The Big Picture Of Life Is Simplicity

The first two pictures below are of the two compartments that are the heart of my rig. Everything electrical flows through those two spaces. EVERYTHING. I have spent the last week living inside these two spaces.

I have been having weird difficulties since I got the trailer 4 months ago. You may recall me posting about my jacks not working properly and the work it took to try to fix it. They stopped working again a couple weeks after I thought they were fixed. Lots of other difficulties, too. Like no heat because the lithium batteries weren’t making it through the night, which made no sense because these are some of the best. On Christmas Day the batteries decided to stop charging altogether. Options were figure it out myself or drive to Utah and have the RV dealer figure it out. I trust myself more, so to work I went.

Chasing Details

I had to check and test with a multimeter every connection, wire, fuse, breaker, etc in the entire system. Yes, I had to squeeze my fat ass all the way into those spaces and wriggle around like Roseanne Barr trying to get into skinny jeans. Took forever because of all the breaks I had to take with my heart.

After 3 days I figured out the little device now in my hand (shortstop circuit breaker) was fried and needed to be replaced. You can see it in a row of four in the top of the first pic between the duct hose and the red knob. I moved the wire over to the next breaker until I could find a replacement, but things still weren’t working right. What to do?!?

I decided to go to the other end of the wire. So I pulled the circuit breaker box out of the wall thinking I’d trace things down. Didn’t need to. As soon as I pulled the box it was staring me right in the face. The guy that ran and installed all those wires forgot one very simple thing. While every other thing in that space was secured, two screws were sticking way out. They happened to be the two that connect the main power cable to the entire rig! Holy @#%$$) &^)& %$%@@^ &%(&()_ ()% ^%#% @^%(*& shit!!!!!! The power cable was just resting in there. No wonder the breaker was fried.

I clamped those two screws down tight and what do you know, everything worked perfectly. So I went back out, reached into the batteries and reset the battery management systems by pressing a button. When I came back in the solar system was completely down. Zero power. WT()&(&%%$#@#$!@^&%)()???

As I sat in front of the battery compartment wondering what could have happened by pushing the reset button I realized a new red wire was staring right at me, copper end shining bright and bare. The same genius that didn’t connect the main power line didn’t crimp the wire connector onto the wire. So as my sleeve touched the wire when I reached in the wire simply slipped out of the connector firmly attached to the battery. I crimped the wire firmly in the connector and voilà, everything worked perfectly, including the solar. I’ve since replaced the fried breaker as well.

Stepping Back

There is a lesson to be learned from this. We have a tendency to pay too much attention to details and allow them to distract us too much. I found this during my business career all too often. I spent the last 4 months chasing the details around my electrical system. Instead, I should have taken a step back, questioned the “experts” and looked for the simple solution. That would’ve helped keep me from chasing my tail in this case. Simple solutions served me well during my career, now I just need to adapt it to my new RV lifestyle. Lesson learned.

Now if you’ll forgive me, I think I’ve earned a little soft serve…