Solar panel wires through roof

[Miller Life]

I have a 2016 30 DS. Has anyone added solar panels to the roof? If you have where did you go though the roof to lead the wires down to the solar charger?

[kjlars]

Do a search on YouTube for RV solar installations examples, there a lot of them. They will provide details as to where/how to run wires. Good Luck and thanks for going with solar instead of a fossil fuel generator.

[edm]

We have a 2016 30DS and I installed 340 watts of solar on the roof. The wiring was brought into a distribution box and then routed through the roof in behind the TV. The wire was then route to the front tall cabinet and down to the floor and out to the batteries. Of corse there are a lot of components in between to make it all work. I just didn't list them all.

Hope this helps. Good Luck.

[robo44]

I have 3 190W panels on my 2019 FRF3, was able to locate the support beams to make sure they were used when possible to drill into, made sure to use the hardware to munt, plenty of the right dichor , ran the wires down the plumbing vent an routed into my storage bay for the charge controller.
I would not rely on just VHB tape as some on the internet.
Word of advice, if you are leery of drilling into the roof, you can take your panels to a reputable installer, I had one of my panels mounted for ~$120 in Northern CA. I still ran my own cables.. Best of luck

[Neilthepilot]

I have a 2019 30DS. My battery box is just to the left of the entry door and I have lead-acid batteries so I can't put the solar controller in the battery box and I don't want it inside the door. I already have an inverter/charger so my charger in the back isn't being used. I put off solar till after covid for financial reasons but I will run my panels down the wall behind the rear bedroom tv and use the 6 guage wires from the old charger to connect the solar charger to my batteries. It's a little longer run to the batteries than I would prefer but that's my plan.

As a side note I ran my wifi antenna and one of my dish cables down the wall where the control panel and slide switches are located to the right of the bathroom door.

[robo44]

Neilthepilot - our FR3 set up is the same. For future for thought, I moved my lithium batteries, charger controllers, Inverter, to the storage bay just to the left of where the house batteries & hydraulics are currently on our FR3. Yes, I know one would be giving up storage space outside, but I decided to put my Solar in that bay with plenty of ventilation. Its just a thought of where you can put your Solar Charge controllers, There also is another smaller compartment on the drivers side where you coulds also run your solar charge controller if you want to keep the house batteries where they currently are and your storage. (just a thought)

[rk06382]

Originally Posted by Miller Life

I have a 2016 30 DS. Has anyone added solar panels to the roof? If you have where did you go though the roof to lead the wires down to the solar charger?

My installer ran two pairs of 10 awg solar cables through the fridge roof vent.


Cables go straight down to the compartment next to the batteries.

[Miller Life]

Thanks for all the ideas. I think I’m going through the roof behind the TV. I’ve already ran cable for the satellite dish through the tall cabinet already. Hope to get the panels on the roof before it gets cold may be to late already. Haven’t got them yet.