Pre Wiring Questions

Jb1rd

Jb1rd

Explorer
Getting ready to t pre wire my E350 EB and wondering;
1. What gauge wire for Led's? (I want to run simple puck style flush mounts for general lighting and maybe a ribbon style for ambiance)
2. Do I need to run conduit? (If so how many runs per conduit)
3. If you were to do it over, what would you have added? (Solar, fan, more lights, speakers etc...)
4. What would you have deleted?

I am planning on a CCV poptop and it includes 6 lights I believe and a switch, I will probably have an extra switch to control the back ceiling lights wired to a remote switch so I can leave the "main" cabin lights on and turn off the "bedroom" lights :) the van that 1DER showed me (at CCV) had this feature and it was pretty sweet.
As always TIA!!!
 
Bbasso

Bbasso

Expedition goofball
Run as many pairs of wires as you can. Even if you don't have a use for them now, later they might be handy.
As for the guage of wire for LED lighting, find out the draw from each unit and use one of the many online amp/guage calculators to make sure you're not over taxing the wire. But I've used 14g for most of my LED lights and no problems. But if I have multiple LED on one circuit then I step up to 12g to play it safe.
For my fantastic fan I used 10g, for my Engel I also used 10g and my water pump too.
 
Backcountry Pursuit

Backcountry Pursuit

Risk Taker
I'm a few months out yet from hitting the interior part of my build. I plan to run a bunch of spares for expansion and some pull cord. Wire is fairly cheap, but my time isn't once the interior is built to have to pull it all apart to run in new wiring. I used to wire airplanes for a living and had to work in some pretty tight spaces. The first thing I sent through a difficult wire run was a pull cord. Every subsequent wire that went through brought a new pull cord with it. Inevitably, an engineer would screw something up on the schematic or a customer would add an option at the last minute and we would have to run a new wire through that PITA area. I was always happy I left that pull cord in there. Could be string, wire, a coat hanger or whatever works in the area. Label it and leave it there.

The next best thing you can do is label your wiring! Ball point pen on heat white shrink covered by clear heat shrink will save you hours with a multi meter ringing stuff out figuring out what wire is what down the road. To that end, I also plan to draw fairly detailed schematics for my wiring. It will probably be hand drawn, but I will document it nonetheless. I wish I had fancy software like a lot of guys on here, but I don't. So I'll draw it on a napkin and save it in the pile of paper with all my other notes on this project.

Releasable zip ties are a lifesaver! They are kinda spendy, but last a pretty long time before they die. In the long run they are less than cutting off a bunch of normal zip ties while adding new wiring to a harness. They are so valuable while you are building up a harness to keep everything nice and neat. Our shop used the Panduit brand but there are many out there. My supply I took as part of my "severance" is getting pretty low now that years have passed. I will have to order more but don't have time at present to provide a part number.
 
Backcountry Pursuit

Backcountry Pursuit

Risk Taker
As long as 18awg is big enough for what you plan to do, sure. It looks like a great product. The other downside I see is all wires start and end in the same place. I think that would be a pain to make legs and different destinations. Personally, I'd just run twisted pair.
 
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