Anyone on here a certified electrician?

clarkiiclo

clarkiiclo

Active Member
I have a dilemma! I need to find someone who knows alot more about electrical theory than me.
We have someone trying to say that our shop is at fault for their 4 batteries melting down.
I can post alot of pics and explain the whole story but I dont want to if I dont have to.
Please someone help!!
 
scotts

scotts

Active Member
Well I am not a certified electrician, but I do know a little bit about it, maybe enough to make me dangerous. I was the facility manager for 2 different industrial companies for over 10 years. So how about a brief over view first and let's see if I can help or if I am over my head.
Scott
 
clarkiiclo

clarkiiclo

Active Member
Ok here is what happened in a nutshell:
On Feb 1 of this year we did an install on a Freightliner Conventional. We installed a radio and an amp.
We ran power wire for the amp direct to the battery in the rear. The wire was ran through the floor of the truck(through and existing access hole) down to the frame below, zip tied all the way back along the original wire loom to the battery. It was 10 gauge wire.
Day before yesterday apparently the battery compartment caught fire, melted 2 of the 4 batteries and drained the other two. They are trying to say it is our fault.
They said that our wiring fell down some how and rubbed on the drive shaft of the truck, rubbed through the insulation on the wire and arced on the driveshaft which then caused all the havoc.
Well I went and looked at the truck. There is no arc marks on the drive shaft- In fact I dont see any arc marks anywhere. I dont see how a tiny 8 gauge wire could possibly hold up long enough to completely melt the huge battery cables. The wire in the cab where the amp is looks fine. It looks fine all the way out to where the first zip tie is under the truck.
I dont think it was our fault. They said that there were not any zip ties holding up the wire but I found one they forgot to remove. I took pictures.
I would have thought if somehow our wire did get rubbed bare and arc that there would be damage all the way up to the amp. At least some type of melting.
Personally I think that there was something else that caused the arc and our wire is just melted. There were some other wires that were removed also- I took pictures of them also.
Let me know what you think and if you want to see the pics...
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
Get a meter and test the Ohms of the wires to see if there is a direct short.
A 10 gauge wire can hold a considerable amount of DC power but I would thing the entire wire insulation would melt if it caused the batteries to get hot enough to catch fire.
Also, were there any fuses installed??
 
jenn-e

jenn-e

Member
Ok i can't help but i can tell you that before you talk to cops or anything like that you need to get your story straight. At the beginning you said you used 10 gage wire, then a little later you said it was 8. Just don't tell that to anyone else.
 
chawawa

chawawa

Member
ok well im a licensed residential and commercial and industrial electrician ill read what you wrote and ill ask you any ?'s if needed and help you out just give me a little time thx.:hilarious
 
denny80688

denny80688

Member
ok hold the phone... you dont need a licensed electrician to help on this one... First, any time you run a power cable for car audio under a car (or truck) its my understanding it should be attached ABOVE the frame when ever possible or should be run through conduit. This will protect it from road debris. Second it should have been fused. Had it been fused, if it shorted out, it would have blown the fuse. Last when you say it ran through an existing opening, was the cable protected by a rubber grommit? If not the cable could easily have wiggled around and shorted out there causing your battery problem. From your brief summery Im gonna have to go ahead and say it going to be nearly impossible to prove you didnt cause this.
just my .02
 
clarkiiclo

clarkiiclo

Active Member
Ok- first there was a grommet in the acess hole. We have done hundreds of installs so its not like we are new to this.
The problem is they said the wire rubbed on the driveline. I dont see how this could happen considering there is about 4 feet between where our wire was secured and where the driveline is.
Also I will attach a picture of what happened to the batteries. It would take over a 1000 amps to cause this type of damage.
 
chawawa

chawawa

Member
ok my wife replied for me sorry i dident know she poasted for me i just got up to speed
if a wire was shorted the burn would be between the short and the voltage sorce (aka. the bats). so if they removed the wire that would be hard to tell. now if an 8 awg wire was used it could cause conciderable damage to the bats. from the picks it looks like the bats. boiled over, not the bat cables burning. looking at the arrangement of the bats in this pic the bottom bat was in the truck in this order but the bottom bat was at the end w/ the damage. knowing that while you were at the shop looking at them did you hapen to see if it looked like a pice of metal could have ben laying accross the 2 terminals that are accross each other. better yet email me the origenal picks so i can see more detail. chawawa20@yahoo.com
hopefuly a good lesson learned though if you dont fuse the WIRE, the WIRE becomes the fuse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
clark is right, kinda hard to prove you dident do this but more important if they took everything out of the truck befor the insurance co. could look at it its going to be hard to porve you did do it.
let me know what goes down.
 
scotts

scotts

Active Member
OK so we are talking DC power here, I know a little. I agree with CH that it looks like something got between the terminals, however here is a real good electrical site. electrical-safety I took out the www part and the .com part in case the ban on linking to websites is still in effect. Go to their message board and put this question in the general discussion area. You will have to register but that is no big deal. Tell them that you are a business owner and that you were recommended to their site, then your situation. They should be helpful and there are a lot of guys there who really know their stuff. If they think you are a DIYer they will not be so helpful. If you title your thread something like the battery went boom then a lot of them will look at your thread. They love to see stuff blow up.
HTH
Scott
 
clarkiiclo

clarkiiclo

Active Member
I thought something got across the terminals too. It takes alot to melt batteries. They claim nothing was on the batteries but I dont know that. They also claim that our wire rubbed through one the driveshaft.
At any rate we just paid for the damages because we would rather loose this fight than the whole war....
 
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