Teardrop: Roughing in the Wiring

There are basically two circuits that I needed to worry about in the wiring… the Teardrop running/turn signal lights, drawing power from the tow vehicle; and the lights and accessories that would be built into the teardrop, running off a surplus battery in a tow box.

To complicate the problem was how to charge the surplus battery. From the tow vehicle? From solar panels? Or from standard home AC? I have experience in none of these, so it was going to be fun!

I decided to start with the running lights ground. I didn’t want to ground to the chassis as in a typical trailer, because these always seem to corrode off and you’re fighting with the animals.

Therefore, I decided to ground the tow vehicle to a bus bar in the fuse compartment and then run grounds from all the running lights to this bus bar. It would mean more wiring, but less change of light failure.

To drill the holes through the walls I used a new toy… I have no idea what it’s called, but it allowed me to bend my drilling angle up to over 90° and is, frankly AMAZING! I don’t know how I ever survived without this little gadget and it was cheap! 10 bucks! I’m going to file it under tools you can’t live without.

When I was done, it looked like a bunch of spaghetti spewing from the fuse compartment.