On your mind | 15 However there is no easy way to conceal the wiring between the batteries inside the motorhome. The only alternative would be to drill a hole through the metal plated wooden floor near the house batteries and drill another hole in the metal recess where the vehicle battery is situated or run the cable up through the engine compartment and then run the cable underneath the motorhome. When one lives in their motorhome, they don’t have or have room to carry the tools necessary for this type of installation. It is also surprising Collyn didn’t advocate using fuses in the cable as there is a lot of energy (from both batteries) that would burn up the cable if a fault was to occur. It would not surprise me if this were to contravene electrical wiring rules. So my solution may be
“over the top”, but in my situation it was the most practical and it works! Regards, Ronald. Yes Ronald, your letter certainly did ‘spark’ a lot of interest! Let me leave you with a response from “Guru” Collyn Rivers: “My response was simply a brief general comment, not an instructional article. It is not usual to include fuses in loose 'jumper-lead' style connections as suggested, but if done it would need a fuse at either end of the positive cable to protect fixed wiring, but there are no legal requirements regarding this. Re being labelled a Guru, having studied a few of the Kimberley's Aboriginal languages at Notre Dame Uni in Broome I am wary of the term as it means 'wallaby shit' in one of them!
Real Roadside Assistance Issue 96 jogged my memory and I thought I would share it with you. Around last September we reviewed our roadside assistance cover and decided that the Fiat cover supplied with our new 4.5 tonne GVM motorhome was insufficient, especially the towing cover. We decided to extend our RACV cover to add the Tow Pack. Two weeks to the day later we are in the free park at Ballarat and our rear driver’s-side wheel sank into the ground. We were well and truly stuck! A call to RACV and after a little wait we had a tow truck to winch us out; no harm done and no cost. Incidentally, we will be reluctant to return to Ballarat as it is impossible to find any long vehicle parking near the centre of town. Regards, Gerry and Linda. Well that was good timing! I had a few emails alerting me to the RAVC’s Tow Pack roadside
assistance option for bigger vehicles, which we missed in our article. According to the RAVC website, “The Tow Pack upgrade is specifically designed to give those travelling with a motorhome, caravan or trailer complete peace of mind. The increased size and weight allowances for towing coverage, added to your Total or Extra Care package, ensure that you’ll get the benefits of roadside assistance and be towed to a place of repair if we can’t get you going, avoiding additional fees.” Adding the Tow Pack increase the allowable GVM from 4 to 8 tonnes, height from 2.7 to 3.3 m, width from 2.3 to 2.5 m and length from 6.7 to 9 m. Cost varies from $57.60 to $72.00 extra depending on the colour of your RACV membership card and of course is in addition to the added costs of basic roadside assistance membership and the Total or Extra Care packages. For more information visit the website here.