There is no real mystery to the safe use of Aluminum Wiring in an
Airstream -most people don't even know that houses today are built with
aluminum wiring for many of the bus and feed lines.
Just make sure you use a dielectric compound designed for Al-Cu use, use
only Al-Cu connectors, switches & outlets. They are all marked as such.
Make sure all connections are seated tightly and then tightened down.
As Gerald mentioned, it's the contact points that can cause the problem
with expansion/contraction and eventual arcing. There is no problem
itself with the wire runs. The housing and RV industry adapted the
Al-Cu practices rather quickly, compared to most issues.
Aluminum wiring was a result of copper shortages/costs during the
Vietnam war (late '60's). The first Alum houses started having problems
with dead circuits, traced to the the wire & point of termination.
There were some fires caused by arcing, but most are urban legend.
There are 100's of thousands of homes with all Alum wiring - and they
aren't all exploding into flames. Just as with anything electrical, you
have to take precautions.
My folk's house is aluminum wired, and I don't worry for their safety,
because we checked it out and dealt with anything we didn't like to see.
Electrician's can do the same inspection if you are unsure of what you
are looking for.
On the Airstream, just make sure that you take the precautions related
to the connection points, and I wouldn't loose sleep over it. (If you
are a real nervous Nelly, go take a peek in your Circuit Breaker panel,
behind the oven & dryer, and at the air conditioner),
RJ
>I'm nervous about the aluminum wiring
> in my '68 Tradewind. Seems I've read about house fires being blamed on
> aluminum wiring. Can coper wire be pulled through the existing runs?
> Surely it's way more complicated that that. Anybody replaced the factory
> wiring with good stuff? Is there any way to modify the existing aluminum
> wiring so it can be used safely and doesn't need to be replaced? Or is the
> existing wiring not that much of a problem?
>
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