Interior Wall Composition

[BobK]

I have a Greyhawk 31FK and need to run solar panel cables down from the roof to the charge controller. The wall between the toilet and the bedroom already have the black water vent pipe running up through it. Is that wall hollow? If so, then I can drill a hole in the roof (and patch it thoroughly with Dicor) and another hole near where the black water vent pipe comes out at the bottom. If the wall is filled with foam then the process is a lot harder. I am not talking about an exterior wall. This wall is interior.
Thanks for any help. The local Jayco dealer was not much help. I guess that they have never looked into one of the wall.

[Grumpy]

Interior walls are hollow. Where you might have a problem is occassionally there is some horizontal bracing that your wire may hang up on.

[nbhybrid]

couldn't you come down the same hole as your vent pipe? Generally the holes in the roof are a lot bigger than the pipe to aid in assembly. Might save drilling a new hole

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by nbhybrid

couldn't you come down the same hole as your vent pipe? Generally the holes in the roof are a lot bigger than the pipe to aid in assembly. Might save drilling a new hole

That is very true and you may even have enough room just removing the vent cap and go down next to the pipe.

[el-dubya]

You can find some flexible fiberglass rods used for pulling electrical wire through house walls in the electrical department of Home Depot/Lowe's/etc. They are 4' long sections that screw together to make them longer. These are very handy for fishing wire through walls. Push the rod through first, then attach your cable to it and pull it back through. LW

[Kellys]

Home depot/lowes also sells metal fish tape from 25' might be a little cheaper just my two

[waynem]

I just added solar this summer. I chose to actually come down the grey water vent itself that was by the access door in our 2010 25RKS. There is not much clearance between the vent and the bracing around the access panel, so I don't know if I could have just fished it alongside the vent. Also, I added a cable for a Trimetric 2025 located in the same area, and found that there was some kind of horizontal brace in that wall, I think it is to secure the tub surround. I couldn't tell that brace was there by thumping on the walls, and I couldn't find a way around it with my fish tape. I'm not the world's greatest when it comes to fishing wires, but that was my experience this summer.

[BobK]

Originally Posted by nbhybrid

couldn't you come down the same hole as your vent pipe? Generally the holes in the roof are a lot bigger than the pipe to aid in assembly. Might save drilling a new hole

I looked at running the wire down the same hole that the black water vent uses, but I'm not sure how to secure the wire without damaging the vent pipe cap. Large wire will not slip through the available space.

What I think that I'll do I is to use a waterproof electrical conduit elbow made for 3/4 inch pipe. I'll cut off most of the elbow so that only the base and one connector opening remain. Then I will cut a hole the size of the connector in the combiner box. With the combiner box over a new hole in the roof and enough dicor and screws it should be waterproof. The connector will extend down into the hole and be glued to a 3/4 inch pipe that will extend down through the hollow wall between the toilet and the bedroom. I'm not sure what I will do if there is any kind of brace in the hollow wall. Drilling a hole through it from up on top of the roof could be difficult.

[BobK]

I'm wondering. Does the heavy wire from the solar panels on the roof need to be housed in conduit in the wall? The combiner box (from AM Solar) has a 1x3 inch opening in the bottom that the wire could go through. There is no way to support conduit at this opening, but is conduit needed?

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by BobK

I'm wondering. Does the heavy wire from the solar panels on the roof need to be housed in conduit in the wall? <snip>There is no way to support conduit at this opening, but is conduit needed?

It shouldn't. JAYCO pre-wired the SENECAS, at least the early KODIAK units for solar panels and the wire just runs from the roof down to the battery compartment through the walls with the rest of the wires.

[BobK]

Thanks for the answer Grumpy. I think that I'll do it without conduit. This will simplify things a bit.