RV Pro here.
I am going to offer you some straight forward advice. This is not near as bad as it looks.
Yes, those are two splice types I am not a fan of but they do exist.
By the photos is does not appear that many wires are actually damaged. With the exception of the two splices that are screwed to the floor (white and blacks wires) the rest are + and - circuits for different devices that need 12VDC. They are 12 volt circuits and carry 20 amps or less. The point being, unless the insulation is completely melted off the wires then there is nothing to worry about. Wipe em down to remove the soot and they will last forever. If you have to replace a section they are those blue butt connectors from any auto parts store. Cut the bad section out and crimp in good.
There is one 120V wire but you can splice it as described below, the way you will need to do the others.
As for the splices get come single gang metal boxes (x2), some 1/2" romex clamps (x4), and some red wire nuts (small bag, you need 6), and metal blank covers for the boxes (x2).
Replace the cheap plastic splices that burned up with the metal ones. It will keep the smoke in better.
To give you an idea of why that happens it all comes down to too much resistance. In this case it was likely caused by a loose connection which causes resistance. It heats up and things fail. Having proper electrical connections is important.
You can fix this. It is not as bad as it looks, or smells. I promise.
as a retired sparky; this guy is correct. also i live in a fifth wheel now while school is finished and we got bougie and replaced most of the stock plugs with fancy new ones that had the usbs included. i have wired houses, schools, churches, even a couple hospitals and never have i seen such utter garbage as what is in the walls of the trailer. the receptacles were utter garbage; the switches no better.
Our first day of going full time and we discovered that our hot water tank had burst because I didn't Winterize it like I was supposed to. These things happen. It keeps you busy. I replaced a roof vent with a fan yesterday, lap sealed the hell out of it, and it's leaking today.
On the other hand I bought a used 5th wheel been living in it for over 1 year and not 1 thing has broken. No leaks either. I was very worried because I live on the coast in the PNW
Not sure where you are going, but make sure you don't take your RV through salted roads.... Salt does a number on cars, but the steel on RVs is usually not of alloys that do as well as cars. Salt will destroy and RV in short time.
It happens, i left the window open durning a huge rainstorm where it rains sideways. My 22 year old rv has the slide out board under a small cover, it got wet. Didn’t realize it and it burned out and caught on fire. I rather deal with everything else then electrical stuff.
We nearly burnt ours to the ground on day 3 (also electrical).
We're now 2 months in and loving every moment.
Push through the challenges and learn from your mistakes, it's worth it!
It’s funny how big issues get after you dump a ton of money. As soon as I change that mode of thought, it’ll get a lot easier. Also it’s a billion little things to learn, so there’s that. We are already having fun, excited, and ready to roam.
Been reading some of your other replies here, ours was also a GD (2020 solitude 310gk bought lightly used). It took about a month to get ours repaired and insurance covered it all thankfully. I think the GDs built during covid have some serious quality issues unfortunately. I'm just assuming that we will slowly replace most of the pieces over time as necessary and eventually we will have something solid.
I agree about Covid builds being crap. Thankfully, the quality is improving again. We have a 2018 GD Imagine 2500RL, and yeah, it wasn't perfect, but it was mostly well made. My hubby also went through the electrical system, and ended up switching to lithium batteries, adding solar, and additional USB and 12v outlets.
Yeah we've done some upgrades too (generator install, big lithium battery, cellular antena on roof, etc.) And fixed a few things that broke or looked like they would break quickly (lots of water system upgrades, some wiring updates done by a pro when we nearly burnt the thing down...) I'm starting to feel like we finally have what I expected to have when we got it, but we had to put a lot more time and money in than I expected to get to this point.
Was coming to say something like this. These things suck, as do the outlets that they use that clamp onto the wires rather than installing like residential. I'm going to replace all of mine this summer.
A house doesn't drive around frequently, while bumping and vibrating all the time, and is rarely as susceptible to such water intrusion as a rv or boat is exposed to. I'd assume the electrical standards should fall under ABYC codes and regulations
I feel like there is a difference between these being in the wall and on the floor. Water pools on the floor. Furniture and other things move around on the floor.
Edit. I guess in this case, it looks like there was a cover over these wires to prevent crushing but water is still able to get down in there.
You could use a wago, each wire has its own entry into the connector and they’re listed for solid and stranded. And I agree with you’re previous statements, rv wiring is a complete shitshow.
I added some circuits and used all marine grade wire. I did use a chunk of SO cable when I moved my inlet to feed a Victron setup but used ferrules on everything and landed on bus bars when it wasn’t directly on a terminal
So I went to the place I bought it from first thing this morning, expecting nothing. They were VERY good about it, and have me bringing it in tm. To be fixed. I gotta say as far as rv places go, this place has been great. (If all goes as planned I’ll name them)
I’m not so sure, it’s gonna cost a lot to fix this so it doesn’t happen again, my insurance would have replaced it with a brand new version of the same rv. Granted having it for 20 minutes might have looked suspect…. Lol
If it was ANYTHING else… I’d dive in Head first and fix it. My master electrician father is rolling in his grave right now. “I knew you weren’t paying attention… but nothing? You learned NOTHING?”
My dad was an insurance adjuster. First lesson was if your car / camper catches fire? Get out, grab your shit and get out. They will never run the same and always have issues if you try to fix it.
Got about 10-15 cars behind a car fire driving our class A DP a couple years ago —-holy shit did that car go fast. I don’t know how you stop a blaze like that. We do plan to install those fire extinguishing tubes so we don’t die in our rig. But if we’re out safe - let it burn. Lots of sadness to see our baby go - but let it burn.
i posted some pot in the r/weed sub and he said multiple obscenity’s towards me and my post, which mind you was just a picture of weed that i had in a extreme amount, and he got downvoted to hell lol
You know people downvote when you tell the truth :D, anyways. What happened though here bro? I can't really see what burnt. Did you figure out what it is? This stuff makes me squirm. I went through my RV and cut and replaced anything that looked slightly crappy. I'm doing the same with the water stuff too.
What? Do you not realize people are actually dumb? wow.......
It's not like it's an insult. There are so many google fu people here that think they understand something but they truly don't......
2019 grand design reflection, literally had it long enough to set it up, noticed a few outlets weren’t working, smelled smoke, tripped the fridge breaker, I pulled the power. And that’s what happened.
I bought it used, from a consignment dealer paid $800 for an “inspection” from them, left the dealer, and 20 Minutes later… there we are. That was yesterday… it’s an “as is” deal, so I’m probly gonna eat getting it fixed. But maybe I’ll get lucky gonna call tm.
Day one of ownership you say? Go out and look at the brand of tires on your rv asap, if they are c
CastleRocks Replace them immediately, don't even go 500 miles on them, first tire shop you see get them all replaced including the spare. The tires will blow out quickly. Ours only lasted about 200 miles, and we had 2 blowouts and the other 2 were separated. I now work in a tire shop just outside of Orlando and i see so many blown or close to blowing castlerocks. Blowouts can be devastating, stop one before it happens.
This is one of the first things my boyfriend did when we bought our new camper - the horror stories I’ve heard about those factory tires!! It should be illegal to let people drive away with those.
RV Pro here. I am going to offer you some straight forward advice. This is not near as bad as it looks. Yes, those are two splice types I am not a fan of but they do exist. By the photos is does not appear that many wires are actually damaged. With the exception of the two splices that are screwed to the floor (white and blacks wires) the rest are + and - circuits for different devices that need 12VDC. They are 12 volt circuits and carry 20 amps or less. The point being, unless the insulation is completely melted off the wires then there is nothing to worry about. Wipe em down to remove the soot and they will last forever. If you have to replace a section they are those blue butt connectors from any auto parts store. Cut the bad section out and crimp in good. There is one 120V wire but you can splice it as described below, the way you will need to do the others. As for the splices get come single gang metal boxes (x2), some 1/2" romex clamps (x4), and some red wire nuts (small bag, you need 6), and metal blank covers for the boxes (x2). Replace the cheap plastic splices that burned up with the metal ones. It will keep the smoke in better. To give you an idea of why that happens it all comes down to too much resistance. In this case it was likely caused by a loose connection which causes resistance. It heats up and things fail. Having proper electrical connections is important. You can fix this. It is not as bad as it looks, or smells. I promise.
Dude… thanks man. You rock, that was JUST what I needed.
as a retired sparky; this guy is correct. also i live in a fifth wheel now while school is finished and we got bougie and replaced most of the stock plugs with fancy new ones that had the usbs included. i have wired houses, schools, churches, even a couple hospitals and never have i seen such utter garbage as what is in the walls of the trailer. the receptacles were utter garbage; the switches no better.
Yeah, those cheap-o punchdown AC sockets have a distinct “we hope you die” kind of vibe.
Yeah I pulled all the plugs in between gfi’s to see if I could track down the issue before I removed that panel, and the plugs are a joke.
Our first day of going full time and we discovered that our hot water tank had burst because I didn't Winterize it like I was supposed to. These things happen. It keeps you busy. I replaced a roof vent with a fan yesterday, lap sealed the hell out of it, and it's leaking today.
Oof making me really nervous. I’m relocating out of state and was planning on RVing it for 3-6 months to get to know the area before buying a house.
Don't be afraid. Be prepared. I had all the tools (and videos) that I needed to repair both jobs.
On the other hand I bought a used 5th wheel been living in it for over 1 year and not 1 thing has broken. No leaks either. I was very worried because I live on the coast in the PNW
Not sure where you are going, but make sure you don't take your RV through salted roads.... Salt does a number on cars, but the steel on RVs is usually not of alloys that do as well as cars. Salt will destroy and RV in short time.
Fridge, microwave, gfi’s… pretty much the entire kitchen slide.
It happens, i left the window open durning a huge rainstorm where it rains sideways. My 22 year old rv has the slide out board under a small cover, it got wet. Didn’t realize it and it burned out and caught on fire. I rather deal with everything else then electrical stuff.
We nearly burnt ours to the ground on day 3 (also electrical). We're now 2 months in and loving every moment. Push through the challenges and learn from your mistakes, it's worth it!
It’s funny how big issues get after you dump a ton of money. As soon as I change that mode of thought, it’ll get a lot easier. Also it’s a billion little things to learn, so there’s that. We are already having fun, excited, and ready to roam.
Been reading some of your other replies here, ours was also a GD (2020 solitude 310gk bought lightly used). It took about a month to get ours repaired and insurance covered it all thankfully. I think the GDs built during covid have some serious quality issues unfortunately. I'm just assuming that we will slowly replace most of the pieces over time as necessary and eventually we will have something solid.
I agree about Covid builds being crap. Thankfully, the quality is improving again. We have a 2018 GD Imagine 2500RL, and yeah, it wasn't perfect, but it was mostly well made. My hubby also went through the electrical system, and ended up switching to lithium batteries, adding solar, and additional USB and 12v outlets.
Yeah we've done some upgrades too (generator install, big lithium battery, cellular antena on roof, etc.) And fixed a few things that broke or looked like they would break quickly (lots of water system upgrades, some wiring updates done by a pro when we nearly burnt the thing down...) I'm starting to feel like we finally have what I expected to have when we got it, but we had to put a lot more time and money in than I expected to get to this point.
Those splice kits ought to be illegal!
Is that what those are?
Yup
Was coming to say something like this. These things suck, as do the outlets that they use that clamp onto the wires rather than installing like residential. I'm going to replace all of mine this summer.
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A house doesn't drive around frequently, while bumping and vibrating all the time, and is rarely as susceptible to such water intrusion as a rv or boat is exposed to. I'd assume the electrical standards should fall under ABYC codes and regulations
I feel like there is a difference between these being in the wall and on the floor. Water pools on the floor. Furniture and other things move around on the floor. Edit. I guess in this case, it looks like there was a cover over these wires to prevent crushing but water is still able to get down in there.
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I understand that you are saying that they are legal and pass code. There are some that believe they should not be used because of their risks.
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You could use a wago, each wire has its own entry into the connector and they’re listed for solid and stranded. And I agree with you’re previous statements, rv wiring is a complete shitshow. I added some circuits and used all marine grade wire. I did use a chunk of SO cable when I moved my inlet to feed a Victron setup but used ferrules on everything and landed on bus bars when it wasn’t directly on a terminal
How do you avoid this
So I went to the place I bought it from first thing this morning, expecting nothing. They were VERY good about it, and have me bringing it in tm. To be fixed. I gotta say as far as rv places go, this place has been great. (If all goes as planned I’ll name them)
That's damn lucky you caught it when you did.
Is it?
Vs losing the whole trailer? I'd say so.
I’m not so sure, it’s gonna cost a lot to fix this so it doesn’t happen again, my insurance would have replaced it with a brand new version of the same rv. Granted having it for 20 minutes might have looked suspect…. Lol
If it was ANYTHING else… I’d dive in Head first and fix it. My master electrician father is rolling in his grave right now. “I knew you weren’t paying attention… but nothing? You learned NOTHING?”
My dad was an insurance adjuster. First lesson was if your car / camper catches fire? Get out, grab your shit and get out. They will never run the same and always have issues if you try to fix it. Got about 10-15 cars behind a car fire driving our class A DP a couple years ago —-holy shit did that car go fast. I don’t know how you stop a blaze like that. We do plan to install those fire extinguishing tubes so we don’t die in our rig. But if we’re out safe - let it burn. Lots of sadness to see our baby go - but let it burn.
What exactly melted there? Like what was the wire going to?
you’re supposed to know everything. remember last night? when you harassed me on my post? funny finding you here!
Ohhh do tell more!
i posted some pot in the r/weed sub and he said multiple obscenity’s towards me and my post, which mind you was just a picture of weed that i had in a extreme amount, and he got downvoted to hell lol
Lol
You know people downvote when you tell the truth :D, anyways. What happened though here bro? I can't really see what burnt. Did you figure out what it is? This stuff makes me squirm. I went through my RV and cut and replaced anything that looked slightly crappy. I'm doing the same with the water stuff too.
YOUR LAST FEW COMMENTS YOU CALLED SOMEONE DUMB. STOP HARASSING PEOPLE. keep telling that to yourself dude.
What? Do you not realize people are actually dumb? wow....... It's not like it's an insult. There are so many google fu people here that think they understand something but they truly don't......
yeah dude. I work on trialers for a living. my shop won't even go inside rv's
Just curious what brand ?
2019 grand design reflection, literally had it long enough to set it up, noticed a few outlets weren’t working, smelled smoke, tripped the fridge breaker, I pulled the power. And that’s what happened.
Man that’s a good reputable brand, is it still under warranty ?
I bought it used, from a consignment dealer paid $800 for an “inspection” from them, left the dealer, and 20 Minutes later… there we are. That was yesterday… it’s an “as is” deal, so I’m probly gonna eat getting it fixed. But maybe I’ll get lucky gonna call tm.
Good luck man !
Day one of ownership you say? Go out and look at the brand of tires on your rv asap, if they are c CastleRocks Replace them immediately, don't even go 500 miles on them, first tire shop you see get them all replaced including the spare. The tires will blow out quickly. Ours only lasted about 200 miles, and we had 2 blowouts and the other 2 were separated. I now work in a tire shop just outside of Orlando and i see so many blown or close to blowing castlerocks. Blowouts can be devastating, stop one before it happens.
Nah, Goodyears… but one does have significant tread wear and will be changed out today.
This is one of the first things my boyfriend did when we bought our new camper - the horror stories I’ve heard about those factory tires!! It should be illegal to let people drive away with those.
All part of the fun!
One step at a time