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Old 12-26-2014, 10:21 AM   #1
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My bus electrical thought process

I have been asked why I did/do what I have in our bus electrical wise

This is long and probably boring

I was a firm believer in keeping everything grounded seperate (even early in my build...treat every circuit as an extension cord)

AND THEN

I always carry a fluke pen now to check for hot skin,

I went to visit a friend in campground, it was wet from rain earlier, and "felt" the "tingle" as I entered his rig...$%*# I knew what it was...I could of died...hot skin

I think he tied neutral and ground (bonded) together and ground wasn't to campground ground or something

I now grab my multi meter, plug in a $5 polarization pug (to a visible outlet from out side of bus) and grab my fluke pen as soon as we stop in site

I check CG post receptacle first, when it checks good, I kill breaker and plug in, tell wife flipping breaker (she knows do not touch bus before checking for hot skin)

I grab fluke pen and check a front wheel stud, the a couple screws etc as I walk around bus to glance at the polarization plug

Takes all of 2 minutes and I know its safe.

I tied my 12v, 120v and the 240v grounds together its all a happy union

There are no codes per say, just some proven facts

Also I knew from the beginning that no matter what electric was available, the most important things was fridge/freezer (cold beer and ice cream) next was AC or heat for bedroom...those 2 items needed a 15 amp circuit, so we needed to cook/eat also (2 x 700 watts was too much power for extension cord and 15amp breaker

So we turn off heat/AC when we cook and all is good (turn off burners quick to run 900watt microwave)

I then knew we would have 30amp service at times...woo...woo...so next circuit was to swap wires to a seperate 15amp breaker, so bedroom heat and ac was sesperate and we could use them both now, heat, ac, fridge and burners

Then I knew 50amps is an option we had, so this now gave me moooooorrrreeee power and a sesperate circuit for a front
aC/heater ; and microwave wires were swapped to a seperate breaker

And since its wired for 50 amps to start with, as I add adapters to say 30 plug and then down to 15 amp adapter.....all the recepticles have power to them....WE JUST have to remember we can only use this and that OR that

Wow long post

I used 12g wire for all 120v, its good for 20 amps and I installed cheap/typical 15 amp breakers and recepticles

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Old 12-26-2014, 12:30 PM   #2
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Glad to see you understand the limitations. Most people take power for granted and think if they can find a place to plug in whatever appliance they want to use it must be safe. Breakers solve most of this problem, but breakers aren't 100% reliable, sometimes they don't trip at all. And as you know of course, breakers depend on properly sized wire, properly ran, and properly terminated.

The problem we run into in these buses is people want to run all the conveniences of home on a power feed designed for a small studio apartment (or less.) Gotta treat power with respect, its all physics and you cant bend the laws.

The only thing I question about your setup is why you decided to go with an electric cooktop. I guess a lot of this is personal preference, I simply hate cooking on electric stoves because I find them very difficult to control heat wise versus cooking with gas. Of course not everyone wants to deal with filling propane bottles, but really you can cook for several weeks at minimum on 5 gallons.
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Old 12-26-2014, 02:22 PM   #3
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We do have a propane burner for seafood boils, 4+ pasta servings, wok and piaeea (s/p) cooking as well as grill

We normally cook "appetizers" and with our rotisserie/convection toaster oven, we cook and prep for 10 plus folks, works great for our needs

Most food except for pasta only needs a few minutes of heat to cook and then a rest period

Tuna 2 min high on each side
Other fish max 5min per side then wrap and n foil
Shrimp 3 minutes in water or butter/garlic
Ground sausages take longest maybe 15 total
Mushrooms a couple minutes
And most vegtables are ready and crisp in a few minutes (root veggies take longer or small dices and a couple minutes in microwave and finish in water, oil or bake(depends on texture)

So actual cooking is quick once prepped,

Now proteins that need time end up in smoker,grill or rotiserriu


We don't boondock much, when we do its all grill or smoker

We have done chicken marsolla and other dishes with burner eyes,

we hated gas stove in the bumper pull we had, it was too hot or too small of flame for bigger pots/pans

We do not cook like most folks in buses/rv,s.....life is a party/celebration and that's how we ride ;)

Lots of wine, friends, great views and great food.....its about memories and stories....and a full belly

Thick bottom pans help a lot tho maintain even temps also
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Old 12-28-2014, 07:13 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by headinthetrees View Post
. . . . The only thing I question about your setup is why you decided to go with an electric cooktop. I guess a lot of this is personal preference, I simply hate cooking on electric stoves because I find them very difficult to control heat wise versus cooking with gas. Of course not everyone wants to deal with filling propane bottles, but really you can cook for several weeks at minimum on 5 gallons.
While I prefer "cooking with gas," there are a couple of reasons to not have propane if sufficient electric is available. One is the restriction of entering some tunnels. There are a number of places where an extensive detour is required if you have propane tanks or bottles aboard.

And just so no one is fooled, the 20 lb barbecue bottles are what the industry calls five "water gallons" size, but they are only filled with 4 gallons of propane liquid. Since you are burning the evaporated vapor, 20 % of any sized tank must be left for the vapor space.

An even bigger surprise is that when you use the convenient bottle swap in the cages outside the hardware, drug or convenience store, the propane companies that service the cages generally only put 3 gallons/15 lbs of liquid into the swap bottles. This gives an attractive price and still allows them to make their profit, as they must re-paint and refurbish any bottle that comes in, not just fill it.

My strategy is to use the swap cages to get rid of any bottles with only a few years left on the certification, and then have the newer bottles fully re-filled at an Agway, propane seller, or other actual filling station.
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Old 12-28-2014, 12:43 PM   #5
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That is correct!

Free old outdated bottles are an easy swap to new style, and because we are" country" we just have ours filled by wt....until dates are up(mostly is/was fill nozzle and the vent).... Now....shiat......Joe fill them up bud.....
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Old 12-30-2014, 02:36 AM   #6
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I wasn't aware of the tunnel law. I'll be sure to follow that along with the other 50,000 I don't know about or need a lawyer to understand. *sigh*
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Old 12-30-2014, 01:50 PM   #7
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Bansil, my friend, you are a serious chow hound

I like your idea of using the pen tester to check for hot skin.
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Old 12-30-2014, 07:21 PM   #8
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Originally Posted by roach711 View Post
Bansil, my friend, you are a serious chow hound

I like your idea of using the pen tester to check for hot skin.
Roach,
Thank you
Are families would have fun together, for $50 you can test for anything short ( "pun") of ebola and fingerfawkupaluppacicus we should be good
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Old 12-30-2014, 07:25 PM   #9
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Ooohhhhh I so miss mr green....I shall beotch to the ones above!!!!!

GIVE ME MRGREEN!!!!!!!!

I am pretty sure Thor or Sgt. Rock will woop some azzzz...or!!!!......I will go full Dindu!!!!
Oh
By
The way!!
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