This is the first episode I've watched from you guys and I dig it! Thanks for helping me understand this stuff! Definitely a subscriber now. I'm doing a solar setup after we finish filming our roof raise transition supports and skinning the bus. I feel like I do not know enough about electrical yet but this definitely helped. Thanks guys!
Electrical can be super daunting. That is why we brought in some help. It might be worth bringing in a professional to advise just for some peace of mind... so you know nothing is going to explode :)
I know, I am late to comment but thumb up for Adam !!! He is probably one of the very few ones who is still going the extra mile and is connecting wires to the screws and not to the push in ports in the back of a receptacle or switch. That means for you..... they will never come lose,jk they will never cause any problems down the road
This is the first of your videos I have watched - great job! We had a similar setup (we only have 120V coming into our bus not 240V). After consulting with our electrician friend we used a copper bus bar to bind "L1" and "L2" so that we didn't have to put breakers on "every other slot".
Pretty good, but since this is a moving vehicle I would recommend that you use MC cable since it is abrasion resistant. You should also be using screws, not nails, for your boxes if possible.
I love electrical work....learning about it little by little while trying to remain compliant. Its odd that I will work on the electrical before I touch any plumbing.
The most common way is to install an inverter that changes DC from the bus to AC and add batteries connected in parallel so they don't drain fast. Even better is having a 3rd battery just for the starter that stays fresh. Add a shore power connector so you have power when you park. If you want solar, hire someone.
I think I get that you frame the bus out just like you would a house. Then you put up the insulation? Or do you do the electrical after framing but before the insulation? I'd definitely have to hire an electrician to put this in because I'm totally inept around electricity. I want to run right off the solar panels on my roof and I don't know how to do that either. I guess once I get started on one I'll probably run into people that have already done and they can help me.
We didn't run solar but i think most people run solar into some deep cell batteries with a charge controller and then they either run into an inverter or just do everything off of 12v. We framed and insulated before we ran insulation and then spray foamed in some of the extra spaces.
The panel box you linked to is 125amp. If you have a single 30amp connex to shore power how can you use a 125a panel box? Thanks, currently wiring up my bus and need some help!
I'm not exactly sure how to answer that question. I know 50amps is the max you can get for an outlet as far as shore power to power the bus panel. You basically just want to be sure you're not putting too much power through your cords so they don't overheat.
Ahhhhh dang! You might just have to either trace the wire from the brake light itself or at least check the color of wire to help narrow it down. Or look inside the panel sometimes they make a chart of wires that is pretty tough to decipher but might be worth a shot.... I'm not sure how to trouble shoot that.... Maybe step on the brake and use a voltage tester on your electrical panels/fuses and see which one lights up when you push the brake.
Grerat vlog. I learned a few things. Im no professional, but small concern with the staples holding wire too snug...??..cuz the bus tends to move, groove, and twist when driving...IDK, just a thought. cheers and keep on keepin on bro
It might have been good to use some insulated staples now that I'm looking back but we tried not to smash em on there too tight. So far it has been holding pretty well!
ruclips.net/video/_ZXyvhRJ-qM/видео.html&t This video has a little bit in there about it but right now we just run it from a 50amp plug connected to our house. This video also shows a bit of what it looks like towards the end. ruclips.net/video/asKDLAcQxsg/видео.html&t
Hello, I’m in the insulating stage of our conversion. Are you happy with the styrofoam insulation? I think it would be cheaper but not easier than spray foam blown in. I see the video is a couple years old but please answer. Thanks!
Hey! I would go with spray-in foam if we were going to do it again. With all the windows the insulation is pretty bad no matter what you do but spray in I think is a bit more effective.
I need Adam for my school bus conversion we have hooked up the electrical before in my other bus and it worked, all of a sudden now it keeps tripping our household current the only thing we did different this time is we piggyback some Outlets
20A with 12AWG gives you a total cable length of maximum 30ft. Is that enough? Don't forget the up and down parts of the cable, don't only count the horizontal parts. You'll be surprised about the outcome.
It was hooked up to our battery/inverter setup but now we have it running to a plug that goes to a beefy extension cord and then to a 50amp plug on our house. In the future I'd like to set it up to switch between the two systems (battery/shore) but we are stationary now and have no need for that!
the wire that goes from the inverter to the "box" in the bus.... you don't elaborate.. is it a main breaker box or distribution panel? what kind? more info on the "box" please. Thank you
Did you tie the AC ground to the bus chassis. Essentially grounding the AC and DC? Ive wired my bus, but wasn't sure it I should tie the AC ground to the chassis...
he needs to get the ground separated from neutral. you don't want to make the ground live if you drop your nertal that why there is two buss bars one for ground and one for neutral. the ground should also be floating and Not!!!! grounded to the bus in any way. but the outside of the inverter should be grounded. the ground on the true sign wave inverters are floating grounds 90 percent of the time on well known inverters "xentrax and semlex" aims also i think.
KY4TRUCK can you help me understand or point me to a website with more info? I grounded the inverter to the chassis of the bus. Are the grounds in the panel not supposed to be connected. I’m confused?
**Yes You right in grounding the inverter to the chassis of the bus.** The ground's and the neutrals in the sub breaker panel should be isolated from each other in some cases. Some inverters the ground and neutral are bonded together and in some inverters there not. easy way to check is with continuity checker from neutral to ground on the output of the inverter. xantrex true/pure sine inverters and a few of the other mager name inverters I believe the output of the ac side the ground's and the neutrals are isolated from each other. your electrician should understand what i am talking about in that respect. here is a image of a sub panel Like what you have. I was taught to do things a little different, if it is working right i would not worry about it. there is a lot of different things out there on the interweb for house stuff. but in the way of of wiring inverters and there install to sub panels in the auto world is hard to find. so many vendors have different ways there equipment hooks up to other stuff. I have been learning along the way myself with the onset of this stuff. I myself would look at the inverter as the main panel and the sub panel the same way as the photo keeping all items in the way of power going back to the main source in which it is coming from. this helps stop ground loop's from happening and keep RF noise down also. also a good true sine wave inverter is very RF Quiet. I am also a Amateur Radio Operator so i want things too be RF Quiet. IMAGE i.pinimg.com/originals/c2/34/aa/c234aa5f03ceadd3a134a8044850f828.jpg One Day i might doing something like you have going. I hope this maybe helps.
Hey there, can you answer me if you get this please? So, do not ground the panel box to the chasis for shore power?? and do NOT use the green bond screw? put all grounds on one bar and all neutrals on the other bar?
Would these count as a Subpanel? Not sure about the Ground to Neutral bars? I would keep em separate myself. WAIT... does the feed not have a ground? I would expect the best part about shore power is you get to connect to an actual ground. regardless. I would have him ask his Boss for some guidelines to follow.
Shore power has a ground and then we ground to the chassis of the bus. I didn't have that in this video I don't think. You're supposed to run a ground to the chassis from the negative of the battery bank I believe but we aren't using the batteries right now so I'm not actually sure.
@@ColaVentures that 6awg cable looks like it only has 2, but I guess you can see the ground wire. on the right side of the main breaker. it has the two screws going to the breakers, you can tie those together with a copper bar. That will give you split phase and allow you to use all the slots. as a Subpanel and since Ground is on the Chassis you need to have the white neutrals separate from the grounds. GFCi and Arc Fault would not work ( i think) I know enough, not to try to wire a job this big myself
We only ended up using a 15 amp battery charger to recharge the batteries and then we have a 5000 watt inverter. We are planning to have the bus plugged in at our house or at a ranch that we are working at for the summers. So we went small for now. We may end up adding at 30 or 50 amp switch to bypass our inverter/battery set up in the future but for now the 15amp keeps us charged up!
Man watching american electrical installations are funny to me. Not too many wires in a box, do not bend much, have space.... Meanwhile in Europe you can have 4-8 wires comming to a box and no issues.
![Stromae, Pomme - “Ma Meilleure Ennemie” (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Visualizer]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1F3OGIFnW1k/mqdefault.jpg)
This is the first episode I've watched from you guys and I dig it! Thanks for helping me understand this stuff! Definitely a subscriber now. I'm doing a solar setup after we finish filming our roof raise transition supports and skinning the bus. I feel like I do not know enough about electrical yet but this definitely helped. Thanks guys!
Electrical can be super daunting. That is why we brought in some help. It might be worth bringing in a professional to advise just for some peace of mind... so you know nothing is going to explode :)
ColaVentures Good advice I'm sure! I'm not too into things exploding... on my bus. :-)
What is feeding your panel? Do you have a battery bank ?
I know, I am late to comment but thumb up for Adam !!! He is probably one of the very few ones who is still going the extra mile and is connecting wires to the screws and not to the push in ports in the back of a receptacle or switch. That means for you..... they will never come lose,jk they will never cause any problems down the road
This is the first of your videos I have watched - great job! We had a similar setup (we only have 120V coming into our bus not 240V). After consulting with our electrician friend we used a copper bus bar to bind "L1" and "L2" so that we didn't have to put breakers on "every other slot".
This song has made its way from your videos into my dreams
Lol! Imagine how I feel! I've probably listened to it a million times just from all the editing of these videos :)
You can never go wrong with a Hutchins lol. Cool video, thanks.
OMG!!! I love this video!!! So great on the detailed tips! Thank you and thanks to Adam Hutchins!!!
I'm glad it was helpful! Adam is legit!
Where is the main power coming from? What isbthe source of power, can you show that and how it is hooked up?
Pretty good, but since this is a moving vehicle I would recommend that you use MC cable since it is abrasion resistant. You should also be using screws, not nails, for your boxes if possible.
Thank you so much for sharing all of this information, I really appreciate it!
Awesome so easy to follow ..very well done. Great Edit Job !!!!
I'm doing my electrical in a few weeks sooo excited.
yay! Good luck! Let me know if you have any questions.
Really appreciate the tutorials - so helpful
I love electrical work....learning about it little by little while trying to remain compliant. Its odd that I will work on the electrical before I touch any plumbing.
That is odd! I'm much more comfortable with plumbing... I'm always afraid that I am going to blow something up!
You guys make it look easy doing electrical work. Lol
It is only easy with an electrician near by!
They left out a lot.
This is brilliant glad to have it so clearly explained. Should I use non electric conduit I hear that might be good but idk.
Hi can you please tell me what is powering the breaker box
The most common way is to install an inverter that changes DC from the bus to AC and add batteries connected in parallel so they don't drain fast. Even better is having a 3rd battery just for the starter that stays fresh. Add a shore power connector so you have power when you park. If you want solar, hire someone.
Excellent video! This has been so helpful!
I think I get that you frame the bus out just like you would a house. Then you put up the insulation? Or do you do the electrical after framing but before the insulation? I'd definitely have to hire an electrician to put this in because I'm totally inept around electricity. I want to run right off the solar panels on my roof and I don't know how to do that either. I guess once I get started on one I'll probably run into people that have already done and they can help me.
We didn't run solar but i think most people run solar into some deep cell batteries with a charge controller and then they either run into an inverter or just do everything off of 12v. We framed and insulated before we ran insulation and then spray foamed in some of the extra spaces.
Great informative video! Thanks a bunch!
1st video that I've seen of yours. New subscriber 😊 Thanks for sharing. The electrical part scares the crap out of me lol.
The panel box you linked to is 125amp. If you have a single 30amp connex to shore power how can you use a 125a panel box? Thanks, currently wiring up my bus and need some help!
I'm not exactly sure how to answer that question. I know 50amps is the max you can get for an outlet as far as shore power to power the bus panel. You basically just want to be sure you're not putting too much power through your cords so they don't overheat.
Do you have any videos of you guys going through the school bus stock wires? aka "The Rat's Nest"?
ok so my man by accident pulled our back brake light wire and our brake lights any idea where they would plug into
Ahhhhh dang! You might just have to either trace the wire from the brake light itself or at least check the color of wire to help narrow it down. Or look inside the panel sometimes they make a chart of wires that is pretty tough to decipher but might be worth a shot.... I'm not sure how to trouble shoot that.... Maybe step on the brake and use a voltage tester on your electrical panels/fuses and see which one lights up when you push the brake.
Thank
Do you have any video of the wires going to the fuse box that’s where I’m stuck thx
Grerat vlog. I learned a few things. Im no professional, but small concern with the staples holding wire too snug...??..cuz the bus tends to move, groove, and twist when driving...IDK, just a thought. cheers and keep on keepin on bro
It might have been good to use some insulated staples now that I'm looking back but we tried not to smash em on there too tight. So far it has been holding pretty well!
What feeds this panel? Do you have another video on that?
ruclips.net/video/_ZXyvhRJ-qM/видео.html&t This video has a little bit in there about it but right now we just run it from a 50amp plug connected to our house. This video also shows a bit of what it looks like towards the end. ruclips.net/video/asKDLAcQxsg/видео.html&t
What was the result of every other breaker working? Is there something that explains that concept?
Hello, I’m in the insulating stage of our conversion. Are you happy with the styrofoam insulation? I think it would be cheaper but not easier than spray foam blown in. I see the video is a couple years old but please answer. Thanks!
Hey! I would go with spray-in foam if we were going to do it again. With all the windows the insulation is pretty bad no matter what you do but spray in I think is a bit more effective.
Thanks for reply
I seen another video that was saying you shouldn’t use solid wire as it can come loose with the bus movement ?
I need Adam for my school bus conversion we have hooked up the electrical before in my other bus and it worked, all of a sudden now it keeps tripping our household current the only thing we did different this time is we piggyback some Outlets
20A with 12AWG gives you a total cable length of maximum 30ft. Is that enough? Don't forget the up and down parts of the cable, don't only count the horizontal parts. You'll be surprised about the outcome.
What part of the code book are you referring to?
What does your 6 gauge wire go to
It was hooked up to our battery/inverter setup but now we have it running to a plug that goes to a beefy extension cord and then to a 50amp plug on our house. In the future I'd like to set it up to switch between the two systems (battery/shore) but we are stationary now and have no need for that!
the wire that goes from the inverter to the "box" in the bus.... you don't elaborate.. is it a main breaker box or distribution panel? what kind? more info on the "box" please. Thank you
This is a link to the electrical panel we used. Hopefully that is the info you were looking for: thd.co/2Jzn7fW
@@ColaVentures I am pretty sure that this box should be considered a "Sub Panel" and the neutral and ground should NOT be bonded together.
Did you tie the AC ground to the bus chassis. Essentially grounding the AC and DC? Ive wired my bus, but wasn't sure it I should tie the AC ground to the chassis...
The AC ground needs to be isolated from the chassis.
What is feeding you pane?
he needs to get the ground separated from neutral. you don't want to make the ground live if you drop your nertal that why there is two buss bars one for ground and one for neutral. the ground should also be floating and Not!!!! grounded to the bus in any way. but the outside of the inverter should be grounded. the ground on the true sign wave inverters are floating grounds 90 percent of the time on well known inverters "xentrax and semlex" aims also i think.
KY4TRUCK can you help me understand or point me to a website with more info? I grounded the inverter to the chassis of the bus. Are the grounds in the panel not supposed to be connected. I’m confused?
**Yes You right in grounding the inverter to the chassis of the bus.**
The ground's and the neutrals in the sub breaker panel should be isolated from each other in some cases.
Some inverters the ground and neutral are bonded together and in some inverters there not. easy way to check is with continuity checker from neutral to ground on the output of the inverter.
xantrex true/pure sine inverters and a few of the other mager name inverters I believe the output of the ac side the ground's and the neutrals are isolated from each other. your electrician should understand what i am talking about in that respect.
here is a image of a sub panel Like what you have.
I was taught to do things a little different, if it is working right i would not worry about it. there is a lot of different things out there on the interweb for house stuff. but in the way of of wiring inverters and there install to sub panels in the auto world is hard to find. so many vendors have different ways there equipment hooks up to other stuff. I have been learning along the way myself with the onset of this stuff.
I myself would look at the inverter as the main panel and the sub panel the same way as the photo keeping all items in the way of power going back to the main source in which it is coming from. this helps stop ground loop's from happening and keep RF noise down also. also a good true sine wave inverter is very RF Quiet. I am also a Amateur Radio Operator so i want things too be RF Quiet.
IMAGE i.pinimg.com/originals/c2/34/aa/c234aa5f03ceadd3a134a8044850f828.jpg
One Day i might doing something like you have going. I hope this maybe helps.
Hey there, can you answer me if you get this please? So, do not ground the panel box to the chasis for shore power?? and do NOT use the green bond screw? put all grounds on one bar and all neutrals on the other bar?
what about to use supercapacitors that can be charged rapidly at every bus stop ? ..
Would these count as a Subpanel? Not sure about the Ground to Neutral bars? I would keep em separate myself.
WAIT... does the feed not have a ground? I would expect the best part about shore power is you get to connect to an actual ground.
regardless. I would have him ask his Boss for some guidelines to follow.
Shore power has a ground and then we ground to the chassis of the bus. I didn't have that in this video I don't think. You're supposed to run a ground to the chassis from the negative of the battery bank I believe but we aren't using the batteries right now so I'm not actually sure.
@@ColaVentures
that 6awg cable looks like it only has 2, but I guess you can see the ground wire.
on the right side of the main breaker. it has the two screws going to the breakers, you can tie those together with a copper bar. That will give you split phase and allow you to use all the slots.
as a Subpanel and since Ground is on the Chassis you need to have the white neutrals separate from the grounds. GFCi and Arc Fault would not work ( i think)
I know enough, not to try to wire a job this big myself
How much did it cost for Adam to run your wires? And , hook up your box?
Adam just did it as a friend! We are going to give him a thank you gift and he gets unlimited meals at the Cola house from now on :)
Question how many amps is your bus wired to? 30amps or 50amps?
We only ended up using a 15 amp battery charger to recharge the batteries and then we have a 5000 watt inverter. We are planning to have the bus plugged in at our house or at a ranch that we are working at for the summers. So we went small for now. We may end up adding at 30 or 50 amp switch to bypass our inverter/battery set up in the future but for now the 15amp keeps us charged up!
Shouldn't you be using stranded wire in a RV? Check it out and be safe
Electric is actually fairly simple
Well that is a video on how not to wire....definitely no devices before your sheathing.....
ewwwwww he didnt pretwist the wires before wire nutting.
F
seems like a well enough electrician, but I do not like the practice of not making better joints.
You should use the clips not Staples
Thanks for the feedback! We are already all sealed up and everything is working great!
Man watching american electrical installations are funny to me. Not too many wires in a box, do not bend much, have space.... Meanwhile in Europe you can have 4-8 wires comming to a box and no issues.
They use metric.
:P