Camper Van mis-wired?

[Foxen]

Hello,

My sister bought a small camper van from a California based manufacturer of van camper interiors. This was their demo vehicle they used for marketing. It was completely built out.

I am helping her with adding solar to the van and got to looking at the 12V wiring the company had done. I "assumed" the fuse block with. the yellow label was all the 12V accessory "positive" wires and on the far right they stacked all the "negative" accessory wiring.

However, looking closer, it appears they stacked all the positive wires (shown on the right) because it looks like a larger gauge RED wire (maybe 6 gauge) is stacked along with these accessory wires. The fuse block doesn't appear to have any positive 12V DC power going to it.

Am I missing something? I plan on digging into it but the van is a few hundred miles from me and time is limited. I know that it can have the neg. wires at the fuse block and work but it is not how I wire our vans. Just wondered what others thoughts are. Appreciate any comments.

Thank you,
Jon

 

[Herbie]

My bigger concern is not that it's (apparently) fused on the ground, it's that the fuses are not directly near one of the battery terminals - it looks like there's a larger-gauge wire in that left bundle which perhaps eventually feeds back to battery negative. Every inch of wire between the battery and the fuse is a lightbulb filament just waiting for enough current to set it free.

Personally, I'd have to trace it all out, and then I'd consider re-working things such that there was a clear (and short!) link between the fuse-common terminal and the battery. (And maybe fuse the positives...) Depending on the solar setup (like if you're including a shunt, etc.), then you may end up having to interrupt or re-wire some part of it anyhow, so hopefully the bundles aren't done in a way that makes that harder...