Picking Up Where I Left Off

 

    In my last post, I told the story of how my trailer building efforts were stymied by the intimidating task of making an electrical plan.  Pictured above is a Progressive Dynamics 45 amp converter + AC/DC distribution panel.  The product description for which suggests that if you have this magical box, you really don't have to know anything about electricity because it is a smart box.  Hoping again for very explicit wiring instructions, and, frankly, that I would be miraculously visited by the ghost of electrical understanding, I ordered the thing.  It Came, I puzzled over the hieroglyphics that explain how it works, checked out the innards a bit, and promptly inserted my head in the sand; i.e. went into treehouse mode.  When I came back around to the camper project , I knew that the electrical problem was going to have to be addressed at the start.  The reason it had been such a show stopper in the first place was that I needed to have wires from battery(on the tongue) to the converter and from the converter to the forward section of the sleeping compartment, under the floor, and I needed the floor down before I could build much of anything.  Having gained no electrical knowledge during the lengthy intermission, I decided it was time to force my brother-in-law, Sam, to fix my problem.  Did I mention that Sam makes his living by using electricity and stuff to give fighter pilots the ability  to see through the fuselage of their planes? Really. So, I used my ten year old daughter's slumber party as an excuse to flee, spent a pleasant evening with Sam and family (top shelf brew included),  discussed my mysterious black box over breakfast, and viola....

     

     

     This is the diagram we came up with for the section of the wiring that needs to go under the floor.  It will supply the power to a reading light,  12 volt outlets, a 120 volt outlet (all integrated into the forward cabinet), a 2 way vent fan, and an overhead dome light.  More wiring will be added later to supply power to the galley area.   Some of the details in the sketch below have changed, but it shows the basic shape and locations of the main components of the electrical system. 

     In a particularly boneheaded move, I failed to take pictures of the wires secured to the deck before gluing down the insulation,  but the sequence of pictures below shows the basic layout of the electrical system.

From left to right at the front of the trailer are the battery cables, the 12 volt bundle, and romex for the 120 volt outlet.
You can see the other ends of the 12 and 120 volt wires coming up just behind where the rear bulkhead will be located and just below where the converter box will be.

Detail of the battery cable entering the trailer from below the deck

Here the floor has been glued and screwed down

In this picture you can see the dark grey plastic laminate covering the the floor of the rear of the trailer.  The same laminate will be used to cover the counter top in the galley.  The laminate also marks the division between the sleeping cabin and the galley section.  Clamps where used while the glue set at the rear so that there would not be  screws in the exposed section of the floor.

      While this may not be the most exciting stuff to look at, you can see why it really needed to be resolved before I could move on.  With this step complete, I have officially moved beyond square one and finally have a platform on which I can  start building.  This may be a bit off topic, but I'm going to go ahead and give a little unsolicited marital advice.  "Remember to laugh together", "Never go to bed angry",  "communicate your feelings"; while these little nuggets may contain some truth (as all cliches surely must), I would like to suggest something a little more concrete  and practical.  Marry someone with competent and useful family members.  I say this knowing fully that this is not really actionable advice; you either luck into it or not.  If you do happen to be among the lucky on this score, it is a powerful force multiplier for your spouse's awesomeness, and it often has the happy side effect of allowing you to appear smarter than you really are.  I was fortunate enough to marry into far more competencies than I feel it would be of interest to list here, but I would like to say, thank you, Sam, and I am sure I will be pestering you with more electrical questions very soon.  

     A quick note on saw dust: In the previous post, I promised some sawdust in this one.  Remember that diagram and that sketch at the beginning of the post? ...

Well, I needed to sharpen a pencil for that.

Sorry, I'll try to do better next time.