Another stop of Globi’s wellness spa in Europe was a stop at Beno by Senero, the Swiss specialist for Mastervolt. Actually, we just wanted to do a few little things, such as the connection for our new radio and our outdoor kitchen. When we looked into the installation, our blood ran cold. We went on a bomb through Africa, only our guardian angel has kept us alive! We detected a plethora of cable fires. The cables were stuck together by overheating, the insulation was partially completely melted through. A disaster!

The original builder had delivered a lethal job in this regard. The three circuits of the MAN starter battery, the cabin battery and the generator were connected to each other to load each other, but there was no connection between the masses. Thus, electricity could flow without being noticed by the one or other system (fuses) – and streams did flow! We had to connect all the masses to the chassis first. There is a kit available from MAN, which must first be installed by all those who create their own circuit on the chassis. Apparently our builder did not know that.

 

The second major disaster we found in the conductor cross sections. It is clear to me that a non-specialist cannot do much with the formula

A = (1.732 * L * I * cos) / (y * Ua),
but every cable supplier provides a cable cross-section calculator on its website. The general knowledge of a vehicle manufacturer includes the primitive knowledge that the cable length increases the resistance in the cable and leads to voltage drops. These can become so large that devices no longer work or the cable together with the insulation causes a cable fire. We found that the cable from the cabin battery to the installation was only one-fifth of the required cross-section. Thanks to a smarter, shorter installation, Beno was able to reduce the cross-section. The charging cable from the cabin alternator was also 2-thirds too thin. This cable and the cable that had to charge the starter battery of the generator were completely blown out and generated therefore short circuits that were not fused. Other cables of the power supply of the consumers were burned and had to be replaced. The output of an inverter has burned out, the editing PC, the USB and the ethernet hub are completely burned.

We are extremely happy that we have not been co-incinerated in the years in Africa, that our Globi is still functioning and that we “only” suffered material damage.