Wandering Free.com

RV – How to install/Repair an extra 12 volt battery in parallel to your RV or Motorhomes solar system:

Materials and tools needed for this section:

- Solder
- Conduit
- Socket set
- Cable Ties
- Multimeter
- Heat Shrink
- Wire strippers
- Soldering Iron
- Ring eye terminals
- Red and black wire, 40 amps (battery cable)
- 35 amp inline auto reset-able fuse 12volt.

- *Note: Battery of suitable size and type – should be the same AMP hrs as the original

Choosing the battery type:

Hi again, and welcome to the next level of installs for your RV or Motorhome. Here we need to understand three things before we start.

1. The battery must be the same type i.e. lead acid (wet type) or the more common AGM (Absorbed Glass Matt Battery type) these are true deep cycle batteries. Some examples of these are Concord and Full River. There is also a GEL battery type on the market.
2. The batteries must be the same AMP hours i.e. 80 amp/hrs or 120 amp/hrs and the same type.
3. Always measure the area that you have so that the batteries will fit without rubbing or pulling on the wiring and the battery cases.

Locating the Battery:

Please make sure that if you are using the (wet type) battery as in sulfuric acid type, you have these mounted outside the cabin or living space as these batteries give off hazardous fumes that can cause harm to humans and can explode if exposed to naked flames.

The other types AGM, GEL batteries can be mounted in the cabin or living space, and these are the type of batteries that I would recommend to use in this application as they are true deepcycle. The main reason for this is that deepcycle batteries can last longer then normal batteries and are designed to be maintained (charged) by solar systems.

Also you are able to mount them anywhere and you won’t have worry to about fumes. Once you have found an appropriate spot for the batteries, it is time to add them to your system.

How to add the battery in parallel to your system:

Please see the diagram below on how to install/add your new battery to your solar system.

It is very simple to do this, and all we need is two cables. The cables will be made up from your RED and BLACK battery cable and ring eye terminals as listed above. All we do is trim off enough cable of each colour so that it reaches from the positive on the first battery to the positive on the second battery.

Then we strip the wires, grab our heat shrink and slip that onto the cable at both ends then fix our terminals with our terminal pliers. Then just slide the heat shrink up the terminal and use our heat gun to melt it to the wire and the terminal. Then fit conduit to the cable to cover the wire and the base of the terminal (this will be yellow in colour). Please repeat this process for the negative cable.

Connecting the batteries to your charger controller:

*Note: Leave the Positive from the charger controller detached from the positive battery terminal at this stage.

From your charger controller there will be two wires, one being positive and one negative. Attach the Negative to the Negative terminal on the second battery (as stated in the diagram above). Please note that all your accessories will have to be hooked up in this manner also i.e. (TV, radio, fridge, and inverter). Now before you connect the positive to the first battery please make sure that you have at least a 30amp auto reset-able fuse at 12volt, inline on the positive side between the charger controller and the batteries.

Once you have done this, you can now fit the positive cables.

Testing the Solar System:

Once all your leads are connected we take our Multimeter select DC voltage from the settings and put the red lead on the positive of the first battery and the Black lead on the negative of the second battery. What you should be seeing is 12.5volts on your meter.

If the charger controller is operating i.e. showing 4 to 25 amps you should then see what is showing on the charger controller LED display (if you have one, and most do) lets say 14.4volts for example. This shows that both batteries are being charged and you have hooked things up correctly.

Then all you do is check your accessories and your done, very simple.

Check back later for more Install/repairs.

RV  – How to install/Repair your 12 volt CD player with a separate Rocker Switch into Rv or Motorhome:

Materials and tools needed for this section:

- Solder
- Conduit
- Socket set
- Cable Ties
- Heat Shrink
- Circuit tester
- Masking tape
- Wire strippers
- Soldering Iron
- Long nose pliers
- Spade terminals
- Ring eye terminals
- Phillips Screwdriver
- Radio mounting bracket
- Inline fuse holder and 10 amp fuses
- Red, white, yellow and black wire, 15 amps

- Rocker Switch On/Off - 20 amp rated, Spade Terminal connection

Now this is more of an advanced install/repair a seperate rocker switch install does require a bit more thought and materials but if you follow the instructions you should be able to complete this part without to much trouble.

In this install/repair we will need to make our own wiring loom for the CD player to run. The materials that are needed for this module are listed at the top of this page.

Installing the switch:

Now let’s say that we already have a hole for the CD player to fit into as in the install/repair on the Acc switch, so now we can focus on the wiring. I like to fit the rocker switch into place first in an area that will not get in the way of the vehicles operation, a spot on the dash next to the radio or near the steering column, I will add a picture of my bus to help you see what I mean.

Now just make sure that you have a look what is behind the area you are going to drill into first to make sure that you dont cut though any of the dash board wiring for your Rv.  Now we can run our constant wire, the color for this wire will be red. This will run from the battery through the fire wall of the vehicle to one side of the switch. When conecting this wire you should be using at least 6mm or 20 amp wire. Then from the other side of the switch run another wire to the CD player hole. You will have to strip and tin both ends of these wires fit heat shrink and spade terminals, use your terminal pliers to fit the terminals and use your heat gun to fix the heat shrink.

Now it is time to run the wires through the engine bay:

Just look for the main wiring loom from the engine bay to the cabin and run your wires though the rubber boot. It also makes for a neater job if you follow the main loom for all your wiring. Most vehicles have an extra boot that you can cut to gain access to the cabin normally situated on the steering column side of the fire wall. If you are having trouble getting the wires through the hole.

Handy tip: Get a long plastic or metal tube, and tape your wire to it, use lube WD40, then push both the tube and the wire through the hole).

Fitting the Inline Blade Fuse Holder:

Once you have the wire through run the wire to the stereo hole in the dash. Once you have done this, go back into the engine bay, strip and tin the end of the wires, slip on a piece of heat shrink, take a ring eye terminal and fit it to the wire with your terminal pliers, slide up the heat shrink till it touches the base of the ring eye and then use your heat gun to melt the heat shrink.

Now it is time to fit our inline fuse holder to the wire (use a ten amp inline blade fuse holder and blade fuse). I normally fit this around the battery area as there are many places to fix it. Now all we do it strip both wire ends of the inline fuse holder, then we cut the constant wire and strip those two ends.

Now we solder the joints together, so that the fuse is inline with the constant wire and then fit the 10 amp fuse. If you are running a separate amp on the CD player you will have to run a larger fuse, say 15 amps or make sure the AMP is fused as well.

In other words run a separate inline fuse holder and fuse for the PC (power constant) and the negative for the AMP. Make sure to the run the constant wire to the rocker switch. Because if you don’t you may flatten the batteries.

*Note: Leave the constant detached from the positive battery terminal at this stage.

Now we can run the negative lead from the battery terminal through the same hole as above with a wire and run this wire directly to the CD player after removing the wire from the conductor. At the battery end strip and tin the wires, again add a piece of heat shrink and ring eye terminal, use the terminal pliers to fit the terminal and a heat gun for the heat shrink.

You may now fit the negative wire to the negative battery terminal. Try and run these wires in the same direction and have them run side by side in the engine bay, this will make it easier for you to fit the conduit when you come to the finishing stage.

Once you have run all your wiring, check over all the joints to make sure that they have a good solder joint. An example of a bad joint would be parts of the conductor showing or poking through the heat shrink joint. If you see any of these problems, please cut away the heat shrink and start the joint again.

Now that we have checked our workmanship we can continue with the conduit, it is very important to fit the conduit for these reasons: 

1. Covers all wiring to stop it from rubbing through on the chassis of the vehicle.

2. Prevents wiring from melting together in the heat of the engine bay. Sparks and fuel, not a good mix.

Now, the next and final part of our install is to cable tie off the conduit, so that it follows the main wiring loom, and appears to be part of the car itself. Now just connect the CD player wiring loom to the rear off the CD player, mount the CD player in the hole, screw into place, and reassemble the dash of your RV or motorhome.

Run test. Flick the switch, have a beverage. Enjoy your sounds. 

*Note: All radio setups will be lost every time you turn off the rocker switch.

You can purchase a battery backup for the system from any of your local spare parts or electronic stores all you have to do is fit a cigerette lighter (accessory socket) in the line before the fuse.

Please feel free to email me if you wish to have more detailed instructions on this install.

Stay tuned in touch for your next:

How to Install/Repair a 12 volt CD player wiring that runs off the Acc position on your ignition in your motorhome:

Materials and tools needed for this section:

- Solder
- Conduit
- Socket set
- Cable Ties
- Heat Shrink
- Circuit tester
- Masking tape
- Wire strippers
- Soldering Iron
- Long nose pliers
- Spade terminals
- Ring eye terminals
- Phillips Screwdriver
- Radio mounting bracket
- Inline fuse holder and 10 amp fuses
- Red, white, yellow and black wire, 15 amps

Let’s cover the most common install first.

Finding the Constant Power Wire:

Now let’s assume that there is a stereo in the Rv or motorhome, and original wires are still there. Now that we have found a suitable position for the CD player it is time to wire it in to the vehicle. You should have two main wires that give you power to the unit. These are known as Constant power and Acc power. What you will have to do first is find out which one of the wires is Constant (this wire is usually red). But how we find out for sure is grab our circuit tester, attach the alligator clip to a negative (a metal bracket or bolt under the dash or the door check).

Okay, touch the point of the tester onto the wires with the ignition off the light will glow on the tester when you have power. Mark that wire with masking tape and write PC, now we can test for the Acc wire.

Finding the Acc Wire:

Turn the ignition to Acc then test the wires again, when the light glows you then have your Acc switch, mark this with masking tape and write Acc. On the constant wire we will now have to add a fuse to protect the circuit.

Soldering and appling heat shrink:

All we do is strip back the wire that we marked PC about 10mm to expose the conductor then do the same to the fuse wire end, add a piece of heat shrink to the wire. Then using your soldering iron join the two wires together, making sure that the solder covers all the exposed conductor.

 (My tip: is to place the soldering iron on the conductor to heat it up before applying the solder this should now flow freely over the joint)

That’s all we need to do for the power side of things, the rest of the wires will be speaker wires just follow the instructions and solder the wires separately for the front and rear speakers, make sure to use heat shrink on these wires also. Now we come to the ground (this should be black) the ground will just be attached to the bolt that fits to a metal bracket under the dash.

The last thing to check is make sure that the CD player has a inline fuse attached to the wiring that comes from the CD player If it does then you will be fine just attach the fuse holder coming from the CD Player wiring to the Red or (constant power wire we just found).

If you dont have any fuse then you will have to add one to the line before you run you CD player, just purchase one from your local automotive store for $5 dollars or so.

Read more on: RV electrical Install/Repairs

RV  – How to install/Repair your 12 volt Stereo or CD player wiring in your Rv or Motorhome:

Hi and welcome, in this section we are going to install/repair your Stereo or CD player wiring in your Rv or Motorhome.

Materials and tools needed for this section:

- Solder
- Conduit
- Socket set
- Cable Ties
- Heat Shrink
- Circuit tester
- Masking tape
- Wire strippers
- Soldering Iron
- Long nose pliers
- Spade terminals
- Ring eye terminals
- Phillips Screwdriver
- Radio mounting bracket
- Inline fuse holder and 10 amp fuses
- Red, white, yellow and black wire, 15 amps

Used terms explained:

- Amps = Current the wire can carry
- Volts = the type of battery system the vehicle has.
- Acc = this is the accessories position on your ignition switch
- Constant power = the main wire that has power even when car ignition is off
- Positive Ground = the red wire goes to the body of the car and battery
- Negative Ground = the black wire goes to the body of the car and battery

Voltages:

The first thing that we need to sort out is what voltage we are dealing with. For most Motorhomes and RV`s we will be looking at 12 volt negative ground application. Most Japanese and vehicles made in Australia and New Zealand will be negative ground and 12 volt. The thing to do first is to check with the manufacture of the vehicles and ask whether it is negative ground or not. The internet is a great source for this information and is mostly accurate.

For a 12 volt CD player wired to a 24 volt system with a dual battery system always wire the unit up to the first battery in the line, normaly the battery that is not connectioned directly to the Positive (red) connductor of the Rv. You also Connect both the (+) and the (-) to the same battery, hense just as you would in a 12 volt system. If you do not do this you will damage your unit.

The other type of vehicle you may have is an American built; these cars in general will be positive ground and they may have 24 volt systems. Just make sure that if you have a 24 volt system and you want the CD player to run of the Acc switch you will need a 24 volt CD player to install. Again please check this before trying to add any accessories to your vehicle.

If you are wiring a cd player to a 24 volt system and you have a 24 volt unit, and you have a dual battery system on your Rv just wire the positive (red) conductor to the + on one of the batteries and Negitive (-)  on the other battery.

Now lets get started, I am going to cover two forms of install here. Firstly fitment of a CD player that runs on the Acc switch of your ignition and secondly a CD player that runs on a separate rocker or toggle switch.

Please continue to install and repairing a loom for cd player on ACC:

How to Install/Repair a 12 volt CD player wiring that runs off the Acc position on your ignition in your motorhome

How to make wiring loom adapters for your Rv or Motorhome

Hello again, in this section I am going to talk you though making and creating your own wiring looms and adapters. To illustrate this I am going to use a adapter for factory speakers to aftermarket speakers. You can use this theory and make it suit any application for wiring looms of your motorhome that you wish to. There is no limit to how you can use this information, and knowing how to make wiring looms for your motorhome or Rv, should give you the know how to repair or trace faults in wiring as well.

The first thing I am going to do is make a loom to adapt from a set of factory speakers to suit after market speakers. This means that we are going to keep the factory plug that attaches to the factory speakers and change it to suit our after market speakers.

Tools and materials needed for this section:

- Solder
- Heat Gun
- Heat shrink
- 2 Core wire
- Soldering Iron
- Split tubing or Conduit
- Corresponding Plug connector
- Spade Terminals Normal and Mini

Now before you can get into the speaker itself you will find you have to remove the speaker cover whichmaybe just clipped in place, simply pry the clips inwards and it should pop free. You also have to remove the door trim in your Rv first of all. Now, knowing that all vehicles are different in the way that they are fixed to the door shell, I am unable to tell you how to locate these with your specific vehicle. To do this, please search the Internet, for door removal instructions with the make of your vehicle, such as “FD166 Hino door trim removal”.

You may have to try this with and without the quotes in your search engine. After you have found that information you may proceed with your door trim removal. After all the screws have been extracted you will then be able to see the speaker and the spacer or surround that it is sitting in. All you do now is remove the screws or rivets that are holding the speaker in place, remove the speaker and the speaker plugs from the vehicle and put the speaker on the desk or bench.

As you may well know the after market speakers normally come with two spade terminals in female configuration, and some come with a large and what is called a mini spade terminal. For today we are going to cover the large and the mini female terminal application as well as the factory 2 pin offset plug.

The first step is to source out spade terminals for the job and our wire that we are going to use. It is okay to use your plain 2 core speaker wire for this job as no current (power) will flow through them and they are marked with a red line to denote the positive. Although many people will choose to use a higher grade of speaker wire for the job, and if you do you can get this wire from any Supply parts store such as Crutchfield.com i.e. Electrical outlets, Autobarn, Supercheap, or your more targeted stereo places such as Pimp my ride and so on. The higher the grade of wire you use the better the sound.

Seeing as we are only going to make a very short adapter in this case I am going to use the plain 2 core wire. All we do is cut the wire to length and grab a couple of terminals to fit to our speaker. We then grab out wire strippers and take about 5 to 10 millimeters of the two ends exposing the metal conductor, being very careful not to cut any of the conductors. Then we will twist the conductor to make a tight end with our thumb and forefinger. We then take a soldering iron; I am using the butane soldering iron for this job as it heats up quickly. We then tin the wires with our solder (basically heat up the conductor then melt the solder into the wire until the conductor is covered).

Before fitting the terminal fit a piece of heat shrink over the wire and terminal base, this will make for a tidy joint and much more element proof. Then we use our terminal pliers to fit the terminal to our tined wires. Make sure the terminal is fitted firmly and then slide up the heat shrink over the end of the terminal, then grab your heat gun and shrink down the heat shrink, do not hold the heat gun on for too long as this will melt the wire. Repeat this step for all your speaker wires.

Now we will fit our female connector to the other end of the adapter. You will need female spade terminals for these ends and they are slightly different to your normal female spade terminals and they are not insulated. What you want to have in these terminals is a small tag on the spade surface that will grab hold of the connector when you insert it in. Please see the picture below :

 The ones in the picture are female and you will want the male type for this job.

Once you have stripped and tinned your wires we can now fit our female terminals to the wires, then all we need to do is fit the connector and you are nearly done. Now for the final touches, we cut a bit of our conduit and fit it over our wires. And there you have it a custom speaker adapter.

 Basic hows to`s for Rv safety:

Hello, nice to see you again. What we are going to learn in this section is that safety is paramount. And learning these simple rules can save your life and the cost of equipment or vehicle damage. We all know that things can happen while traveling, and vehicles can brake down, please remember if you have to park up on the road side use your safety triangles. 

The triangles will need to be placed at the correct distance from your vehicle, both triangles should be placed at 50-100 meters both front and rear if you are driving a heavy vehicle such as a bus. Now when you think of safety gear you think of glasses, gloves and steel cap boots. If you are working outside with extension leads you will need waterproof connections for the plugs and also a circuit breaker in the line to protect from shorts.

I would also recommend that you take off any loose jewelry, such as chains or bracelets, also tie back long hair as these can be caught up in moving parts and you may be dragged into them causing severe cuts and or loss of fingers or limbs.

Keeping the working area clean of debris and tools will also help the safety factor, as it only takes a few moments to put your tools back on the bench and or sweep the floor.

While working outside is a good practice to use a short circuit protection, these have a built in circuit breaker and will trip if there is a short to earth. I.e. water in a plug or faulty tools such as drills and so on.

If you do have to use a generator while you are at the road side, please be aware of your surrounds and place the generator clear of any dry patches of grass and or oil deposits, also if it happens to be raining use a plug shield (these units cover the entire plug connection in a waterproof housing) making it much safer.

Most drills today and other tools are double insulated; basically the outer case is separate from the inner so you are less likely to get a shock if something goes wrong.

I would have to suggest the safest way to work out doors is by using battery powered devices. Most places have these drills now a days and I would recommend a 18 volt battery due to some of the heavy duty jobs you will face while on your travels. Most of the bigger drills will charge fully in an hour so you wont be stuck on the road for long waiting for these little gems to charge.

Other safety features are in-line fuses these are attached in the circuit on the positive connection in order to protect the wiring from heating up and catching fire. Most vehicles today will not suffer from this fate, but rememeber if you add and accssories to your motorhome please use a suitable in-line fuse.

Now that we have that covered we can move onto building our own wiring looms which will be covered in the next section.

12 volt Accessories and Materials Required in your Rv travel kit:

Hello again, I am going to go over some of the 12 volt Accessories and Materials Required in your Rv travel kit. Lets start with the basics, the most important accessorie  would have to be a UHF or RT this will help you commuicate with other travellers while on the road.

One of the uses for a UHF is to call for help if you are out of cellphone range or the cellphone battery is flat. Make sure that your UHF is capable of at least 1-5 kilometers in distance. There are many brands on the market today here are some of them, Uniden, Oricom, GME  just to name a few.

The other handy 12 volt accessorie would have to be a Jump and carry or jump starter. If you are unliky enough to have your battery go flat overnight, this unit will save you having to call for the tow truck. Most units start from $99 dollars and range in CCA (cold cranking amps) the most common are from 600amp to 1000amps.

These units are also able to run most 12 volt accessories like Tvs and CD players, lights etc for a number of hours, depending on the watts of the accessorie you wish to run. You will need to have a male cigarete holder adapter on the end of your accessories to use this funtion.

They also come with a deep cycle battery with in the unit so you dont need to worry about standing the unit upright or making sure it is packed correctly.

Terminals for your Rv kit:

Terminals having these in your Rv Kit will save time and money if you are stuck out on the side of the road while traveling . Very simply a terminal is used primarily to  attach a wire to a connector block or switch body, commonly known as spade terminal.

Other types of terminals are used to connect to wires together; these are known as bullet terminals and are male and female in configuration. Ring eye type terminals are used to connect wires directly to battery posts or ground and any other example that requires this type. You can get these types of terminals and many others from any store that sells car parts or a local Electrical outlet, such as Haymans or Ideal electrical.

This information may seem boring for those of you that know what terminals are and how to use them. But if we could just take a moment to think back to when we were learning these things for the first time, and understand that, we all started with next to no knowledge at some point.

Now let’s continue with the materials required in your kit:

Solder – The main use for solder is to join via heat (soldering iron) too stripped back wires together to either lengthen or to splice into another wire. Other uses for solder are to tin the wire, this means to cover the conductor with solder. This makes for a better solder joint and it stops the conductor being crushed by the terminal.

Heat shrink – Once you have soldered your joint, the heat shrink is then applied to the joint or wires that you have soldered together. Then apply heat with your heat gun to shrink it down making a water tight joint.

Split tubing or Conduit – Once you have completed all your solder joints and attached there wires to the switches or lights etc. You now insert the split tubing over the top of all your wires, this will protect all wires and joints from rubbing though and shorting out on any metal services, and it makes for a very neat and tidy job.

Cable ties – These come in varied lengths and sizes, they are primarily used to tie back your wires that are now protected by your split tubing back to a fixture point. Common fixture points are main wiring looms or steel line tubes installed by the manufactures. You can attach to anything as long as it looks good and will not be affected by heat.

Fuses – There are as many types of fuses as there are terminals, but we are going to cover the basics here. The three main types of fuses that we are going to use in the repair and install blogs are as follows:

Push twist – This fuse has to be one of the most common types used today, and they have been around for a long time as well. You may have seen these types of fuses connect to your car radio and the like. You will use your standard glass type (round) fuses in this holder.

Inline Blade Fuse – Mini Blade Fuse – These types of fuses are flat as is more commonly used within late model cars they take up less room than there counter parts and are easier to change than the glass fuse. These are the types of fuses and holders that we will be using the most. Commonly used under the bonnet for wiring accessories such as UHF`s and fog/spot lamps.

Basic 12 volt Electricial color codes for wiring Rv accessories:

Welcome back, in this section we are going to cover the basic 12 volt electrical color codes for wiring accessories.

 There are three main colors to remember while fitting accessories like UHF`s and driving lights to your chosen vehicle.

As shown the electrical wiring color code standards, and wire codes for 12 volt and 24 volt wiring.

Red – This color is used for positive terminal connections in 12 volt applications i.e. all connections to and from the battery marked with the plus sign. You can usually find this on the top of the battery case, next to the battery post. This is the wire that carries the power (current) to the accessories.

Black – This is for negative terminal connections in 12 volt applications i.e. all connections from the battery and to the ground of the vehicle. You can find this connection on the battery displayed as a minus. This wire does not carry power (current) but it is required to complete the connection (circuit).

White – This color wire is usually used for the connection of switches to your circuit. This means that you are able to turn the lights on and off via the switch. This will be explained in depth later on in the course.

There are other color codes used by vehicle manufacturers that do match the color codes that I have explained here. I will talk you though how to find the positive connection or wire in the following sections. Also in that section we will cover the use of muilt-meters and or circuit testers.

Electrical tools Required to carry in your Rv while traveling and there use:

Hi there, thanks for reading this section. Welcome to the Rv Electrical Installations  tools required to carry while traveling. I know this first hand that things happen when you are on the road and traveling. So here are a few things to help you through those frustrating times. There is nothing more annoying than sitting on the side of the road waiting for a repair. So this section is all about helping you get back on the road at your own pace and with minimum cost to you.

I hope that everyone is able to get something useful from these pages. I know that most of you are well versed in tool selection but for some of us we need a little fine tuning. For example, if we try and use a spanner or shifter to loosen a nut instead of using a socket set this can cause rounding of the nut and make it impossible to remove. So this is where we will find why it is so important to have the right tool for the job.

Now the basic tools you will need for any of these Install/repair cources will be as follows:

• Heat gun
  Side Cutters
  Multi-Meter
  Circuit Tester
  Cordless Drill
  Wire Strippers
  Flat nose pliers
  Long Nose pliers
  Marking knife or Stanley knife
  Adjustable spanner or crescent or shifter
  Socket Sets 1/2 inch drive, 3/8 drive, ¼ drive
  Electric soldering iron at least 60watt (you will find out why later in this section) or
  Gas (butane) soldering iron
  Cordless Drill

Okay then, now that we have our basic list of tools we can continue to choosing the best tool for the job. This can be explained simply by giving you examples using the tool list above, Heat gun, Side cutters, etc.

• Heat Gun – The reason we use a heat gun is to apply the heat shrink to our soldered wire joints. The main reason we use this is for safety purposes, as if you are using a naked flame in an engine bay (such as a lighter) you may ignite combustible fluids i.e. Petrol. This could result in an explosion. I kind of like the heat gun myself.

• Side Cutters – Side cutters are used to cut wire or conductor down to length. They will also cut steel wire and I also use them to trim insulation tape.

• Multi-meter – This is a battery powered device usually used to check for voltage i.e. power 12 volts. It can also be used for checking circuits between wires and switches. Testing batteries for voltage.

• Circuit tester – This is a basic way to test for power (current). More simple operation that the multi-meter, commonly used to find the positive wire. This device has a small light in the body which lights up when you find a source of power. This also has an alligator clip, attach this to a negative source.

• Cordless Drill – These drills are for light work only, for drilling small holes and can be used a screw driver. A variable speed is the best as well as keyless cutch makes for fast changing of pieces. You will need at least a 18 volt drill for this work. All screw driver bits are available from your local tool retailers.

• Wire Strippers – These can be used for taking of the plastic surrounding the wire on the conductor. You would then twist the conductor Clockwise between the thumb and forefinger to make best connection.

• Flat Nose Pliers – Used to hold a wire you wish to solder together.

• Long Nose Pliers – Retrieve a dropped article though a hole that is too big for your hand and or holding delicate pieces.

• Marking knife and Stanley Knife – To cut out a pattern you have made as a template in cardboard or to trim back and or neaten off edges.

• Adjustable spanner or crescent or shifter – If a nut is already loose, use this. Do not try and undo a nut with this tool. Use a socket set instead. You may round the edges of the nut making it to hard to use the socket set.

• Socket Sets 1/2 inch drive, 3/8 drive, ¼ drive – The best way to take off nuts that are to hard to do with the spanner.

• Gas Soldering Iron – Portable and high powered this is used outside. The reason we use this outside is to stop the wind the iron down and causing a bad solder joint. This iron burns hotter and has adjustable flame. Note: you won’t have to wait for it to heat up unlike its electric counter part.

• Electric Soldering Iron – As mentioned in the first list 60 Watt or more is good. The reason for this is to have as much power or heating power going into the wire or conductor to aid the solder to melt into the wire. This should only be used for inside wiring. I.e. making wiring looms before fitting them to the vehicle.

I hope that this has explained the usage and the reason for carrying these electrical tools. I will cover this again later on of course, as well as an inventory of tools and materials you need in for further RV motorhome  installs/repairs.