Mystery Dump Failure Solved

[tucsonjwt]

So, I have a dump conversion on my C20 and I am helping a neighbor on his fixer upper second home here in Tucson. I have been disassembling and loading up old termite infested wood fencing in the back yard and taking it to the dump. I had a good sized load on the truck and thought I would check the dump function before I loaded it to the max - no juice to dump switch. So, I just went to the dump and hand unloaded the 1400 lbs. of fencing.
I stopped by the shop who installed my dump conversion (happened to be located right across from the dump - APC.) I told them the dump was working last week and I thought it must be something simple like a fuse. The manager told me he had only one worker on duty at the time, so he had that guy look at my truck. After a lot of looking and translating from Spanish to English he discovered that the main power cable to the dump motor/pump mechanism had been severed.
It turns out that all of the electrical and hydraulic lines were secured with plastic tie wraps. After about 8 years of HotZona heat and exhaust heat the tie wraps failed on the main power cable and it dropped onto the driveshaft which quickly severed the cable.
So, I set off to do the repair.
I got a small metal buss bar type splice connector for the broken cable. This cable was 2 AWG (for some reason the cable sheathing was labeled 14/4 trailer cable, but it was just one stranded 2 AWG cable.) The electrical supply house sold me the set screw type connector and some special insulating tape which look liked very dense but thin weather stripping.
I used the insulating tape and covered it with regular PVC electrical tape.
I replaced all of the plastic tie wraps with small radiator clamps through the small frame holes and attached larger radiator clamps to the small clamps, then used the insulating tape and electrical tape over the whole clamp setup.
So, I learned about insulating tape, heavy duty connectors, and why plastic tie wraps should not be used in hot environments. Plus, I got my dump hoist working again.
Now I get to show off at the dump with my one step unloading dump conversion. Better than cruising the Inns in my Vette at a youngster.

[legendman]

Pics pics pics we need pics.

[tucsonjwt]

Sorry, everything is taped up now. But this is the type of connector I used. The electrical shop guys said this was used in an electrical panel to provide attachment for two ground wires. The hole in the center is used to attach the connector to the electrical box - sort of a mini ground bar. It has a dual use as a splice connector for a broken cable and you don't use the center hole for anything.

http://www.tequipment.net/Ideal87-143.asp

Here are the pics showing where the break occurred (big fat splice in the center) and if you look closely you can see the small radiator clamps slipped through small frame holes, and the bigger radiator clamp slipped through the small radiator clamp. I wrapped the bigger clamps in insulating tape prior to covering the whole thing with electrical tape. The second pic shows the hydraulic line being supported the same way.

Here is what electrical insulating tape looks like. It is a two layer cushioning type thick tape. It is somewhat sticky and is supposed to adhere to itself but I found it to be not quite sticky enough to stay in place without additional PVC electrical tape on top.

http://www.electrotape.com/electrica...-tapes-40.html

I am sure this fix won't be printed in the Journal of Electrical Engineering, but it is better than plastic tie wraps holding everything up.