do i really HAVE to remove all this wiring? can i just cut the wires?

[251 RENEGADE]

hey folks long time lurker first time poster.

so im at the point where generally a conversionist (if thats not a word it is now) would remove all the excess wiring via tracing every individual component’s wires back up the harness, to the electrical panel, and delete said component. my question is do i HAVE to do so? im not big into electrical work which im sure many here arent but still go through the trouble of doing so which i FULLY commend you for. but my thing is it doesnt bother me having extra wires which i wont even be able to see anyway when the build is complete.

secondary question is for the things you legally have to delete/disable (i.e. flashers, strobes, stop sign) can i just cut the wires and cap them? my electrically illiterate but skeptical/paranoid brain is thinking “hmmm if the wires still connected to the battery it could still be drawing power when the engine is off and kill the battery even if i have the switch in the ‘off’ position” which im sure wouldnt be the case but i just want somebody to reassure me

lol am i making sense? is there anyone else here that for the most part left their all their wiring intact? did it come back to bite you in the ass later? thanks in advance.

 

[Clouse House]

Some electrical components on the bus a tied into a safety system that will not allow the bus to start. Doors being open, window e-exits, roof e-exits, etc. The idea behind tracing wires and removing these things is so that in the future you wont have an issue with it.

Imagine you leave your bus how it is. All the systems intact. And you start your conversion. One day when you go to start your bus it won't start, and an alarm is going off. You, being not electrically inclined, take it to a shop to have it worked on. IF they are even willing to look into it. After several days, several $1000's in man hours, and them tearing your partial conversion down for access they find that you put a screw through a wire when installing your wall panels. That wire was for the window e-exit alert.

You now have a torn apart bus, have spent several $1000's of dollars to have professional diagnostic done. All because you didn't want to trace and delete wires when they were in plan sight before you start your conversion.

I'd rather avoid all that and delete out those safety systems.

So no, you don't HAVE to do it. But your risking a headache later on.

 

[jfmusic@me.com]

Mine had the PO delete eveything, I would not do it.

IF it's something like the Door alarm. Well, you might just decide that wire would be good to tell you if the door is locked. OR add a Remote switch to lock it IF you yank the wire. You can't use it later.

Plus, you will end up chasing each and every wire, eventually trying to prove why something isn't working. And when there is a pile of cut ends . that makes it very hard to prove anything.

 

[ewo1]

hey folks long time lurker first time poster.

so im at the point where generally a conversionist (if thats not a word it is now) would remove all the excess wiring via tracing every individual component’s wires back up the harness, to the electrical panel, and delete said component. my question is do i HAVE to do so? im not big into electrical work which im sure many here arent but still go through the trouble of doing so which i FULLY commend you for. but my thing is it doesnt bother me having extra wires which i wont even be able to see anyway when the build is complete.

secondary question is for the things you legally have to delete/disable (i.e. flashers, strobes, stop sign) can i just cut the wires and cap them? my electrically illiterate but skeptical/paranoid brain is thinking “hmmm if the wires still connected to the battery it could still be drawing power when the engine is off and kill the battery even if i have the switch in the ‘off’ position” which im sure wouldnt be the case but i just want somebody to reassure me

lol am i making sense? is there anyone else here that for the most part left their all their wiring intact? did it come back to bite you in the ass later? thanks in advance.

If you don't have the slightest bit of 12v electrical systems please DO NOT remove any wires!
If you are the slightest bit worried of running your house battery dead while in storage I suggest a "master" kill switch and also a small solar cell wit a DC/to Dc convertor to keep your battery topped off while in storage.

There are hundreds if not thousands of posts here that say, removed some wire and now bus won't start, go into gear, release brakes !!!

Please use the search button and read!

While you on your reading journey, please fill out your profiles, let us know what bus you got, engine/tranny combo. this will help others here help you out with answering questions.

Also, I would start acquiring manuals and wiring diagrams for your bus, your on the skoolie journey of learning now!


And yes, you can safely cut and cap the wires for the strobe lights. I would also recommend finding what fuse they are on and pulling the fuse. this would be the perfect start of your electrical learning journey!
I have left many of my wires intact. International busses have their wired "Numbered" and color coded. With a diagram , this is useful to me in the fiture hust incase I need to "steal" a wire for a new purpose.

 

[DeMac]

Removing 'Extra' Parts

hey folks long time lurker first time poster.

so im at the point where generally a conversionist (if thats not a word it is now) would remove all the excess wiring via tracing every individual component’s wires back up the harness, to the electrical panel, and delete said component. my question is do i HAVE to do so? im not big into electrical work which im sure many here arent but still go through the trouble of doing so which i FULLY commend you for. but my thing is it doesnt bother me having extra wires which i wont even be able to see anyway when the build is complete.

secondary question is for the things you legally have to delete/disable (i.e. flashers, strobes, stop sign) can i just cut the wires and cap them? my electrically illiterate but skeptical/paranoid brain is thinking “hmmm if the wires still connected to the battery it could still be drawing power when the engine is off and kill the battery even if i have the switch in the ‘off’ position” which im sure wouldnt be the case but i just want somebody to reassure me

lol am i making sense? is there anyone else here that for the most part left their all their wiring intact? did it come back to bite you in the ass later? thanks in advance.

---------------------------

Skoolie builders sometimes blindly follow other builders (thanks youtube) into devastating circumstances. Must be heartbreaking to work hard, with good intentions, only to discover that their efforts were the cause of their disappointment. Destroying ones own dreams, in the process.


Read With a Sarcastic Tone

When we bought our home, the first thing we did was rip out all of the 'extra' wires. I felt like a crackhead, but I know I did the right thing. Next we removed he bulky AC unit out back and the air handler in the closet. We also removed the cellar furnace, all of the radiators and their associated heater lines. Not just to make space. I don't wanna worry about the leaking.

Speaking of leaking. The roof was leaking when we bought the home, so we ripped up the water damaged floors and put in all new flooring, sub-floor & finished surface. We felt we should do it BEFORE fixing the leaks, which destroyed the previous owners floors. Now our new floors are wet. Weird.

Our 2024 F350 arrives next week. I'll post pictures of all the excess wires that Ford put in there. Not looking forward the labor, but I saw a youtube video, so.

The bus was easy. I just turned on the cruise control and stepped back to the BBQ and started cooking. The cop asked who was driving? I said not me I'm drunk! We all laughed for a while. I could use some bail money.

 

[Rucker]

---------------------------

When we bought our home, the first thing we did was rip out all of the 'extra' wires. I felt like a crackhead, but I know I did the right thing. Next we removed he bulky AC unit out back and the air handler in the closet. We also removed the cellar furnace, all of the radiators and their associated heater lines. Not just to make space. I don't wanna worry about the leaking.

Speaking of leaking. The roof was leaking when we bought the home, so we ripped up the water damaged floors and put in all new flooring, sub-floor & finished surface. We felt we should do it BEFORE fixing the leaks, which destroyed the previous owners floors. Now our new floors are wet. Weird.

Our 2024 F350 arrives next week. I'll post pictures of all the excess wires that Ford put in there. Not looking forward the labor, but I saw a youtube video, so.

The bus was easy. I just turned on the cruise control and stepped back to the BBQ and started cooking. The cop asked who was driving? I said not me I'm drunk! We all laughed for a while. I could use some bail money.

Funniest thing I've seen yet on this forum! Laughing til I'm crying.

 

[Danjo-SKO]

Yeah, don’t remove anything you don’t absolutely have to. On mine I removed the wheelchair lift so that necessitated removing the cable from the battery. When I removed the stop sign said a prayer, I clipped the wires, capped them and tucked them in the hole. Back door buzzer, removed the switch, connected the two wires to complete the circuit and tucked them in the hole.

 

[EastCoastCB]

If it aint broke don't fix it.

 

[Booyah45828]

You got 3 options here.

The novice way
#1 See excess wiring and take hatchet/machete to them. They're all unneeded right?
#2 find out the hard way that they're interconnected, and now your your bus won't start, or won't shift into gear, or won't move, or now you have a buzzer that you can't find and won't turn off.
#3 make a profile here and several 911 posts because of this.
#4 get upset because this place isn't staffed 24/7/365 by experts who can help you for free
#5 tell everyone on facebook/instagram/tiktok that we're all useless and unhelpful.
#6 sell the bus for scrap, never to run again, and move onto the next fad in your life.

The intermediate way
#1 See the mess of extra wires.
#2 Know that it's beyond your skillset to mess with
#3 tuck them all away behind some decorative panel to never be seen by the light of day again.
#4 Move on with your conversion, accommodating the wiring/tidbits when you have to.

Expert level of operations.
#1 See excess wires.
#2 Use extensive skillset of electrical troubleshooting, source wiring diagrams, and begin the painfully long process of identifying and individualizing each circuit.
#3 Carefully unweave the interconnected mess that you've discovered.
#4 Create the bypasses where they're needed, cut out the rest that isn't.
#5 Put it all back together and hope you did it correctly.
#6 create the same decorative panel to cover the hole in the dash where the bus stuff was.
#7 collect your 10 dollars in scrap wiring that you recycled and continue on with your conversion.

I'm a mechanic by trade. My bus is an 1984 model, which is basic compared to modern buses, and even I left my bus wiring alone. For all but the most top level conversions, it's much easier to leave the wiring in place and well enough alone. So my tip is to proceed with caution, and think hard about whether or not the excess wires will actually affect your conversion.

 

[nikitis]

As I'm nearing the wiring gutting stage, I'm going to be somewhere in the middle of intermediate and expert. I have the wiring diagrams for my bus, so I plan to look at the number/letter code on each wire, and find it in the wiring diagram. If it looks like something that can be cut and not tied to any major system, I may make a cut or bypass, and after each one, attempt to crank the bus to double check my work. If the bus fails to suddenly start, I'll re-attach.

Sound good?

 

[Ronnie-SKO]

You got 3 options here.

The novice way
#1 See excess wiring and take hatchet/machete to them. They're all unneeded right?
#2 find out the hard way that they're interconnected, and now your your bus won't start, or won't shift into gear, or won't move, or now you have a buzzer that you can't find and won't turn off.
#3 make a profile here and several 911 posts because of this.
#4 get upset because this place isn't staffed 24/7/365 by experts who can help you for free
#5 tell everyone on facebook/instagram/tiktok that we're all useless and unhelpful.
#6 sell the bus for scrap, never to run again, and move onto the next fad in your life.

The intermediate way
#1 See the mess of extra wires.
#2 Know that it's beyond your skillset to mess with
#3 tuck them all away behind some decorative panel to never be seen by the light of day again.
#4 Move on with your conversion, accommodating the wiring/tidbits when you have to.

Expert level of operations.
#1 See excess wires.
#2 Use extensive skillset of electrical troubleshooting, source wiring diagrams, and begin the painfully long process of identifying and individualizing each circuit.
#3 Carefully unweave the interconnected mess that you've discovered.
#4 Create the bypasses where they're needed, cut out the rest that isn't.
#5 Put it all back together and hope you did it correctly.
#6 create the same decorative panel to cover the hole in the dash where the bus stuff was.
#7 collect your 10 dollars in scrap wiring that you recycled and continue on with your conversion.

I'm a mechanic by trade. My bus is an 1984 model, which is basic compared to modern buses, and even I left my bus wiring alone. For all but the most top level conversions, it's much easier to leave the wiring in place and well enough alone. So my tip is to proceed with caution, and think hard about whether or not the excess wires will actually affect your conversion.

Very well said. I too left my wiring alone, and yes I am a mechanic too. I have also helped put back many wires that "were not needed" on other peoples buses.

 

[mmoore6856]

i saved all the wire i cut out. filled a 5 gal pail most the way up now i dont have o buy wire for a while. never had any issues

 

[sportyrick]

I figured out what my wires did and used them for other purposes like power to my back up camera, of course fused properly.

 

[somewhereinusa]

I have a looooooong history of automotive electrical experience. Heck, I was probably working on car before many of you were even born. Electrical trouble shooter USN, did most of the electrical work in a auto restoration shop.
I see absolutely no reason to take out any wires, unless of course if one is bad. At most cut it, mark it and cap it. It may very be useful at some later date. It's much easier to find an already existing wire than it is to run a new one. I have use many of the existing wiring for something else. Even the speaker wires were heavy enough gauge to run some electric things.

 

[HamSkoolie]

Expert level here. Retired by previously an ASE certified mechanic in brakes and electrical. Previously and aircraft as well as an automotive (hence ASE cert) mechanic, school trained. Extensive schooling and hands on experience with wiring systems and even did a few years as a fleet bus mechanic on E350 small transit system buses.


I cut out hundreds if not thousands of feet of wire and my bus always started and I checked after each delete (before actually pulling the wire(s) out)



And guess what? Now my bus won't start. But because I took all those wires out and verified that all systems were still a go I don't have to be concerned with whether one of the many "safety" systems has failed and can limit my troubleshooting to the bare bones that remain.


Then again, I'm a (formerly) certified ASE electrical guy and.... my bus doesn't start.


So there's that.

 

[mmoore6856]

Expert level here. Retired by previously an ASE certified mechanic in brakes and electrical. Previously and aircraft as well as an automotive (hence ASE cert) mechanic, school trained. Extensive schooling and hands on experience with wiring systems and even did a few years as a fleet bus mechanic on E350 small transit system buses.


I cut out hundreds if not thousands of feet of wire and my bus always started and I checked after each delete (before actually pulling the wire(s) out)



And guess what? Now my bus won't start. But because I took all those wires out and verified that all systems were still a go I don't have to be concerned with whether one of the many "safety" systems has failed and can limit my troubleshooting to the bare bones that remain.


Then again, I'm a (formerly) certified ASE electrical guy and.... my bus doesn't start.


So there's that.

yes this wire delete can simplify your future

 

[Danjo-SKO]

I don’t understand why people go all hog wild with wire deletion. Does it really simplify things all that much? No.

Is it to make room for new wiring? Maybe, but in my case I just added to the bundle. After you install the moulding, you just forget they exist

 

[HamSkoolie]

I don’t understand why people go all hog wild with wire deletion. Does it really simplify things all that much? No.

Is it to make room for new wiring? Maybe, but in my case I just added to the bundle. After you install the moulding, you just forget they exist

Until you have a failure which, as our buses age, is almost a given.
I did leave some of the original wires in, particulary a few larger gauge wires for adding in systems down the road but also for power distribution.

I also have a "build book" which documents every added circuit, fuse, circuit breaker, outlet, switch, etc. With both schematic and location information. Because somewhere down the road, if something fails I'll know where to go without having to start digging into finished surfaces.
It also should increase the value when we do decide to get rid of the rig since a new owner would have pictures, schematics, location, and system descriptions rather than having to guess. I'm not doing that documentation to the level I would if I were building a new rig with many decades left in its life expectancy but depending on use levels, ours should last at least another decade before needing major repairs and, with the level of build we're doing, putting a "new" engine in it would be well worth the cost should the engine completely implode.

 

[mmoore6856]

If you ever had to trace or find a wire in a bundle less is best. If you have lots of safety lockouts once again less is best.

 

[mmoore6856]

8we are simplifying our bus