Unhooking electric panel

[Jey]

Good morning everyone,

Taking out everything inside my travel trailer to rebuild floor.

Right now my holdup is the fuse box/electric panel.


I?m pretty terrified of the idea of unhooking everything from it. I thought we could work around it but there?s just no way. Is this something I need to hire out to have someone else do or has anyone done it before with limited experience?

I know I can mark everything but I?m just scared about the reinstallatuon processs and the possibility of messing something up

 

[SeilerBird]

I am a retired union electrician who used to wire houses. I have wired hundreds of panels. First off get out your cell phone and take lots of photos of everything before to touch anything. Then get a label maker:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002M7W9GW/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and label every wire as best you can. Turn off all the breakers and then turn them on one at a time and find out what has power. Don't trust any markings on the panel. It is actually a pretty straight forward job.

 

[xrated]

Good advice SeilerBird.  I can't tell you how many times pictures of a before start of a project has saved my butt when it's time for it to go back together.  BTW.....soon to be retired Union Journeyman Electrician.....March or April next year!

 

[SeilerBird]

Local 952 here. I retired in 1989 when I blew out my knees from too many deep knee bends. Retirement has been fantastic. 20 years of working and 40 years of retirement. Sounds like a good ratio. I have read so many times where a person removed a battery from their coach, hooked it back up and blew everything up. I ask them if they took a photo before removing the battery and they say no. So I post this info as often as possible here to help other people before they blow everything up.

 

[SpencerPJ]

Jey, I've been following your progress, I know you are attacking the flooring.  Is there a way you can lift the cabinet the electrical is in enough to tear the flooring out, and slide new in, under the cabinet.  The above advise is 100% perfect, but if you can wiggle in the replacement flooring without disconnecting everything, it might be easier.  If not, pictures, labels, and drawings.  (and save them for way future reference as well)

 

[Jey]

Jey, I've been following your progress, I know you are attacking the flooring.  Is there a way you can lift the cabinet the electrical is in enough to tear the flooring out, and slide new in, under the cabinet.  The above advise is 100% perfect, but if you can wiggle in the replacement flooring without disconnecting everything, it might be easier.  If not, pictures, labels, and drawings.  (and save them for way future reference as well)

I will have to look at it again, But I do believe there are wires coming up through the floor which would make it an issue but maybe I?m remembering wrong.

My dad is trying to talk me into just tearing the cabinet out in pieces and rebuilding something around the fuse box. I was pretty set on keeping that in one  piece since we?ve had to tear apart everything else. But maybe it?s less of a sacrifice than unhooking all the wiring.

 

[SpencerPJ]

maybe it?s less of a sacrifice than unhooking all the wiring.

Everything has its trade-offs.  Your dad seems handy, I would follow his lead 

Before you started this demo project, curious if all the electrical seemed to work correctly?

 

[Jey]

Everything has its trade-offs.  Your dad seems handy, I would follow his lead 

Before you started this demo project, curious if all the electrical seemed to work correctly?

Yes, lights and all worked off the battery just fine and AC/water pump worked fine plugged in. I turned on the fridge for about an hour but didn?t have the chance to let it run long enough to fully cool down.

Only thing we didn?t test is the heater because we forgot to before unhooking everything

 

[malexander]

Maybe notch the flooring around the panel? If your unsure of it.

 

[cavie]

It's not rocket science. Pretty simple really. There is only one main line coming in. #10 wire (may be orange) it goes to the 30 amp main breaker. # 12 Romex (yellow jacket maybe) goes to a 20 amp breaker. A/C. #14 Romex (White jacket) goes to a 15 amp breakers. Romex has writing on it for identification.  Label each wire (insided the panel) with a piece of tape as to what it controls before you take it apart. HD has little #stickers for this purpose. Note which bare ground wires are on which connecting bar and which white wires are connected to which connecting bar. It makes a difference as the ground bar is grounded to the frame. The white wires (neutrals) bar is not grounded to the frame. Ground bar. Neutral bar. Don't mix them up.

 

[Jey]

While we?re on the electric subject... where the heck is my converter?

I thought it was going to be in the same cabinet as the main electric panel. Could it be an all in one unit?

 

[cavie]

behind the breaker panel/fuse. All in one/.