Routing Battery Cables from Curbside to Street side?

[explore more]

We have a 2010 FC-30

We're planning on a big battery bank, lots of solar, and a Magnum MSH 3000W Hybrid inverter.

We're installing the inverter today, trying to decide on the best way to run cable.

We've decided the best place for our battery bank (planning on lithium) would be in the bottom of the curbside closet. The only issue is that our inverter is being installed under the fridge, on the street side.

So that requires running our huge cables from the curbside to street side. I imagine it's going to be impossible to fish the cable underneath the subfloor and make it pop up.

We're thinking of drilling a hole in the floor, popping the cable down to the dexter axle, connecting it to the axle, then popping it back up through the floor on the curbside, right under the fridge.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas?

We really don't have any other great places to put the battery bank.

[mixedpuppy]

On the 27FB there is a channel that runs under the floor from one side to the other, accessible under the closet (street side) and under the power center (curb side) where the converter is. I'd be a little surprised (not entirely) if the 30 didn't have a channel like that somewhere. I'd look into that before planning to do something more extensive.

[explore more]

Awesome. We have the same chase. SUPER helpful, Thanks!

[mixedpuppy]

Also [on the 27FB], there is a channel that goes from under the front curb side night stand to under/around the water heater [which is next to the power center]. I ended up not using it since we couldn't figure out how to access that without taking out the water heater or cabinet.

[J2Becker]

Mixed puppy how did you access the channel at the nightstand end? I am considering more solar and looking at running cable down the refrig and across to the curb side using the channel from the closet to the converter and then forward to get to the 12V bus...

[mixedpuppy]

I only discovered the channel by removing the nightstand (not too hard to do). The channel is underneath the night stand, only accessible after removing it. We fished into the channel and it ends up somewhere under the bathroom cabinet near the hot water heater, but were unable to [figure out how to] access it so we ran cable on the other side. I got a cable channel from home depot and put it along the floor/wall from the shower to the night stand on street side. That was much easier but required drilling holes to put the wires through. I'm about to replace the water heater with an on demand heater, hopefully I'll have a better idea where the channel comes up in the bathroom after that.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by explore more

We've decided the best place for our battery bank (planning on lithium) would be in the bottom of the curbside closet. The only issue is that our inverter is being installed under the fridge, on the street side.

Be careful when installing a battery bank anywhere but on the centerline, so that you maintain proper side-to-side weight distribution. If one side is heavier than the other by a significant amount, you could overload the tires and/or brakes on that side, and you may need to move something else to the opposite side to restore the weight distribution.

A trip to the public scales to find out your present side-to-side weight distribution would not be amiss. You can measure this by weighing the whole trailer, then going back over the scales with only one side on the scales and the other side on the ground to get the weight of one side.

Ideal weight distribution has all of the trailer wheels pretty close to equally loaded.

[explore more]

That's a great idea. It'll be opposite the fridge. We don't really have any other places to put the batteries, so we're stuck where they are, but we'll be running a Lithium Ion battery pack, so it'll be under 180 lbs. Still, you raise some excellent points. We'll keep an eye on it.

[barts]

On our '71, I added a pass-through inverter near the batteries, but the 120 VAC was on the other side of the trailer. I ended up drilling 3 5" diameter holes in the bellypan and running the wiring there under the floor; I riveted aluminum plates over the holes once I was done. The older trailers have no wiring chases under the floor; all the wiring is in the shell.

Remember to put a very good circuit breaker or fuse very near (within 18")
the batteries. You'll need something with very high interrupting current rating, of course.

- Bart

[explore more]

Thanks. We'll have a 400A fuse right on the battery.