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MCI 102-C3 coach to RV - Electrical System

ennored said:
Seat track sliders, love it. Will they slide out enough? Or will there be some modifying? Or stack 2 (or more) for a telescoping arrangement? Did you see it done somewhere? A quick Google search didn't turn up anything.​
Haven't seen it done. My dad and I brought the lithium battery back down to do some brain storming on how to make a sliding tray. We'll be pulling 6-8 identical seat tracks and I'll be trimming them down to fit and then welding their ends together to make them a total of 50" long.
 
Close to having the wheel tubs stripped out for building the battery bank trays. Cut through several mig welds to get a few pieces out of the way. As always, anxious for that salvage yard run.

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Today's score at the Colorado Springs U-Pull-n-Pay half off run. Got all eight seat rails off some Mitsubishi Eclipses and Eagle Talons. The track profiles are an inch thick and run on ball bearings. Release on one side with cable crossover. $51.xx for all.

I'll trim these down to the bare necessities and mock them up in the wheel tubs. Once measured, I'll jig them up on my welding table for alignment and make some sweet battery racks.

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Got all the 120 volt box holes rough cut. I'll be diving into the air brake lines tomorrow. Gotta label and cut them all to get them out of my way. Hopefully welding in the conduit struts before week's end.

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Haggard. They're in. The 120 volt boxes, that is. A touch more to do on that line and I'll be able to tack conduit struts in. Once conduits are in, hoses can be ran and systems reconnected.

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bigun said:
You used bell boxes?​
Mulberry 30270's, to be exact. 1" rigid conduit spanning between four of them. This line will house the #6 wiring for my work bay below and the various 120-volt circuits for above.
 
bigun said,
JNHEscher said:
Mulberry 30270's, to be exact. 1" rigid conduit spanning between four of them. This line will house the #6 wiring for my work bay below and the various 120-volt circuits for above.​
Okay I won't quote codes at you, I will just say running different size wire in conduit is frowned upon!
 
[486] said,
bigun said:
Okay I won't quote codes at you, I will just say running different size wire in conduit is frowned upon!​
I'm sure he's very concerned with new mexico building code in his RV.
 
bigun said:
Okay I won't quote codes at you, I will just say running different size wire in conduit is frowned upon!​
I know. I'll separate it at some point. I don't actually need to run the #6 in it right now, as that's for handling welder current. As far as codes in a bus conversion, there don't appear to be any. Although, I've been trying to set everything up per current codes in the event that codes for these systems are enforced. Went with weatherproof on the electrical so that I could avoid worry of causing damage if I ever decide to pressure wash a bay or condensation builds up somehow. Ya never know and I'd prefer to only do this once. I've been watching people build their conversions with sheetrock/stud-mount boxes and Romex. Not I.
 
bigun said,
JNHEscher said:
I know. I'll separate it at some point. I don't actually need to run the #6 in it right now, as that's for handling welder current. As far as codes in a bus conversion, there don't appear to be any. Although, I've been trying to set everything up per current codes in the event that codes for these systems are enforced. Went with weatherproof on the electrical so that I could avoid worry of causing damage if I ever decide to pressure wash a bay or condensation builds up somehow. Ya never know and I'd prefer to only do this once. I've been watching people build their conversions with sheetrock/stud-mount boxes and Romex. Not I.​
LOL yeah I know, there really isn't much in the NEC on RVs I just try to stay as safe as possible after waking up to an electrical fire in my first travel trailer! It was lots of fun trying to get into the breaker box laying on my side reaching under the cabinet!
yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7

While I understand your reasoning I would have probably gone 4 squares with raintight fittings and old school flat weather tight covers. Oh and lots of silicone! Enjoying the build.
 
Believe it or not, NEC is a concern of mine on this project. I'm steadily picking the brains of the techs I talk to about our solar, charge controllers, wiring location, inverters, breaker panels, etc. Keeping it away from water is a no-brainer. I have a lot of our floorplan drawn in SketchUp. If it works, I'm going try to make room for much of the controls in the wall that separates the bathroom and hallway. This would make the wiring distance between PV panels, controllers and battery banks the shortest. Still a work in progress.
 
bigun said:
LOL yeah I know, there really isn't much in the NEC on RVs I just try to stay as safe as possible after waking up to an electrical fire in my first travel trailer! It was lots of fun trying to get into the breaker box laying on my side reaching under the cabinet!
yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7

While I understand your reasoning I would have probably gone 4 squares with raintight fittings and old school flat weather tight covers. Oh and lots of silicone! Enjoying the build.​
I didn't take any other pictures of what I did today, but I actually did seal every thread on the rigid and mating surfaces of the boxes with Permatex. Anal retentiveness, you could call it. All the liquid tuff conduit fittings are gasketed. I'm making this mofo submersible lol.
 
bigun said,

A job I was on we had to use copper seal on all threads after we had used cold galv. on all cut threads. Pain in the ass in Meeker Co. in December!!
 
Oy. Had a few jobs running new conduit and wires under parking lots in the windy dead of winter with a high water table. I am most certainly glad I'm doing all this in mild weather.
 
bigun said,

I also worked wire pulling crew in Meeker to keep the tape warm in - temp I had to keep it close to my skin which meant only my outer jacket was kept zipped. I tell people I haven't been cold ever since!

Three months after the Meeker job I was on a shut down at a copper smelter near the New Mexico border with Mexico where the temps were around 113 in the shade the only shade was where the pipe fitters and welders were set up.
 
Extremes are fun, aren't they? I went from 85% humidity and triple digit summers in central Missouri to 6% humidity and -40 winters in southern Colorado.

Made some calls today. I'll be ordering some fuel hose and fittings from RaceFlux in the morning since I keep getting junk -4 hose ends through Summit Racing and the braided nylon hose they list is high as giraffe balls.

Ordered two Midnite Solar Kid MPPT solar charge controllers today and I'm awaiting a freight quote on four SolarTech Universal Epiq PV panels from Solar Wholesale in Utah. Second Battle Born 12 volt 100 amp hour lithium battery arrives tomorrow. Damn those things are pricey. I wasn't feelin' the DIY makeshift battery bank that everyone has urged me to build. Got enough on my plate as it is with our rental lease ending August 1st.

I'm currently brainstorming over the water tank again. It'll be Lexan. Probably build the shell with some beefy stuff and baffle it with thinner pieces. I'll explain more of it tomorrow if I haven't already.
 
We can officially make 24 volts. Small beginnings, but we're carefully planning out our purchases in order to make fully functional systems to get us started. Many scoff at the lithium batteries because of their cost. I wrote out five pages of comparison charts covering FLA, AGM, and LiFePO4 and lithium soared to the top for lifespan, charge rate and mounting capability.

As mentioned earlier, these will be fastened to the seat rails that I modify to make a rolling rack within the wheel tubs. All the batteries will lay on their sides. Pair tops will face each other. The cable terminals are pretty close, but not close enough to short. The least accessible terminals will be the ones that connect directly to each other in order to make the series circuit in each battery pair. I'll punch out some copper bus bars to connect them.

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This almost doesn't work. I was originally planning to mount the 120 volt and 12 volt boxes in the same panel. Since the single-gang 12 volt boxes wouldn't fit around the 1" conduit for the double-gang boxes, I figured I would have to mount them in the panel below. They're a pretty tight squeeze between the top of the upper panel and conduit. I'm using liquid tuff flex conduit for the 12 volt, so the boxes can go just about anywhere.

I have two Midnite Solar Kid charge controllers and one Schneider 4024 inverter on the way. My goal is to route all the wiring and the components in convenient locations while keeping it intrinsically safe. The PV panels wires will come through the roof, connect to the charge controllers, and drop to below the floor right about where the single-gang box is shown. I'm contemplating a location for the inverters where they can easily be connected to breaker boxes, stay out of the living quarters, and out of the fuel tank bay (rear storage bay), where propane tanks may also reside.

The shorter the wire runs, the more efficient the power is and, of course, the cheaper the wire total cost. If the inverters fit, I may limit the battery amount in each wheel tub so that an inverter can join them.

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bigun said,

You could do that with EMT, but your boxes would have to be farther apart. I have seen guys do it with ridged, but they had years of doing nothing but bending pipe and were paid for their ability. Like you I would just use liquid tight flex
 
I actually got them to fit perfectly. Spaced where the rigid conduit would be relaxed and in between where the unistruts will go so the flex conduit has plenty of room to snake around and clamp into the struts. Four boxes are mounted. I need to get four more flex conduit adapters to finish it off. Going start cutting the flex conduit for what I have mounted now.

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bigun said,
JNHEscher said:
I actually got them to fit perfectly. Spaced where the rigid conduit would be relaxed and in between where the unistruts will go so the flex conduit has plenty of room to snake around and clamp into the struts. Four boxes are mounted. I need to get four more flex conduit adapters to finish it off. Going start cutting the flex conduit for what I have mounted now.​
First picture made me think you were going to put the boxes a whole lot closer!
 
bigun said:
First picture made me think you were going to put the boxes a whole lot closer!​
I wanted to. With the fitment being so tight and the flex conduit needing room to weave around and over/under unistruts, they had to be moved further away from the 120 volt boxes. Had to place them where they would fit. At least I now have everything squeezed into one section. Wife is dropping me.off at the bus today and heading Home Depot to collect some more parts so I can finish this and start pulling engine wiring through.
 
Aside from some PV panels, we have the hard (expensive) components taken care of. And, fitting the inverter(s) with the battery bank(s) looks like a go. Doodled the inverter and batteries in SketchUp and placed them inside the constraint box I drew of the wheel tub.

Heat build-up and ventilation is something I've been paying attention to in the design, but from the looks of how many other people are cramming these components into smaller, less ventilated locations, I guess I'm ahead. The inverter fits when laid on its back with 5/8" to spare between its face and the underside of the subfloor. I also have a 4-3/4" hole where the air ducting was originally routed that faces the inverter, which makes for a sweet spot to mount a 5" fan that kicks on when the temperature gets high enough. In fact, the wheel tubs each have two of those duct holes.

To continue with the rolling battery tray, the inverter needs to be placed towards the outside. No biggie. I just need to be sure I have room to run all the wiring. Stoked. I'll place the PV panel order as soon as I can find some place to accept a freight delivery in Alamosa.

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Yesterday's happening before I started to feel under the weather. I'm trying to find the best way to place the batteries and inverter, while routing the necessary wiring without interfering with component access or hallway maneuvering. I'll have to shuffle a couple things in the drawing.

If I can route the ½" conduit up the window frame channels, I think I'd like to stick with that. Originally, I was going to have conduits on either side in the center and flex conduit would go to either side of the bus. Kinda ran out of room for that. Instead, I can stuff one side with conduits and cut a slot in the arch for the conduit to exit from up top. That's still in the works and doesn't need to begin until the floor is down.

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CarterKaft said,

Are you worried at all about throwing a "cap" on a rear tire and destroying several thousand dollar worth of electrical equipment?

It's an awesome use of space but I know with my tire luck first trip out I would shread a $500 tire and destroy some lithium batts and inverter....
 
CarterKaft said:
Are you worried at all about throwing a "cap" on a rear tire and destroying several thousand dollar worth of electrical equipment?

It's an awesome use of space but I know with my tire luck first trip out I would shread a $500 tire and destroy some lithium batts and inverter....​
I don't run recaps, but yeah, a shredded tire will destroy a lot. I'm cutting out all the flimsy stuff and beefing the tubs up with thicker stainless. I was going to use the OE fiberglass tubs as templates for the steel shop to bend some stainless sheet from. After feeling sick and sitting in the bus for a few hours, staring at the battery and inverter placement while waiting for my wife to return from Pueblo, I thought I'd be better off making some hinged plate tubs. Flailing tire tread would otherwise be aiming for $3K worth of electronics.
 
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