Ceiling Wiring Rough In

With the interior of Hapy (1972 VW camperbus) pulled apart for noise control, it was a perfect opportunity to improve some of my earlier wiring decisions. Today's post covers the changes for the wiring that runs in the ceiling. There will be more posts on other parts of the electrical system later.

AWG

I think the first thing to consider when it comes to wiring, is what gauge wire to use. Most of my runs will be less than 5 meters, and very few, if any, of them will require even 10 amps. With this in mind, we consult the chart, and see that 14 gauge AWG (American Wiring Gauge) wiring would meet the need. I rounded up to 12ga and I bought a bundle. This bundle was 12 separate colored wires, each 25 feet long. Most of the wires will be feeding lamps, which draw, like, 1 amp. So, even if one run actually runs the full 25 feet, I am not terribly concerned about the wire health. In fact, I could add more lighting sources or an additional appliance (USB charger, eg) without really jeopardizing the wire health. Similar to car wiring, I set a color so I would know from looking at each end what it was for. The prior wiring had some joint bits in the middle so it might have started one color (most of the wires were red because I had a lot of it), but may have changed in the middle somewhere. That is an impossible state to trace, and I would have deserved a "DPO" label had I left things that way. With the new color scheme, I can be sure I have the right wire in hand. When combined with a fuse chart, following, fixing and effectively owning the wiring will be much easier.

 

I call out "AWG" because there are many vendors on the interwebs who will say their wire is "12 gauge", but not all gauges are alike. Their 12 gauge might be the AWG equivalent of 14 or even 16 AWG. One other consideration: copper coated aluminum wire is not the same thing as solely copper wire. Use aluminum, and/or a too-thin gauge and your vehicle will have a serious fire hazard. I encourage buying the right gauge or thicker and only use pure copper. It costs more, but the peace of mind is worth it.

What Where

I have added electrical stuff all over the place over the years in a thoroughly hap-hazard way. I considered each of them, plus I want to add some things. I have been wanting to improve the lighting for quite a while. We had the original dome light between the seat-backs, but it really doesn't provide enough light into the cab to be useful. So, it really doesn't get used. The light in the pop-top is great, and we use it fairly often when we are set up to camp. We also have the 1979 Westy 2-way light, but when I installed it, I put it where the old 1972 interior light was because it covered the hole in the wood headliner. This placed it off-center of the window which is really only an issue aesthetically. Similar to the pop-top light, it gets regular use when camping. There is no light further back into the sleeping area, and there is no light near the sliding door. With the re-wire, I intend to address all of these things.

To replace/improve the cab lighting, I will install a new dome light closer to the front of the cab. To create some lighting in the sleeping area, I will install a switchable light fixture on the rear ceiling. This light will also double as a light-source for the engine bay. Last, the 1979 Westy 2-way light will move a little further forward for aesthetics. In it's old location, it cast a shadow in front of the fridge cabinet. In the new location, the floor in front of that cabinet will be well-lit, without losing lighting into the fridge cabinet.

Last, the original dome light is getting moved to the ceiling near the front of the sliding door. So, when you open the slider, there is a low-intensity light we can flip on. This will help us getting in/out of the bus when it's super dark out. This switch has 2 positions (I'm calling them switch 1 and 2) originally designed so you could switch it from door operated to off to manually operated and back. In my implementation, switch 1 will turn on the original dome light as well as the dome lights I have mounted in the cab and in the sleeping area. No, the switch was not originally designed to do this, so I am modifying it. I'll post on that later. Switch 2 will only turn on the light by the slider. I thought there would be times when lighting up the entire bus from one switch might be useful.

The circuits, or should I say 12V consumers, I am considering from front to rear. I'm using letters so I don't pre-dispose myself on fuse numbering:

wire hole from above

a -* (grey) cab 12V accessory plug

b -* (purple) new cab dome light

c -  stereo <- will probably leave as-is or run under the floor

d -  amplifier for stereo - not wired yet, would probably follow stereo wire

e -* (white) original dome light switch 1

f -* (pink) original dome light switch 2<- will share pop-top light wire

g -* (pink) pop-top light

h -* (blue) 2-stage westy light

i -  furnace

j -  12V accessory plug by slider door

k -* (green) sleeping area dome light

l -* (orange) sleeping area USB charger ports - to be figured out

*: ceiling wired (wire color)

 

In the past, I had 3 wires running through the ceiling, but it was a total hack. I sent the wire bundle inside the Baltic Birch drop ceiling to the rear driver corner where it basically just dropped down along the inner wall, behind the rear-most window to the floor. From there, it ran forward to the fuse box under the rock-n-roll bed. This worked, but it looked pretty bad and the wires ran probably 5 meters longer than a direct path would take. And, I would catch the wires when loading/unloading gear. With the drop ceiling removed, I could see where the original VW/Westfalia wiring had been run along the top edge where the side wall meets the ceiling and it led me to my improved solution.

Implementing

original dome-light mount

The rear side of the B-pillar (directly behind the front doors) is hollow. In the top edge where stock wiring runs, there is a factory hole from the edge into the B-pillar. This is probably intended to route a sunroof drain or something. I used it to route the wires from the ceiling down along the front edge of the middle window and into the dead space under the window usually hidden by a door/body card. From there, the wire bundle runs rearward and around the old fridge cabinet to the fuse-box under the rock-n-roll bed. This path is considerably shorter, which reduces the opportunity for a wire to short as well as reduces the drop in amperage between the battery and the appliance simply because a shorter wire experiences less loss. I ran the wires one at a time, from below upward. I threaded the first wire by chasing bailing wire down from above first. To that wire, I duct-taped my first wire. Once it passed through the hole, I duct-taped the next wire to the first, and sent it up and through. I repeated versions of this until all 7 wires had passed through. I am not sure there is still room for another wire, if I need to send another, like, for the ambient temperature sensor for the furnace thermostat.

One point worth highlighting: all of the wires are intended to serve a single consumer except the dome lights. The pink wire will support the pop-top light and the original dome light when only that light is turned on, which has moved above the slider. I moved it because the most frequent need for light is when we enter that door, so having a switched light right there will be very useful. Why share? Neither light will draw much, and even if they are both on at the same time, the draw will be well below the limit for the size wire. The same goes for the other position (white wire), since those dome lights draw so little. Besides, that B-pillar pass-thru hole was getting crowded and the number of isolated wires is probably already overkill. When I think of how many fuses there are for the entire electrical system for Oliver (1978 MGB), this plan really feels like over kill.

At this point, I have not yet tied the wiring into the fuse box. Since I will be addressing the fuse box, luxury battery and, maybe, the old fridge circuitry later on, simply having the wires snaked from their termination points was sufficient. Let's call this the "electrical rough-in".

Well, that's it for today. This took me an entire weekend day just to get this far, though I also removed all of the old luxury wiring and that takes a little time too. I accept that I move slow and quality... well, snaking wires... takes time. Thanks, as always, for following along-