Solar chase from roof to basement not aligned

[Foxathome]

I’ve bragged to friends that have installed solar on their rigs and complained about th challenge of getting cables from the roof to the battery area. Grand Design listens and has built in a cable chase from the roof to the basement I told them. See, on my 2020 Solitude 375 RES, there’s a panel on the roof and a sticker in the basement. All I do is pull the panel and take off the sticker! Now I’m embarrassed. Took off the roof plate an a generous 2” or bigger hole is perfect for pulling wires. But looking in I’m unable to see a pass through. So I go into the basement and find the hole there is only 3/4 inch. Deciding it should easily match the hole size on the roof, a handy hole saw makes it easy to see into the wire chase. And my bedroom. And my bathroom. Lesson learned- use a flush trim router bit to cut the hole or some other method to open the hole slowly.

them the part that upsets me. Shining a laser pointer up from the basement the is another hole in the roof that is 3/4 diameter. The best part? It’s 4 inches away from the hole that was placed in the roof. I’ve extended the existing roof access hole and now have an 8 inch opening in the roof to get access.

Very disappointed.

[bertschb]

I found the same thing in my 2019 Solitude 373FB. I tried running a fish tape to bring satellite dish wires down from the roof. After a couple hours I was finally able to get the wires to run down into the basement but they did not come out of the hole labelled satellite. Instead, they came down alongside a pipe. During this process, I also noticed the bathroom light switch stopped working. This happened because the wire run from the roof comes down right where the light switch is. The fish tape dislodged the wires from the light switch. Troubleshooting the failed light switch actually helped me figure out how to get the wires from the roof to the basement because I could now see the fish tape in the wall through the opening of the light switch.

All GD would need to do is use a PVC conduit pipe to make this actually work as advertised. Oh well....

[Foxathome]

There is absolutely no way I’m going to be able to pull 4 10 gage wires through the little hole provided. What is frustrating is that the chase is just like a pipe. It’s a dedicated 1 1/2 by about 3” box from top to bottom. It is just poorly executed.

[steve&renee]

I found the same thing in my 2019 Solitude 373FB... Instead, they came down alongside a pipe.

All GD would need to do is use a PVC conduit pipe to make this actually work as advertised. Oh well....

PVC pipe. What a great suggestion. Can we get this sent in as a suggestion?

On my 2018 310GK, the chase entry and exit holes were sort of aligned, but still far enough apart that I spent a half hour or so trying to find the fish tape. And with the exit hole being so small, it was a challenge to even open up my needle nose pliers and grab hold of the tape.

-Steve

[Cate&Rob]

The idea of a chase or empty conduit has been suggested to Grand Design in the past. This idea would a great advantage between any areas where upgraded electrical features might be added. Entertainment Center to Passthru. Passthru to Main Panel. Roof to Passthru. This idea was rejected because it would add cost. Given that they are advertising the Solar Roof to Passthru chase . . . it is difficult to argue against this being functional.

Rob

[howson]

The idea of a chase or empty conduit has been suggested to Grand Design in the past. This idea would a great advantage between any areas where upgraded electrical features might be added. Entertainment Center to Passthru. Passthru to Main Panel. Roof to Passthru. This idea was rejected because it would add cost. Given that they are advertising the Solar Roof to Passthru chase . . . it is difficult to argue against this being functional.

Rob

GDRV-Emily and GDRV-Megan -- please send the feedback in this thread to the factory. A PVC (or similar) guide does seem like a simple and cost-effective method of establishing an easy way for an owner to get wires from the roof into the unit.

[Yoda]

Folks - another chase to run wires is directly beside the vent stack, In my case this is the wall between the living and bath. My dealer ran the wires through the roof boot and down along the vent pipe. To make it even easier there was the maxi fan control on the wall that they removed to help fish the wires into final position. From looking in the basement and inside the wall there should be plenty of room for 4 10 gauge cables. Hope this helps

Keith

On edit I do like the idea of a conduit - flexible one would work even better as long as it has a smooth interior.

[bertschb]

This idea was rejected because it would add cost. Given that they are advertising the Solar Roof to Passthru chase . . . it is difficult to argue against this being functional.

Yes, it would add cost but speaking for myself, I would gladly pay the extra $20 for the PVC conduit chase on my $105,000 5th wheel. I would guess 90% of other buyers would as well. This chase can be used for solar, satellite and rear cameras so it's very useful to a wide variety of buyers.

As a consumer, I don't like false advertising and this chase from the roof to the basement is very close to false advertising. Yes, there is an access plate on the roof and yes, there is a hole in the basement. BUT, it's very close to unusable as the two holes don't line up and even when using a fish tape, it takes a looooooong time to actually pass wires through this chase. I almost threw in the towel attempting to do this on my Solitude 373FB when I finally saw the fish tape come out alongside a drain pipe. It didn't come out of the marked hole but it was in the basement and close enough. By that time I was a desperate man.

[howson]

Yes, there is an access plate on the roof and yes, there is a hole in the basement. BUT, it's very close to unusable as the two holes don't line up and even when using a fish tape, it takes a looooooong time to actually pass wires through this chase. I almost threw in the towel attempting to do this on my Solitude 373FB when I finally saw the fish tape come out alongside a drain pipe. It didn't come out of the marked hole but it was in the basement and close enough.

Not at all what I assumed this new feature (wire chase for solar) on GD trailers was going to be.

GDRV-Megan and GDRV-Emily -- please know that the owners here are not "bashing" GD. What we're attempting to do is provide first-hand experience so that GD can then use this feedback to improve and continue to lead the RV industry. We want to be your loudest and most enthusiastic proponents! But GD has to fix these issues!

[bertschb]

We want to be your loudest and most enthusiastic proponents! But GD has to fix these issues!

Yes we do!! And remember, I'm on Grand Design unit #3 so I'm as big a Grand Design fan as anybody else out there. Jerry tells me the record is four so I'm close behind! I love our Grand Design RV's but there are some easy "wins" that could be implemented very inexpensively.

[GDRV-Megan]

Good afternoon everyone! Thank you all so much for taking the time to provide this feedback. I have provided this entire thread and some snip its over to our product managers. I will update you all here if they have any questions going forward. Thank you!!

[Foxathome]

GDRV-Megan thanks for the reply. I hope all are well and safe in this crazy time. I have images of the alignment from above and can easily provide any updates. I’m happy to discuss with anyone and provide details, measurements, problems I’ve caused or obtain suggestions on what was the intent of how this was built. I currently have some larger than desired holes in my basement and roof and would appreciate feedback or the ability to provide information.

[Foxathome]

Follow up on my experience. I posted both here and on the Grand Design support request page. After a couple of days someone from GD called and left a message. I was unable to fully understand the name, but called back and explained. I was asked for a case number, but don’t have one. I was passed to someone’s voicemail. Left a message with contact info. No further contact has been received.
The caller in the message was primarily concerned with the big hole I’d opened in my roof. As I was installing a combiner box over the area it is not my biggest worry.
What I would do different next time.

1. Start in the garage and use a flush trim bit on a router to open the Sattelite access hole.
2. Open the roof access panel and look for the hole. Shine a bright light up from the basement.
3. if not aligned, consider removing the wall panel in the bedroom. I don’t know how easy this is, but it would allow opening the header access hole and enlarging it without making the roof access bigger.

I still find this frustrating. What could have been an easy install was made difficult by poor design or documentation. My poor choices ( in hindsight) left me with a damaged roof and bedroom floor.

hopefully this helps someone else.

[bertschb]

I'm jumping back on this thread with the hopes that somebody from Grand Design will read this and make changes to future units. Hopefully one of the mods can flag this so a GD rep sees it.

Shortly after we got our 2020 Solitude I added a Ford backup camera to the rear of the 5th wheel. I ran the wire from the front compartment to the basement and then from there up the "satellite access channnel" to the roof. When I removed the roof access plate I learned there was no hole cut into the attic. There was a hole in the roof under the plate but that was it. I had to cut the hole through the attic space to get the wire down to the basement. Not only was no hole cut but when I did cut the hole, it didn't line up with the "channel" to the basement. It came out in my medicine cabinet! But it gets much worse...

I'm now in the process of adding a rooftop antenna for my mobile cellular router. I'm thinking about using the existing hole that I used for the rear backup camera mentioned above to run the antenna wire. So as I'm looking up into this hole in the medicine cabinet that goes to the roof more closely I notice some cardboard looking material is all torn up. This cardboard looking stuff looks exactly like the material used for the racetrack A/C tube that runs through the ceiling. To get a better look at the damage done to the A/C racetrack tube, I removed the ceiling A/C vent cover in the bathroom and put my phone up into the vent to take a picture back towards where the hole was drilled from the roof and sure enough, there was a bunch of insulation falling down from the attic space as well as large chunks of the racetrack that were damaged on three sides.

The factory roof access plate was located directly over the A/C racetrack tube!! When I drilled the hole into the attic space to run the camera wire down to the basement, I drilled right through the A/C racetrack tube. You can't cut a clean hole through this material with a hole saw. It basically just tears it up. So now my air conditioner is blowing cold air into the attic through the gaping holes in the racetrack tube and there is no way to fix this short of remove a huge chunk of the roof. Not a happy camper! I've been struggling with trying to keep this RV cool. Now I know one reason why.

This is what Grand Design needs to do:
1- Line up the roof access plate with the channel in the wall that leads to the basement
2- Cut a hole from the roof access plate all the way through the roof attic space so wires can actually be fed down to the basement without drilling more holes
3- DO NOT put the roof access plate directly over the A/C racetrack tube!!!!!!
4- Add a PVC conduit from the roof access plate down to the hole in the basement ceiling

Grand Design is doing a huge disservice to customers by implying that the roof access plate and basement roof access hole can be used for running wires. As currently designed, they can not in the Solitude 310GK without damage to the A/C ducting as well as the top and back of the medicine cabinet. As poorly as this "roof channel" is designed, I'm just glad I didn't drill through any electrical wiring when I drilled the hole below the access plate.

This is what's left of my A/C ceiling "racetrack" duct. Sorry for the poor picture quality. This was captured from a video with my phone stuck up into a nearby ceiling vent. You can see the insulation falling down from the hole in the top of the duct. For scale, this damaged area is around 4" across.

[TucsonJim]

GDRV-Megan

Please read the post right before this one. I'm not sure the problem has been resolved on newer builds.

Jim