"EAT" Principle - Damaging Issues Of Safety Systems
Problems start when one starts splicing extra wires and “expanding the system” by disregarding electrical building codes. All this results in overloaded circuits, unprotected wires, fire hazards, most of the time, ending in system or building destruction.
Now using that above example of the building’s wires, put it in the context of a trailer’s wiring system. Consider the same three damaging elements:
Trailers operate on the countries highways twelve months of the year in any weather condition. Winter season puts the trailer wiring systems through the greatest salt attack known throughout history. Eleven times more salt is put on the highways during the short winter season then the total population of the United States puts on the table or uses for food preservation and preparation in a year. Unlike houses that stand still, a moving trailer is under constant and sometimes severe vibration, therefore the wiring system is exposed to the same vibration.
During the summer months, the wiring is exposed to the heat and direct sun rays. Environment greatly magnifies any known abuse – mechanical or design. It finds any unprotected wire end or improper splice and introduces salt throughout the wiring system. Result – corroded wire, greatly increased resistance and temperature, all resulting in harness destruction as well as lamp destruction, since salt creep does not recognize any boundaries other than total exclusion.
The main element of abuse is Design Abuse:
- Short cuts in proper choice of wire size.
- Short cuts in wire schematics by use of numerous splices to save a few feet of wire.
- “Make shift” splices by twisting wire ends.
- Copper flash aluminum wire.
If the abuse and environment form a team – time becomes the greatest ally in the destruction of a wiring system. It takes but one winter to destroy wiring systems.
The above discussed damaging elements set the basic design requirements of proper wiring systems.