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Old 01-30-2017, 10:21 PM   #1
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: ACE 30.1
State: Colorado
Posts: 388
THOR #5190
2017 Thor ACE 30.1 120 VAC Wiring Error

I started to upgrade my WFCO converter in my 2017 ACE 30.1 to a Progressive Dynamics converter today. Before diving into it I was tracing wiring to make sure I understood what wires came off and got replaced. This lead me to a rather disturbing apparent wiring error. I'll be contacting Thor tomorrow to see what they have to say, but what I found is:

1. Hot (black) wire from the converter does not land on the circuit breaker labeled Converter. Instead it goes to the breaker immediately above it that is labeled Hot Water Heater
2. The Hot Water heater breaker has two wires under it (connected by a factory lug it appears.) One wire goes directly to the Convert and the second wire goest to a wire nut that is connected to a cable leaving the distribution box to points unknown
3. The Converter breaker has one wire under it that goes directly to a cable that leaves the distribution box, again to points unknown.

I usually leave my hot water heater breaker off when I winterize, so there isn't the possibility that it gets turned on with an empty hot water heater. So it looks like all I've done is turn off the Converter.

I'd like to fix this one myself rather than endure the CW warranty shuffle. I'm competent enough with 120 AC to do this (though I had a long standing agreement with a colleague who was our lead Electrical Engineer that if if had enough voltage in it to hurt me, it was his work). Anyone have any ideas of what two circuits might be intended to come off the hot water heater breaker?

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Old 01-31-2017, 11:13 PM   #2
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
Model: ACE 30.1
State: Colorado
Posts: 388
THOR #5190
Update - Talked with Thor and they did mess up the wiring but it wasn't too hard to fix.

First - The water heater does have two circuits off the breaker. One is for the heating element and the second goes to the electric on-off switch (I would have though that was 12VDC, but its not the case).

The hot wires for the converter and one of the hot water circuits got swapped during installation. It was simple enough to cut the wiring and wire nut the circuits to the correct breaker. Took about 10 minutes.

New Progressive Dynamics Converter is installed. I couldn't use the 12VCD distribution board they supplied as all of the circuits are 20A with 30A supply fuses. The WFCO board has 40 amp supply fuses and one 30A circuit for the slide motors. PD said just use the WFCO 12VDC board. I lose the mode indication/control on the PD board, but have ordered the external pendant. The 4600 Converter requires different wiring, but PD has the required modification posted on their web site.

BTW - WFCO way overtightened the 12VCD lugs on their distribution board. Installation was interrupted by a trip to Home Depot to get LARGE screw drivers for the Motorhome tool box. Even then I was starting to worry if the lugs would break off the board before the screw let go. Luckily the lug screw finally did release. The same problem occurred with the converter neutral and ground bar connections - very tight, but not requiring as much force.

Can't really blame them that much as I had an issue with smoking wires on my old travel trailer while running the air conditioner. Turned out to be a loose neutral connection that build up enough heat to start melting the insulation. Could have been a fire. So I now check all power wiring tightness at least once per year.
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Old 02-01-2017, 03:03 AM   #3
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
State: North Carolina
Posts: 360
THOR #3952
Quote:
Originally Posted by DenverTransplant View Post
Update - Talked with Thor and they did mess up the wiring but it wasn't too hard to fix.

First - The water heater does have two circuits off the breaker. One is for the heating element and the second goes to the electric on-off switch (I would have though that was 12VDC, but its not the case).

The hot wires for the converter and one of the hot water circuits got swapped during installation. It was simple enough to cut the wiring and wire nut the circuits to the correct breaker. Took about 10 minutes.

New Progressive Dynamics Converter is installed. I couldn't use the 12VCD distribution board they supplied as all of the circuits are 20A with 30A supply fuses. The WFCO board has 40 amp supply fuses and one 30A circuit for the slide motors. PD said just use the WFCO 12VDC board. I lose the mode indication/control on the PD board, but have ordered the external pendant. The 4600 Converter requires different wiring, but PD has the required modification posted on their web site.

BTW - WFCO way overtightened the 12VCD lugs on their distribution board. Installation was interrupted by a trip to Home Depot to get LARGE screw drivers for the Motorhome tool box. Even then I was starting to worry if the lugs would break off the board before the screw let go. Luckily the lug screw finally did release. The same problem occurred with the converter neutral and ground bar connections - very tight, but not requiring as much force.

Can't really blame them that much as I had an issue with smoking wires on my old travel trailer while running the air conditioner. Turned out to be a loose neutral connection that build up enough heat to start melting the insulation. Could have been a fire. So I now check all power wiring tightness at least once per year.
Good idea to check wiring connections on these things as they bounce and vibrate down the road. My outside 30 amp connector wires got loose and I lost all 120 volt power. Pulled it loose, tightened and back in business.
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