Questions about working with an electrician?

Life on the Road Electrical: Batteries, Generators, Solar, etc...
1

Hi Everyone - Looking for any advice or if anyone has dealt something like this, but it’s kinda random…

So I bought a van that was previously converted into a handicap accessible driving van years ago. Before I bought it the lift and hand driving capabilities were removed, but some of the accessories from that conversion still exist.

  • There used be a dual battery system (I believe for the lift) the lift and second battery have been removed. (the wires still remain)
  • There is an inverter installed that turns on when the van is on, but has only worked a few times. Most times it starts to make a loud ringing sound and won’t power anything.
  • To make it more interesting this weekend as I was removing the plastic walls I found just a rogue wire leading from the inverter to no where, it is taped off at the end.

The questions I am hoping to get some advice on are - Does anyone have experience hiring an electrician for just that part of your van build? If I call a residential electrician are they going to look at me like I’m crazy? Is there some other type of niche profession I should be reaching out to?

Adding some pictures below.

Any tips on how you dealt with electical, adding a battery/inverter, or how you found someone to help with this portion of your build is welcome!

IMG-9173
IMG-91731920×2560 660 KB

IMG-9171
IMG-91711920×2560 802 KB

Thanks,
Jill

1 Like
2

Greetings!

You probably need an RV specific electrician.

Good Luck!

Cheers!

"Be the reason someone smiles today!" ~ Van_Dweller


1 Like
3

If you want an electrician, you will need to take your van to an RV dealer.

I can try to help you, but can’t exactly see what all you have going on.

The red wire with the black tubing around it is most likely your power to the inverter, the other black wire with the yellow connector is your body ground. Meaning it grounds to the vehicle body somewhere.

The two wires that are connected to the black and red knobs, should be either your power in or power out. Can’t really tell from the pics. You should be able to read them and see what they say.

You should Have a total of 5 wires going to your inverter.

2 power in, 2 power out and a body ground. The power in goes from your battery to the inverter, should be that red wire in your hand in the first pic, second one should be same size wire and go to ground, not body ground.

Then you should have a small wire going to the body ground from the metal connector that protrudes from the inverter on the right side where the black wire is with the yellow connector.

Then you likely won’t have anything connected to your output as that was likely removed.

There should not be any wires taped off and cut. If so, it needs to be removed or connected somewhere.

When you wire the inverter correctly, if it still makes a high pitch loud sound, then it’s bad or going bad. If it’s not a loud sound, then it could be normal. They do make some noise as they have a fan in the inverter to cool it. If that fan bearing is bad, you could take it and maybe have an electronics repair person replace it. That could be the squeaking or high pitch sound you are refering to. Again, without seeing it and hearing it, I couldn’t tell you for sure.

If you want to send close up pics of both sides of the inverter, that would help. As you should have 5 places to connect wires.

4

Beat I can see with pics provided.

Red knob should have that red wire connected to it that is in your hand.goes to battery positive

Black knob should have another wire same size. Goes to battery negative (blue connector)

Black wire on right side (yellow connector) should be body ground and connect to your frame on your vehicle somewhere.

That my best guess without seeing close up pics. Each thing should be labeled though. Read first, connect wires after. Ask if your not sure before you connect wires.