BCM Community

OK i need to understand how this should work so I can figure it out a little. 

I hear that every body said it was so worong but I don't have any idea of what to do with it. 

Can we start with basics?

1.  The u shaped bare bar going across the top left side and bottom is that the ground?  Nuteral?

2.  if this is wired for 50 amp there should be 2 hot wires a nuteral and a ground? 

2a.  The 50 amp wires sould be at least #6 or larger wire?

3. The 2 100 amp breakers in the box should be replaced with 50 amp breakers?

4.  Are the incoming 2 hot wires ever tied to gether?  The reason I asn is the bbuddy plug seams to have 4 wires coming from it. 

     1 the red is taped up not used.
     2 The black goes to a breaker 30 amp if I am not mistaken.
     3 & 4 the white and green both go to the u shaped bar going around The           breakers

  This looks like the buddy plug would have 2 gounds and one hot.  That does not sound right even for me.  I would have though that 2 of the wires on a 220 30amp plug would be hot 110 each and the last a netural?  Am I right?  in that case the buddy plug should have 2 15 amp breakers and a netural going to the u shaped bar?

Some one tell me what I am doing. 

I might have put too much in one post I hope it is undersatndable.

Quote from: Bob Gil on April 27, 2008, 09:02:28 PM
1.  The u shaped bare bar going across the top left side and bottom is that the ground?  Nuteral?

What the bus bar does is a function of how it was wired by the original installer.  It's impossible to tell from the photo if it is ground or neutral, but my theory is the installer made no distinction -- so it's both.  This is a problem that needs to be fixed -- see my last post in the other thread.

Quote
2.  if this is wired for 50 amp there should be 2 hot wires a nuteral and a ground? 

Yes, there should.  However, what I see are just the two hots (which are incorrectly colored) and the neutral (also incorrectly colored).  Again, read my analysis of this in the other thread (Bob -- I know you have already -- this comment is for folks just tuning in now.)

Quote
2a.  The 50 amp wires sould be at least #6 or larger wire?

Yes, absolutely.

Quote
3. The 2 100 amp breakers in the box should be replaced with 50 amp breakers?

The 100-amp, two-pole breaker at bottom right, which is your main breaker for the panel, needs to be replaced with a 50-amp two-pole breaker.  I'm not seeing any other 100-amp breakers in the panel, but it's hard to read the handles in the photo.

Quote
4.  Are the incoming 2 hot wires ever tied to gether?  The reason I asn is the bbuddy plug seams to have 4 wires coming from it. 

     1 the red is taped up not used.
     2 The black goes to a breaker 30 amp if I am not mistaken.
     3 & 4 the white and green both go to the u shaped bar going around The           breakers

Let's not let the buddy-plug wiring confuse the issue.  It looks to me like they ran four wires to the buddy receptacle for 240, but your buddy plug is a 120.  More on this in a moment.

To answer the tie-together question, the only time this should happen is when you use a "dogbone" to connect your 50-amp, 240-volt shore cord to a 30-amp, 120-volt receptacle.  The tie-together happens in the dogbone.

Never tie opposite hot legs together inside the coach.

Quote
  This looks like the buddy plug would have 2 gounds and one hot.  That does not sound right even for me.  I would have though that 2 of the wires on a 220 30amp plug would be hot 110 each and the last a netural?  Am I right?  in that case the buddy plug should have 2 15 amp breakers and a netural going to the u shaped bar?

No, the buddy plug you showed us in the other thread is a 30-amp, 120-volt "trailer" receptacle.  That gets a single hot wire, a neutral, and a ground.  But remember what I said earlier:  it looks like the installer here has tied all the grounds and neutrals together in the panel, which is wrong (and unsafe), and needs to be fixed.

The extra unused hot wire (red) was probably run so that a four-wire 240-volt receptacle could be installed for a buddy plug, but that's not what you have now.


Also, check your email, I sent you a PM hours ago.

-Sean
http://OurOdyssey.BlogSpot.com

Quote from: Bob Gil on April 27, 2008, 09:02:28 PM
OK i need to understand how this should work so I can figure it out a little. 

I hear that every body said it was so worong but I don't have any idea of what to do with it. 

Can we start with basics?

1.  The u shaped bare bar going across the top left side and bottom is that the ground?  Nuteral? Neutral.  As someone mentioned in the other thread, you can add a separate ground bar.  Or you can take the bonding bridge (the part that makes it a "U") off and use one as ground and the other as neutral (as long as each bar has enough lugs for all of the circuits.)

2.  if this is wired for 50 amp there should be 2 hot wires a nuteral and a ground?  Yes, if the distribution panel was made for 240 volt service, it will have two hot legs built in (120 volt each).

2a.  The 50 amp wires sould be at least #6 or larger wire? Correct

3. The 2 100 amp breakers in the box should be replaced with 50 amp breakers?  Correct

4.  Are the incoming 2 hot wires ever tied to gether? No, major deadly short circuit! The reason I asn is the bbuddy plug seams to have 4 wires coming from it. 

     1 the red is taped up not used.
     2 The black goes to a breaker 30 amp if I am not mistaken.
     3 & 4 the white and green both go to the u shaped bar going around The           breakers

  This looks like the buddy plug would have 2 gounds and one hot.  That does not sound right even for me.  I would have though that 2 of the wires on a 220 30amp plug would be hot 110 each and the last a netural?  Am I right?  in that case the buddy plug should have 2 15 amp breakers and a netural going to the u shaped bar?  The socket in your photo is a standard 30amp 120v socket.  It's standard use is with one hot, one neutral and one ground.  In my opinion, it could have been used to supply up to 30 amps of 120v power to something they plugged into it.  Or given the other oddities present in the wiring, they may have used it to bring power in to one 120v leg of the distribution panel.

Some one tell me what I am doing. 

I might have put too much in one post I hope it is undersatndable.

Thanks that clears up some of the things I was unclear about.

i was thinking the buddy plug was 220., now I understand the 2 wires that are conected together are the ground and nuteral,  whitch I need to seprate.

I will see about getting the 50 amp breakers tomarrow,,and getting them replaced.

I will try to find some colored tape while I am at it so i can distinguish the different wires when I figure them out.

Quote from: Bob Gil on April 27, 2008, 09:59:36 PM

I will try to find some colored tape while I am at it so i can distinguish the different wires when I figure them out.

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100054213 (http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100054213)

That will get you green, white and red.  Then just get some standard black electrical tape.

My suggestion- test and determine the circuits and label them.  Then re wire to code so you don't hurt someone or worse.  That's the biggest cluster you know what I've ever seen.  Good Luck, TomC