Denny,
I've talked with a couple of professional electricians about the aluminum wiring in my A/S, and watched the traffic here. The consensus seems to be that if you have aluminum wiring, it's a good idea to disassemble every connection, scrape off any oxidation, coat the wires with anti-oxidant paste, and reassemble. Use only devices with screw terminals, never the "quick connect" style that's popular
today, and of course the device must be rated for aluminum. I'm told that it should say "Cu/Al/R", the "R" meaing "revised".

Although I certainly wouldn't use aluminum in any of MY wiring, I wouldn't be scared of a trailer that I knew had aluminum wire and that I had checked out thoroughly.

<<Jim>>

Denny644@aol.com wrote:

> Bob,
> thanks for the answer. Actually, the aluminum oxidizes at the joints or
> splices. The resistance of these joints can go really high. This translates
> directly into heat. That means when you fire up your A/C, the wire splice
> starts to heat up and act like a light bulb, but without the bulb.
>
> There are places where aluminum is used withspecial fittings and such, but I
> suspect its not for us amateurs. And no, I would not buy a house with AL
> wiring, nor would I use it in a trailer.
>
> One place it is used is here in ohio, from pole to house....that's AL with
> some kind of stranded wire that is the ground. At the weatherhead, there is a
> transition from AL to CU, that uses special compression fittings. The
> electrician who did mine had a small electrically pumped hydraulic crusher
> thing that made the actual joint. That's the closest i want to get to AL
> wiring.
> thanks,
> denny
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