Most of the 'mounting tabs' for my 18-year old WFCO 'Power Center' have broken off, because the plastic has become brittle with age. I replaced the pwer converter section log ago, but I'm now thinking that I should discard and replace the entire panel -- primarily due to "issues" with design of the 12V section, and the presence of a neutral bus bar near the fuses and their downstream wires.
The first problems involve the 12V input power ports along the left side of the fuse board. They also use ATC fuses, even though the maximum size for an ATC fuse is only 30A. vthere are two such ports. In original wiring, one connects the main Main Converter Board Assembly ("MBA") 12V outpt wire, and the other connects the "12V" wire from the battery bank.
The original WFCO "55A" Converter Board was never capable of putting out 55A for an appreciable time, and a "30A" fuse was adequate. But some of its replacement boards can easily burn out that fuse, and can even burn out a nonstandard "40A" version as well.
If you attempt to support more than 40A on either of those ports, the small contact area provided by the legs of standard ATO/ATC fuses is inadequate. (The fuse legs are not clamped in place using screws under high pressure, they are only held by weak spring clamps.)
But even 40A requires 8-AWG wire size, and the WFCO box provides ZERO room at the side of the board to bring 8-AWG wire ends into those terminals. I have currently twisted those input wire ends into crazy shapes, and drilled extra holes in the back of the WFCO box to provide "easier" wire entry. But it looks (to me) like a problem waiting to happen, when road travel causes those over-bent wires to distort and loosen.
For the case of a high-powered converter board sending power to the battery cable, through the terminal board, the "hot" plane of the board itself might have issues (with almost 60A in and maybe almost 60A out, all through loose and small fuse connectors and severely bent terminal wires).
The second set of problems involves a lot of Neutral "12V Grounding Wires" coming into the same area - the front of the 12V wiring section, where many have been attached to a shared bus bar. (WFCO more recentrlygot rid of this design defect, but my old one still has it). The 12V fuse board itself also has a gigantic lug for connection of two big Grounding Wires", even though the only use of grunding on the fuse board is to light up the tiny LED warning light when a fuse fails.
That's all crazy. The only "grounding wire" into the board should be small (no larger than 14-AWG) and the bus should be separated by a great distance. None of the other white "12V neutral grounding" wires should have ever entered the front section of the WFCO box at all.
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I need less than 7 "12V" fused ports in the area under the bathtub. ( which is independent of the original TM wiring. I plan to replace the old fuse board with a pair of these 4-port "maxi-fuse" blocks:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/122894438164. Maxi fuses have much larger legs, and they can be bought to support much higher amounts of current. (Although they also support small current limits, such as '5A" maximum)
The power handling in these 3x4 maxi boards is huge. I will connect two block together using a short segment of AWG-2 (ports are provided on the side), and then use 8 "downstream" ports to replace the WFCO board. (I'm adding a 3rd block up front, near the batteries, but that location is independent of the original TM wiring.)
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At the same time I replace the "12V" fuse board, I will replace the fully-populated "12V and frame grounding lug" along the inner right side of the WFCO with a new lug - probably with more ports. I will also be replacing the 120-VAC section with a new Din-rail mini breaker box. (This one:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CPV9NQ2M It includes Neutral and Grounding bus bars with more ports than the old WFCO box provided.
I hate that WFCO fuse board! (with 12v ATC fuses)
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