Exterior 110 Electrical Boxes - Frame Mounted

[Westwind]

I have a 2012 Bighorn 3070RL, I lost electricity at the 110 outlets in the (Kitchen/off door) slide. I opened the electrical box on the frame under the slide and found that water/sand/salt had gotten into the box through the openings that the wires came out of the box. When I opened the box on the opposite side (door side) there was about 1/8 inch of wet sand/salt etc., the gasket on this box cover wasn't installed correctly Allowing water and stuff into the box. Both are located near the wheels so that doesn't make for a good situation. I found a broken wire which is probably the problem but I discover much more that needs attention.

I now will clean all connections install new wire nuts and apply electrical tape and seal the box openings with silicone caulking. Not being negative - Heartland needs to make some changes to the QC process of the slideout wiring.

I recommend everyone to climb under their TT and fifth wheels to see what is going on inside of these boxes to prevent problems.

 

[jbeletti]

I have a 2012 Bighorn 3070RL, I lost electricity at the 110 outlets in the (Kitchen/off door) slide. I opened the electrical box on the frame under the slide and found that water/sand/salt had gotten into the box through the openings that the wires came out of the box. When I opened the box on the opposite side (door side) there was about 1/8 inch of wet sand/salt etc., the gasket on this box cover wasn't installed correctly Allowing water and stuff into the box. Both are located near the wheels so that doesn't make for a good situation. I found a broken wire which is probably the problem but I discover much more that needs attention.

I now will clean all connections install new wire nuts and apply electrical tape and seal the box openings with silicone caulking. Not being negative - Heartland needs to make some changes to the QC
process of the slideout wiring.

I recommend everyone to climb under their TT and fifth wheels to see what is going on inside of these boxes to prevent problems.

I have passed this along to Heartland corp so they are aware of what you found and we can improve our process.

 

[Westwind]

I forgot to mention, use a touch meter and make sure the 110 electricity is turned off, I didn't and I got a tingling sensation when I touched the wires inside the box, I suspect that was caused by the broken wire and because everything was wet. If your boxes are like mine they are not water proof.

Pic-1 = Shows the box with the wet salt/sand plus corrosion. We traveled home from Florida the 3rd week of April and hit a morning of steady rain, the salt, I feel was from the previous year when we hit a Ice storm and then rain in New Jersey on our way to Florida.

Pic 2 = Shows one of two wires which go into each box, the second wire shown in Pic - 3 allows more water etc. into the box.

Pic 3 = Another view of door side box, couple of wire nuts were also corroded, definitely bad for ground wires and the others.

Pic 4 = Cleaned box - cleaned and taped connections with changes wire nuts, not shown is silicone caulked box wire openings, caulked inside and outside.