Pulling a Second Solar Cable for more Solar Panels

[allenrude]

Hi All,

not willing to leave well enough alone I am thinking of adding a couple more panels to me 2022 28BH. As I have maxed out my Victron solar controller, the addition of panels will necessitate a second controller. I am willing to do that, but for this I will have to pull a second 10GA pair of wires from the front of the roof thru the front cap to the forward storage compartment where all my solar gear resides. So their in lies the issue and the question if anyone has a silver bullet to get a new wire from the front of the roof into the front storage??

Thanks
Al

[ncitro]

On mine I opened up the wall behind the cabinet in the hutch, then drilled up through the roof. Once down from the roof until that cabinet i was able to route the wires down to the pass through storage behind the false wall. I then screwed the piece I cut out of the back of the cabinet back into place. We keep the instapot in there, so you'd never know unless you were looking for it.

[Yoda]

Hi All,

not willing to leave well enough alone I am thinking of adding a couple more panels to me 2022 28BH. As I have maxed out my Victron solar controller, the addition of panels will necessitate a second controller. I am willing to do that, but for this I will have to pull a second 10GA pair of wires from the front of the roof thru the front cap to the forward storage compartment where all my solar gear resides. So their in lies the issue and the question if anyone has a silver bullet to get a new wire from the front of the roof into the front storage??

Thanks
Al

Do you know where your Black/gray vent pipe runs through the roof and is there a path beside it to the pass through? On my unit there was and that where the dealer ran the wires. The flange is removable as well as the cap. It should be exposed behind the false wall in the pass through too. I am guessing it is in the wall between the bath and try fold sofa. With that big mirror there you could pull it and cut an access hole, or pull the linen cabinet and check there for access. Good luck.

[allenrude]

thanks guys for the 2 good suggestions. I was actually into the wall between the couch and the bathroom fishing a wire from the pass thru to the control panel so i could mount the on off switch for the Victron inverter. Looks like the vent runs up thru this wall so will look at that option first.

thanks
Al

[Country Campers]

allenrude

Here is what I did, Solar Install, Reflection 29RS Fifth Wheel - Grand Design Owners Forums (gdrvowners.com). I believe that from the steps forward our units are the same, mine has a bottom hutch where yours only has the top to make room for the couch.

Brian

[allenrude]

Thanks Brian for attaching your previous post. Believe that I had seen it previously, but at the time was not trying to solve the issue of pulling a second solar cable, I was still screwing around with the first one, but now need to add a second controller so need a new run. What tool did you use to cut the paneling out in the back of the hutch? Not an easy spot to get to nor once where you can use any tool that cuts to deep. Did you use a multi-tool?

thanks
Al

[Country Campers]

Thanks Brian for attaching your previous post. Believe that I had seen it previously, but at the time was not trying to solve the issue of pulling a second solar cable, I was still screwing around with the first one, but now need to add a second controller so need a new run. What tool did you use to cut the paneling out in the back of the hutch? Not an easy spot to get to nor once where you can use any tool that cuts to deep. Did you use a multi-tool?

thanks
Al

Yes I used a multi tool and hearing protection, those things are noisy when your head is stuck inside the cabinet. The panels are about 1/2" thick so do not go much deeper than that as there are wires and vent pipes there as seen in the picture. It is not the prettiest job but it is not seen very often. I drilled a hole in the roof off to the side of the vent and then added an extension to my 1/2" wood bit to drill thru the bottom of the roof truss. Using a string with a small nut tied to the end I dropped that down the hole and then down inside the wall to the basement area, this will take a little patience, and used this to pull the wire to the roof.

Brian

[allenrude]

Thanks for the details. Is it just by luck that you hit a truss or will that always be the case at the top of the wall? I like your combiner box on the roof and if there was a straight shot from the roof to the basement I would just run a straight thru decent size PVC conduit from a combiner box to the basement a be done with it. Who can say if at some point i need another wire from roof to basement and rather than fishing again, would rather just drop thru a conduit..

[Country Campers]

Al,

I believe that the truss is located above the wall by design. I thought about running a conduit but as you can see there is a large group of wires on one side and I could not get the string to fall thru the other side, my wires go down the path of the factory wires. I also drill 2 holes, one for positive and one for negative, used 2 ga wire which will handle just about any solar I can put up there. I also used the second hole to shine a light thru to see the drill going into the bottom of the truss, this is important as I found some 120 v ac wires on the truss and had to move them off to the side to drill. I did remove the inner trim on the vent in the bath to see if I could see what I was doing, did not help at all.

Brian

[allenrude]

Thanks Brian. I may look at going thru the wall behind the mirror under the hitch. Assuming that the mirror is in a position in front of where I want to be, then I would rather go thru there than trying to work inside the hitch. I would probably drill a hole in the area of the wall that i was thinking about removing and stick my endoscope in to see if i was close to the vent pipe as that would probably be the point of reference when on the roof. Sounds like a big hassle just to hook the Furrion 165W panel back up. I disconnected it when I put the 4 BoughRV panels up some time ago, and hate to let it go to waste just taking up space. If i add the 2nd controller and get the wire run i will be probable add a 2nd panel to it as i have room for another in that area and then call it quits.

thanks
Al