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Old 04-22-2006, 02:57 PM   #1
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1956 22' Flying Cloud
1953 32' Liner
1955 22' Safari
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Caravel electrical upgrade

Thanks to the advice recieved here! I have gone with the WFCO 55 AMP converter and the 15 space circuit breaker bow.

Has anyone got info on the original electrical layout? My Caravel has some unused Kaiser wiring (two) and a large black (115 V?) wire coming thru separate holes in the wall beside the circuitbreaker panel. All looks factory and not add on. At the botom of the closet wall there are three Kaiser wires that exit into the forward under bunk compartment and connect to a converter like box...not the converter/batt/city power select box at the service door up forward. These don't really show up on the owners manual diagrams. Any ideas here? I have not tested anything yet and am just getting into it all. (A camera is on the list for next week too.)

Speaking of ideas.........got any on some items I would like for the 12 volt system as I lay it out.....and the 115 volt outlets as well
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Old 04-25-2006, 02:48 PM   #2
DFK
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I have a 67 Caravel. Not sure about the wires near the breaker panel. I have an aluminum romex type 2 wire cable that comes out of the wall just forward of the breaker panel that feeds a light mounted on the other side of the bulkhead. The light shines down onto the couch (gaucho, whatever)area across from the stove. In the 67 Caravel that I have, the three wires and the inverter like box located under the couch just forward of the bulkhead is a low voltage transformer. One set of wires (black, white and ground) is a 120 volt lead from the Main Panel to power the transformer. The other sets of wires (two romex cables containing white and black wires only no ground) are the output wires from the transformer. They feed low voltage AC power to the lighting and fan circuits (and possibly water pump not sure about this). On my trailer one of these circuits provides 12 v ac power to the fan over the stove and to the overhead vent fan (no longer there). The other circuit provides 19 v ac power to the interior lights. It appears that the fan motors that orginally came with the trailer will operate on either dc or ac power. The lights will of course operate off of either ac or dc. I noticed that the lights were much brighter when operating off of shorepower. I now know why, they were operating at 19 volts rather than the twelve volts provided by the battery.

The switches on the control panel in my unit, were used to switch the light and fan circuits from battery to transformer when connected to shorepower. It does not appear from what I read in my owners manual and from the wiring diagram that the 1967 Caravel came with a univolt type converter. The ac transformer was used to minimize battery use while connected to shorepower. No provision was made to charge the battery while attached to shorepower. The battery was charged by the operation of the tow vehicle.

Be advised that the above description is for the configuration on my California built 1967 Caravel. Your configuration may be different. Hope you find something useful in the above. By the way, I have completely reconfigured the wiring and have eliminated the transformer and installed a converter to provide dc power to all circuits when on shorepower and to charge the battery as well.

DFK
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Old 04-25-2006, 03:56 PM   #3
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Transformer and converter

Thanks!!! This will give me a start point in the transformer area. I am right in the middle of tracing the wiring and have found another open end. An original Kaiser alum. wire exits from the right wall in the closet ahead of the water heater. Got any ideas here?
My galley fan has been removed also and the wiring ( Kaiser alum.) in the overhead is capped beside the vent. I am guessing it is for the fan....but the capped wires are 2 black and two white. Suppose it was for a light too? Now guess what? There are similar capped wires in the adjacent compartment too. Ideas there? The wire bundle behind the source select switches , Batt and Shore, is a mess. Is this where you mounted your new converter? I am trying to figure out a place for the WFCO and new fuse panel.
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Old 04-25-2006, 03:59 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DFK
I have a 67 Caravel. ...
Welcome to the forum. I have a '67 Overlander.

'67s rule!

Tom
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Old 04-25-2006, 10:24 PM   #5
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I installed an Intellipower 40 amp converter in the compartment where the transformer was formerly located. The compartment has a 120 v AC circuit, the same circuit used to power the transformer. I installed a duplex outlet in a handy box and wired the outlet to the 120 v AC. I plug the Intellipower converter into the outlet. the converter required a groundwire. I installed the grounding wire from the lug on the converter case to the main panel grounding wire lug located in the closet on the wall below and forward of the main panel. I run the plus and minus DC wires to the appropriate terminals on battery located in the main service compartment where the control panel is located.

I removed and gutted the control panel box. Six separate romex two wire cables come out of the wall below and somewhat forward of the control panel box location. Two of these cables are the 12 v AC and 19 v AC cables from the transformer. These are no longer used but may be used in the future. The remaining four cables include one for the light circuit (all lights are on one circuit), one for the water pump switch above the sink, one for the fans and a fourth circuit that I call the radio circuit. The wires in this cable are copper rather than aluminum and appears to have been installed at the factory. However, this circuit does not show up on the wiring diagram in my owners manual. This circuit terminates in the extreme curbside end of the overhead storage cabinet that runs across the front of the trailer. I use it to power the radio and CD changer.

I pigtailed the four sets of active circuit wires where they come out of wall using 12 gage copper wire. The pigtails were connected using 3M wire nuts filled with "Penetrox A" an antioxidant used for aluminum wire circuits. I wired the copper pigtails to a six fuse AGC fuse block so that each circuit is separately fused (two of the fuse sites are not used). The fuse block was mounted in an enclosure on the forward bulkhead of the service compartment. The use of AGC fuses was a personal choice, the system is simple and inexpensive and works for me. Circuit breakers or other types of fuse systems would work just as well.

The old battery leads (blue and white) from the control panel were used to connect the fuse block to the terminals on the battery to provide power to the fuse panel. The battery terminals serve as the junction point connecting the the battery, converter and fuse panel together. The battery leads from the 7 pin vehicle connector ( also blue and white) are connected to the power leads in the fuse panel that lead from the battery. Finally, I remounted the original and now empty control panel box at its original location to cover the pigtailed wire bundles. That, in a nutshell, is how I did my conversion. Good luck with yours.

On another note, I also found a two wire aluminum romex cable near the water heater. The cable leads into the space behind the heater and below the stove. The cable was not connected to anything and is wired into the light circuit, at least on my trailer. My guess is that it was placed there to provide power to an option blower for the heater.

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