Dealing with existing electrical/wiring

[chris22]

Hi all,

I recently purchased a short bus and stripped the interior. I am ready to proceed with the installation of a solar powered system along with shore power hookup.

The issue I can't seem to figure out is how to deal with the existing wiring that powers all the lights (inside and out) and other original components of the bus.
I want to be able to upgrade and control some of the buses exterior lights while the bus is not running.

I guess what I am asking is how do know what needs to stay connected to the bus battery to properly operate the bus while its running and what can I connect to the battery bank connected to solar?

Any advice would be much appreciated!
Chris

[JDOnTheGo]

I may be going off in the wrong direction here so ignore me if so...

In my mind, all of the items/lights required to operate the bus as a vehicle on the road should be part of the bus/chassis electrical system. Everything else is the "house" electrical system.

If you desire dual use - for example, illuminate the marker lights from both/either electrical systems, I suspect (never done it) things get a wee bit more complicated and you need to consider using diodes (or ???) to prevent either system from feeding into the other.

[Twigg]

Originally Posted by JDOnTheGo

I may be going off in the wrong direction here so ignore me if so...

In my mind, all of the items/lights required to operate the bus as a vehicle on the road should be part of the bus/chassis electrical system. Everything else is the "house" electrical system.

Agreed.

To this end I have stripped all the interior lights from the vehicle system, and they will go back in on the house system

The one interior light that will go back in on the vehicle system is the driver's dome light.

Even with the ignition "off", the clearance lights, and front and rear marker lights come on when the headlight switch is moved to the 1st position, so they can stay as they are. They will all be LED anyway and they can be on for hours without hurting the starting batteries.