault current from a distribution transformer is in the 10,000 amps range with no fuse that will quickly blow.

[Ron in BC]

I was referring to hot swapping the whole panel.

It was pretty common when the insurance companies started insisting that old style fuse panels be replaced with breakers. That required permits and usually required more work than just panel replacement. So a hot swap, less costly, and send the insurance company a photo of the new panel. They never asked for proof of it being done with a permit etc.

Still scares me just thinking about it.

Ron

[Ooshkaboo]

Originally Posted by Ron in BC

I was referring to hot swapping the whole panel.

It was pretty common when the insurance companies started insisting that old style fuse panels be replaced with breakers. That required permits and usually required more work than just panel replacement. So a hot swap, less costly, and send the insurance company a photo of the new panel. They never asked for proof of it being done with a permit etc.

Still scares me just thinking about it.

Ron

I could start a home improvement series with all the things I’ve done to get around government regulations. Following all their useless requirements is a sure way to flatline your business. I’ve learned to give Cesar just enough to keep him off my back…

As far as poor workmanship goes with Escape, I’m sure they’re caught up with the decreased level of craftsmanship in the workforce.

[sameo416]

Postscript. New BR breaker installed and the two doubled up wires moved. Bus bar for the grounds going in this week. Shifting all the DC/neutral leads to ferrules. Will inspect and replace the ring terminals elsewhere as some of the crimps looked questionable. Need to inspect the frame/ground connection now, as that's another one I've heard can be a problem.

And invested in a good quality crimper so I can avoid the usual electrical profanity required to make my existing, inexpensive one work well.

Thanks for all the comments!

[cpaharley2008]

Originally Posted by sameo416

Postscript. New BR breaker installed and the two doubled up wires moved. Bus bar for the grounds going in this week. Shifting all the DC/neutral leads to ferrules. Will inspect and replace the ring terminals elsewhere as some of the crimps looked questionable. Need to inspect the frame/ground connection now, as that's another one I've heard can be a problem.

And invested in a good quality crimper so I can avoid the usual electrical profanity required to make my existing, inexpensive one work well.

Thanks for all the comments!

Which crimper did you end up with?

[sameo416]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

Which crimper did you end up with?

This one: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B08...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Wirefy Crimping Tool Set 8 PCS - Ratcheting Wire Crimper - Heat Shrink, Non-Insulated, Open Barrel, Flag, Ferrule Connectors

It's pricey but ones with specifically sized dies in the jaws do the best performance imo. And I'm so frustrated with the inexpensive kit crimpers.

[CharlesinGA]

It looks like that one does square crimps on ferrules. I bought dedicated ferrule crimpers in square and hexagon. Your should work quite well however. If you are using a long ferrule, you may need to crimp part of it then slide the ferrule down and do the rest of the crimp.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MZXWTVQ



Charles

[Rockhead]

Make sure you check under the trailer by the wheels where ETI made the wire connections for the brakes . Several of us have found bad crimps that are almost coming apart.

[sameo416]

So, all the remediation/upgrade work is completed.

For this season:
*Installed a Victron 100/20 solar controller in place of the GoPower factory install. Victron stuff is nice.
*Installed a Thornwave shunt (chosen for onboard data storage)
*Removed the inverter fuse from the battery terminal and wired in two ANL fuse holders with the shunt.
*Installed a second Li battery.
*Corrected the miswired main breaker
*added two more 15A breakers to split the double wired breakers
*restripped all the stranded conductors in the dist panel to correct some horrible overcutting (up to about 15% of strands on some large conductors)
*installed ferrules on all the DC connections
*took the 10 conductors off the panel ground stud and replaced this with a BlueSea bus bar
*liberally added heat shrink for protection and strain relief

The WireFly crimper works super. Only note the dies are marked in metric vs AWG. Square ferrules which work really well.

Next season I’m installing a fusion generator in place of the batteries.

[Yegegg]

That's great. Did you take any after pics?

[advenas]

Hmmm. Reading this makes me think I'll add checking the electrical connections to my trailer projects list this winter. It's a 2017 and has been trouble free. I hate to start messing with stuff that isn't broke. But electrical fires aren't on my list of fun things to experience in trailer life.

[CharlesinGA]

ANL fuses for Lithium batteries? Probably not a wise choice, you might want to rethink that. Read this thread https://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f...ses-21488.html
TDF-Texas has researched this from one end to the other, and most (but certainly not all) Li battery manufacturers recommend type T fuses and holders for the batteries, for the reasons noted. Read the entire thread but pay particular attention to post #4.

Charles

[CharlesinGA]

Originally Posted by advenas

Hmmm. Reading this makes me think I'll add checking the electrical connections to my trailer projects list this winter. It's a 2017 and has been trouble free. I hate to start messing with stuff that isn't broke. But electrical fires aren't on my list of fun things to experience in trailer life.

Even a "smooth riding" trailer like an Escape with torsion axles and perfectly balanced tires, needs to have the electrical system inspected every year or two. Things vibrate loose and it is simple enough to disconnect shore power and batteries and tighten all screws and look for issues such as wiring improperly installed, stray strands flayed out, and many other poor installation issues. You may have got lucky and received a trailer that was wired by the senior guy, but I'll bet not, and if you look, you will find issues to correct. With me, on my SOB, the more I looked, the more I found and the pickier I became. It all came down to finding the all the problems and doing the best possible fix on them.

Charles