Tied into the dinette light wiring
Traumatic! That was today.
First, I tried to run the wires under the ceiling carpet with a coat hanger. But the foam under the carpet caught where I connected the coat hanger loop, forming an impenetrable glob. So I ended up having to cut through the carpet, pull it out a bit, and push the wires back under. When I’m through, I’ll go back and contact cement the foam to the fiberglass and to the seam, and I am hoping it will be invisible.
I had never cut wires, connected wires, or used a connection crimper before, so I had to learn to use the tools as I went along.
First of all, the trailer wires were too short to connect with the new wires. So I had to splice in an additional length onto the main white and black wires.
Cutting the hole in the carpet was nerve-wracking!
I’ve seen guys tighten a wire stripper around a wire, give a little yank, and it was done. Not me. I tightened the wire stripper, then tugged and tugged with all the brute force I could muster, busting a knuckle against the top of the cabinet in the process. No dice. So then I tightened the crimper on the wire, then turned the wire a quarter turn and cut from that side, too. Finally I got one wire stripped. Then I repeated 7 more times. Next I connected the two bunches of 4 wires each. When I finished the second bundle, I noticed that there were only 3 wires in the first bundle. One wire had worked free.
Apparently I hadn’t stripped the wire far enough, so I had to disconnect that connector, and restrip the wires. In the process I accidentally cut off one of the little copper strands on one wire, and two on another. I remember an electrician telling me that was bad news and could make the wire overheat. So with almost no wire left on the dinette light, I had to cut it even shorter and strip it again. Finally I got them bundled back together. This time I checked to make sure all the wires were secured.
Testing the fan to make sure it works.
Just to make sure the fan wasn’t defective — or that I hadn’t wired it improperly, I reconnected the battery, taped my black wire to the black wire on the fan, then touched the white wires together. IT WORKED!!!! Beautifully!
I decided to cut the hole in the roof from the inside to minimize the time I have to spend up on the trailer’s roof. But first I had to cut the carpet away so I could see what I was doing. I Just knew that I was ruining my little Casita. But eventually I managed to get the area cleared of carpet and it doesn’t look so scary now.
I probably would have time to finish the installation today, but I’m going to wait until I get a good night’s sleep and my blood pressure goes down a bit! 🙂
