Build Standards 2023 Minnie 2500FL

KSP

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Jul 20, 2023
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2023 Winnebago Minnie 2500FL

I know the RV industry as a whole struggles with quality control, I was hopeful that Winnebago would have been a leader.

I recently was tracking down a water leak, which ended up to be a failed O-Ring on the water pump. While troubleshooting I came across this rats nest of plumbing and electrical. Besides making it difficult to trace in the small place, I came concerned with electrical issues and the potential for a fire.

The outlet for the water pump was less than an inch from the floor and wasn’t a GFCI. Additionally, the converter was mounted at floor level next to the water pump.

Winnebago please do better in the future.
 

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Of course... you realize that 12vdc loads such as the water pump would never have something like a GFCI, nor is there any regulations for such.

As to the converter, since it is individually fused and grounded and would never come into direct contact with a person during it's use it also wouldn't be GFCI protected.

Only 110vac receptacles, near a water source, used to provide power to devices being plugged in by users require such ground fault protection. And you probably have one of those in your kitchen and possibly another in your bathroom... near water sources.

As to your point about a mess of wires and a mess of plumbing, well that is spot on. There are a lot of things Winnebago does better than other manufacturers, but that's not one of them.
 
I was a little perplexed on your title at first,
Build "standers"? I'm assuming you mean build STANDARDS, correct? Anyway, yes, what you've found is not uncommon and in pretty much all coach levels other than maybe your ultra high end, possibly special order multi-million dollar ones. In those, since you're paying such a premium, they will take the time for very neat and organized wiring layouts and placement.

In just about anything less, yes, you'll find situations and scenarios where assembly line time frames etc. just don't allow for ultra neatness and organization. They (the techs/assembly folks) pretty much get things done to the standards they're held to and move on. You and I may not appreciate those "Standards" but, for about 98% of the rest of the RV planet, they're acceptable.

When we procured our new-to-us '04 Itasca Horizon 36GD with the CAT C-7 330HP waaaaaaaaaay back 13 years ago, I opened the battery compartment door and was amazed at how much of a mess the wiring was for what we were led to believe was a somewhat more expensive coach. For me, it was no big deal as I've dealt with that kind of stuff for eons. I simply disconnected all the spyder wirng that was assumed to be add-on stuff and moved it all to the side on a single stand-alone stud. I did that with both the positive wires and negative wiring.

From that point on, all that you see when looking at our batteries is nothing but the large cables and even those were re-done to neaten things up and also make sure all connections were clean and tight.

The point of all this garb is, if you have the ability, the time, the tools and components (wire, ties, clips, fasteners etc.) and feel like it, you can take all that wiring and straighten it all up, segregate what may need to be situated separately from other sections and all that. Sometimes that kind of work seems useless until you have to get into that section again for some reason and open it up and then realize, Wow, this makes analyzing a problem a bit easier. Just a suggestion.
Scott
 
Potential for a fire?
An outlet for the water pump to plug in to power? Sounds more like confusion as I have never seen a water pump on an outlet. We really can't tell what you have but it would seem rare for a 12VDc pump to be plugged into an outlet. And GFCI do not apply to DC power!
I would assume all circuits have fuses or breakers to prevent any overheating from shorts!
Yes, results could always be better but then when we are looking at the low end of the RV field, more effort means more expense, so things are often done to fit the market.
When I have had other RV, I found worse!
 
Thanks for catching my error, it is the water heater not the pump. Miss typed
 

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