conduit

[smithcreek]

Originally Posted by batman

Down the road you may want to add solar or something else you did not think of or did not have the money at the time, what ever the case may be.

But if you didn’t think of it what are the chances you would have a run of conduit that would be useful? That’s what I always wonder when I see people talking about using conduit.

[batman]

Originally Posted by smithcreek

But if you didn’t think of it what are the chances you would have a run of conduit that would be useful? That’s what I always wonder when I see people talking about using conduit.

Good question.
You really don'y know until you discover you want to run some speaker wire, or solar control leads or power to something. Then with your handy schematic that you made you can find a path, or not. Chances are you can get close enough and by oversizing the conduit initially you may have the room you need.

If you can't find a path using your conduit, you are certainly no worse off than not having conduit to start with. My .02

-Dennis

[nevermoor]

gentlemen, as i read your replies i questioned, are not both the blue plastic and metal conduit the same except for material? but as i looked close at mark's link to the manufacturer's site of the blue, it looks that the conduit pipe is corrugated. that then would make it exceedingly difficult to pull new wire through. yes????

i guess for me it boils down to how complex i anticipate my electrically driven needs will be.

again sincere thanks.
di

[markdoane]

I didn't find it at all hard to pull wire through. Pushing wire through it might be a little difficult, unless you bend the end of the wire over.

The corrugations are what lets the tube be bent without kinking.

[rmkrum]

Originally Posted by markdoane

I didn't find it at all hard to pull wire through. Pushing wire through it might be a little difficult, unless you bend the end of the wire over.

The corrugations are what lets the tube be bent without kinking.

The biggest thing with pulling wire into any size or type of conduit is to have the sum of all the bend angles in a run to be 270 degrees (3/4 circle) or less. Otherwise it’s impossible to pull the wires.

A thin wipe of proper wire lubricant on the wires you are pulling in also helps.

Running a double length pull string or lubricated pull tape (even better) with a loop in the middle is an easy cheat to make future work easier as well.

One person to pull wire and another to feed it in also helps a lot. Go slow and patient when you are pulling wires.

Go bigger than you think you need where possible. It’s real hard to stretch conduit bigger later! I know this because I have tried...

[skyguyscott]

I have long lamented that AS does not install conduit in their trailers. Kudos to you for doing it now.

For those who wonder about why, consider the life of the trailer and how often technology changes. Power is only one of the items (consider the coming solar/battery tech, and even if we might ever switch to something beyond 12v)

The other two biggies are data and A/V. We have evolved from antenna wire to coax, RCA to now, HDMI. Telephone jacks to Cat 5 to wireless (how to run external antenna cable?) USB type A is evolving into type C now.

I always wondered if there was a way to run a covered cable tray around the perimeter of the interior walls. I envision a plastic tray, perhaps about a foot wide, divided into several channels that would mount on top of the subtle curve of the interior wall (making it flat) in which one could run whatever cable was needed and then snap on a cover. Running new cable would be relatively easy, just snap off a few covers (or even one at a time) and pull out the old and feed in the new. Has anyone ever made something like that?

To be sure, almost any attempt in running cable conduit would be an improvement over the factory rats nest the trailers are shipped with.

[57Vintage]

From my experience of running conduit in the walls and ceiling I suspect using steel electrical conduit would be difficult. You can't preform the entire length of the run unless you want to cut sections out of the horizontal 'ribs' or you want to do it with multiple pieces.

The aluminum conduit I used has to be reshaped as you go up or down the wall to match the changing curvature of the wall when there are horizontal ribs in your path. I drilled holes when needed to pass the conduit through the horizontal 'ribs' to maintain a little integrity to these flimsy pieces.

Not having any the expertise to be sure, but mixing steel and aluminum in areas we can't inspect and are likely to see small amounts of moisture, is not a path I would choose.

[Isuzusweet]

Just out of curiousity, has anyone pondered the extra weight being added to their trailer, with all these boxes and conduit?

Cheers
Sidekick Tony

[57Vintage]

Can't say that I weighed the conduit and boxes, but when you're rebuilding a vintage trailer from the 50's to early 70's the added weight of additional tanks and plumbing, air conditioning, solar, etc. makes those minimal in comparison IMO.

My thought process was a) this was my first attempt so I expected mistakes or oversight, b) I like to keep corrections, repairs, upgrades as easy as possible, c) after seeing the factory wiring I wanted to protect the wiring better d) I never want to remove/install another interior wall!

Was it necessary? Ask me in a few years and I'll let you know.

[Isuzusweet]

Originally Posted by 57Vintage

Can't say that I weighed the conduit and boxes, but when you're rebuilding a vintage trailer from the 50's to early 70's the added weight of additional tanks and plumbing, air conditioning, solar, etc. makes those minimal in comparison IMO.

My thought process was a) this was my first attempt so I expected mistakes or oversight, b) I like to keep corrections, repairs, upgrades as easy as possible, c) after seeing the factory wiring I wanted to protect the wiring better d) I never want to remove/install another interior wall!

Was it necessary? Ask me in a few years and I'll let you know.

IMHO If you are adding all these other items to your build, all the more reason to be anal about weight!

Have you up the axle capacity to accomodate the extra weight?

I'm renovating an 1978 Argosy 6.7m Minuet right now, with a Coosa subfloor, upgrade to 50 amp service, on-board generator, etc, etc; but I'm ever cogniscent of how much weight I'm adding, and subtracting, (out with the heavy oven/cooktop and furnace and in with a new bigger axle with more capacity.)

One cannot just throw everything, including the kitchen sink into build and hope it tows okay.

Cheers
Sidekick Tony

[57Vintage]

Yes, all the suspension/brakes were upgraded.