drilling a hole?

[cachencouple]

Hi everyone,
I posted this to the Rockwood forum but perhaps this area would be more appropriate...

We have an 8280WS and I recently bought a Go Power portable solar panel kit. I've used it a few times and it seems to work fairly well.

Now I want to mount the plug-in connector permanently to the trailer so I don't have to leave the hatch open when I'm using the panel. This, of course, involves drilling a hole to run the wires into the battery compartment from the outside to attach to the batteries.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to where I should drill this hole? I.E. in the floor of the battery compartment? in the front wall through the fibreglass? maybe through the lower plastic trim??

Anyone ever done this before?

Thanks,
Gord

[Jim34RL]

Hi, I have not done any modes to my new camper has of yet; but on my 2010 318SAB Cougar I needed to install a satellite feed. I drilled the installation hole for the waterproof connection in the floorboard under the entertainment section. This I figured was the safest location to prevent water entry into the camper. Water will not travel up-hill. I then caulk the connection with waterproof caulking that is used for RV trailers.


I would suggest that you go to a camping store and look for some sort of plastic device would allow you to pass the wires thru from under the camper so as to prevent water enter from a driving rain or water run off.


Jim W.

[Lefty59]

Originally Posted by cachencouple

Hi everyone,
I posted this to the Rockwood forum but perhaps this area would be more appropriate...

We have an 8280WS and I recently bought a Go Power portable solar panel kit. I've used it a few times and it seems to work fairly well.

Now I want to mount the plug-in connector permanently to the trailer so I don't have to leave the hatch open when I'm using the panel. This, of course, involves drilling a hole to run the wires into the battery compartment from the outside to attach to the batteries.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to where I should drill this hole? I.E. in the floor of the battery compartment? in the front wall through the fibreglass? maybe through the lower plastic trim??

Anyone ever done this before?

Thanks,
Gord

Any chance you can just fish the wires up and out of the battery compartment through the venting system tube and tie wrap the wires/connector to the vent slat(s)?

I think it would be possible on our Wildcat but not sure on your model.

[Lefty59]

Another thought would to be to bring the wires into the front hatch area through the propane storage area...at least on on our Wildcat. There is a hole for the manual crank to retract the landing gear that should work although keeping the wire out of the landing gear would have to be addressed.

If no hole there on your Rockwood...maybe you can drill one inside the compartment? That's where I would do it.

Best wishes!

[Lefty59]

Actually, now that I think about it a little more you can probably fish the wire through alongside the propane crossover hose. Don't have my RV at home to verify, but I'm pretty certain that will work without having to drill a hole at all.

Could probably just let the connector hang inside the propane storage cabinet until ready to use and then just drop it out the bottom.

[cachencouple]

Finally got around to doing this. Actually I was looking at something else and found a way to do this. I had the 'belly pan' loosened to look inside and saw some wires heading for the front, I followed them and found a hole already through to the front (battery) compartment. It's a little tight, the wires go up right in front of the grey water tank, buy I managed to get my hand in there and poke the wires I wanted to add right up next to the existing wires. There was already a grommet in the hole... bonus!

I'll try to upload a couple of pictures of the outside installation, unfortunately I didn't take any pictures when I had the belly pan loose, probably couldn't have gotten the camera in there anyway.

If you need to do this and want more details, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Gord