We're Wired!

I've been plugging away at a long punch list this week that still includes several shell repair items, but I managed to finish the rough-in electrical work.

Our 1959 Overlander Land Yacht International was originally equipped with separate 110 volt and 12 volt systems. Before Airstream started equipping their trailers with converters around 1963 or 64', the higher end models came with these dual systems that ran two sets of wires to every light fixture. With this system, you always had lights available either from battery power or shore power. However, it involved a whole lot of wiring and lots of 4 and 5-way junctions.

Airstream didn't have any problem with all these junctions back in 1959 because they simply butterflied everything together in the walls without any electrical boxes.

The sharpie marks are my writing, but you can make out some of the original wax marks from the factory. At first I thought they had just put x's and stars where ever they wanted a junction. However, upon further inspection I noticed that every line represented the path of a particular wire out of each junction and on to the next fixture or junction.

I considered replicating the dual volt system completely, but with all the junctions necessary I was concerned about cutting a bunch of holes for electrical boxes to make the junctions. I also didn't want to bury junctions in the walls like the factory. While their work had held up extremely well over the years (everything worked and there were no loose connections), it is no longer permitted under any code and I would never trust my wiring skills to butterfly junction that many wires in something that moves. If anything went wrong, it would either require cutting a hole in the wall to access the problem or taking the entire trailer apart. Plus, a live wire loose between the aluminum skins could lead to obvious hazzards.

Ryan pointed out that with a modern converter, I don't really need any lights on a 110v system since we will have 12 volt power at all times. So, we decided to just run 12v lines to each of the lights and convert the old 110v lights to 12v. This trailer actually has a ton of lights compared to some I've seen, so we should have plenty of candle power.

Nonetheless, for nostalgia sake I decided to keep one light on the dual voltage system and ran 110v wire to the original center dome light. This is my favorite light in the trailer. It just has that cool 1950's Atomic look.

My electrical plan is centered on a Progressive Dynamics 45 amp converter and AC/DC distribution pannel that I am going to install in the forward wardrobe. Based on Ryan's experience installing his on the top shelf of his rear cabinet, we decided to install mine down low so that we can place an access panel above the converter that will make wiring all the connections a little easier. When Ryan wired his, he had to reach in from the side before he installed the shower wall and it was a bit difficult.

I also routed all my tank sensor wires to this location as I plan to install my SeeLevel gauge near the converter and distribution pannel. The battery/batteries will be located on the curbside under the dinette.

I still need to run my RG6 line from the input on the streetside to the front wardrobe and also a set of stereo signal wires from that location to the front shelf where we plan to locate either a Bose Wave Radio or Tivoli. Last night before I had to come in to put the girls to bed, I installed the rear Fantastic Fan and re-attached the CB antenna.

Last July, right after I broke my leg, we spent a week at the beach while I was still on crutches. Since I couldn't get around very well, I spent a lot of time on the computer planning for this restoration. One thing I did was write up a very obsessive to-do list outlining nearly every step of the restoration from demolition to camping. My ten-page typed outline of this project is down to the last three pages, but I've easily got a couple months of work left. Hopefully it's only a couple months though, because we just made reservations for the weekend of July 23rd.