Fridge wiring problem, inspect yours!

[John E Davies]

Noticed this in tidying up the wiring in my lower compartment:

 

 

The fat red and yellow wires are the 12 volt power and ground for the fridge. The white block is a terminal block to join them to the wires coming out of the control board. I did not like to see them chafing on the steel bracket.

 

Remove the 20a fuse for the fridge (under the dinette) and turn off 110vac before messing around in there!

 

Unscrew and discard the white plastic cable clamp on the left, reposition the wires as shown and secure with cable ties. Make sure the wires are clear of the ground stud sticking up nearby.

 

 

Check the tightness of the screws in the terminal block, one of mine was a little loose. I also looked inside the control box and secured the other wires to make them neater and so they cannot flop around.

 

 

Check yours, and clean out the dust while you are in there.

 

Remove the 30amp blade fuse from the holder on the red wire, dead center in the above pic. Clean any corrosion and reinstall the fuse with a coating of dielectric grease on the contacts. Secure it with the fuse angled down, to keep out water! This fuse holder really should be a sealed unit, there is no excuse for exposed electrical connections in a completely open outside compartment!

 

Question: I am thinking of a simple way to block off this compartment for travel on dirt roads, to keep electronics and coils clean. How about a heavy trash bag filled with enough styrofoam peanuts to fit snugly in the cavity, around all the various components? The vented cover should hold it tightly in place. Obviously the fridge and propane would be switched off. Thanks.

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA

[Monlezun]

John, thanks for the post and the recommendation to inspect the fridge wiring. Your observation gave me cause to inspect our our Ollie, too. Was glad to see our wiring configuration looks almost exactly like your after-picture. It was perfect right from the factory. Why the difference? Well, we can all guess that different technicians on different days are being human and perform at varying degrees of efficiency on any given day. As we all might agree, there is no way around this. Again, thanks for the tip and I'm sure I was not the only one to run out and check their own.