Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2020 17:13:55 -0500
Reply-To: Ben Eisenbraun <bene@KLATSCH.ORG>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Ben Eisenbraun <bene@KLATSCH.ORG>
Subject: Re: Westfalia Shore Power Ground Bonding Minutia: Breaker Box
In-Reply-To: <491789003.1617442.1582663646036@mail.yahoo.com>
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> On Feb 25, 2020, at 3:47 PM, ddbjorkman@verizon.net <ddbjorkman@VERIZON.NET> wrote:
>
> Dennis. Will that circuit breaker fit in the OEM box in one's Westy? Wouldn't that big button sticking out just beg to be tripped?
I have that exact same circuit breaker, and it fits fine in the OEM box on my 1982. The metal nut around the button mounts it to the crossbar on the front of the box and the plastic nut goes over the faceplate, so it doesn’t stick out all that much:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/2005250.jpg <https://www.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/2005250.jpg>
In fact I think I have done pretty much exactly what you are planning to do. I replaced my faded and coverless 110v outside hookup with a Gowesty one. I had to use a fair bit of Silicone II type sealant along with the foam gasket to get it fully sealed against water intrusion, but since I took that additional step it has been dry.
From there I connected the hookup via a 14 gauge stranded cable to the Blue Sea fuse in the OEM box and a GFCI outlet in an old work plastic box. The hot wire from the outside outlet runs to the fuse and then to the hot supply terminal on the GFCI. It’s fairly tight in the OEM box, so I crimped some ring terminals on the stranded cable to connect to the back of the Blue Sea fuse to make it easier to get everything connected.
The ground from the outside runs to the metal case of OEM fuse box and then to the ground on the GFCI. The neutral runs straight from the outside outlet to the GFCI supply terminal. Not great photo of the back here:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/2005249.jpg
The load terminals on the GFCI use 14 gauge stranded cable to feed a Progressive Dynamics PD9245C converter/charger:
https://www.progressivedyn.com/rv/power-converters/pd9200-series-rv-power-converters/pd9245c-45-amp-rv-convertercharger/ <https://www.progressivedyn.com/rv/power-converters/pd9200-series-rv-power-converters/pd9245c-45-amp-rv-convertercharger/>
The under bench installation for that is here:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1968501.jpg <https://www.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/1968501.jpg>
The design question which I had at the time and which I still may not fully understand the ramifications of is whether or not to ground the 110v hookup to the chassis. Currently I don’t have it grounded to the body, so the ground path for any stray 110v has to go back through the pedestal outlet. I am religious about using the outlet tester on the RV park pedestals and have converters so I can use any of the 20/30/50 amp outlets that the outlet tester signals are wired correctly, but I’m still not entirely sure this was the right decision.
It has all been reliable so far though. *knocks wood*
-b
