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The Colonel · 11-16-2016, 04:14 PM

I have a cable I need to run through the refrige vent, but looking at mine, the rain cover is riveted to roof and I can barely run my finger to the top of vent where the mesh screen is. For those that have actually done this, pls share how. What I'm thinking is to drill hole in rain cover to access screen and get a hole through it, run cable from under rain cover, then seal the hole in rain cover. Unless someone has easier way. Thx

DBLee and Southern Belle on the road

dznf0g · 11-16-2016, 04:48 PM

What kind of cable? AM Solar has a combiner box specifically for the fridge vent. The drilling is done in the side of the lower part of the vent.

**azflycaster** · 11-16-2016, 04:49 PM

I did this to run a coax from the antenna to my TV. I drilled out the rivets holding the cover to the roof, Then I expanded the screen to get the coax down the chimney. Once everything was in place I riveted the cover back on with Olympic rivets.

The Colonel · 11-17-2016, 07:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dznf0g

What kind of cable? AM Solar has a combiner box specifically for the fridge vent. The drilling is done in the side of the lower part of the vent.

Interesting but a little $$ for what I want to do. Maybe I'll go in from the side, use a grommet to pass through cable and seal everything around that. Thx

DBLee and Southern Belle on the road

dznf0g · 11-17-2016, 08:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dblee1950

Interesting but a little $$ for what I want to do. Maybe I'll go in from the side, use a grommet to pass through cable and seal everything around that. Thx

DBLee and Southern Belle on the road

What are you doing? Coax...or something else?

The Colonel · 11-17-2016, 04:02 PM

Here's what I did. The combiner box idea made me relook at how to get it in. I decided to drill a hole on the lower side of the vent under the rain cover. Then ran cable through a grommet and into the vent cavity. This way I bypassed the grill on top of vent. I'm running a low loss 240, BTW. The cable hung up on top of fridge so ended up pulling fridge forward a few inches to see what was going on. Got it through and all cleaned up. I just have to seal a few things on top in the morning and done.

Sphere Guy · 11-17-2016, 04:12 PM

Can you post some pics, Please. I need to run a line thru there as well.

Also, How do you get to the vented compartment? My Classic has a solid ?? ceiling in the exterior compartment.

I plan on running a line thru there to the wheel well inner housing to the belly pan and exit at the spare tire recess, and to the A-Frame. It's for a wired rear camera.

Thanks

dznf0g · 11-17-2016, 05:32 PM

I don't think you have to do all that. I believe 30'ers still have pvc conduit under the dinette and living room floors

The Colonel · 11-17-2016, 07:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sphere Guy

Can you post some pics, Please. I need to run a line thru there as well.

Also, How do you get to the vented compartment? My Classic has a solid ?? ceiling in the exterior compartment.

I plan on running a line thru there to the wheel well inner housing to the belly pan and exit at the spare tire recess, and to the A-Frame. It's for a wired rear camera.

Thanks

I'll get a few in am. That seems like a lot of routing. I have the wireless cam that's tapped into upper tail lights.

DBLee and Southern Belle on the road

Re-Pete · 11-17-2016, 11:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dblee1950

Interesting but a little $$ for what I want to do. Maybe I'll go in from the side, use a grommet to pass through cable and seal everything around that. Thx

DBLee and Southern Belle on the road

Recently I had tho run some cat 5 cable in through the fridge vent. A PO had previously removed the vent cover some years ago when they installed solar, so besides just running the new cable in I also had to clean up the old caulking, which was white a job.

Anyway, as said drill out the old rivets holding the cover on. Mark the centers with a fine tipped punch and using a #20 bit drill them out. When you reinstall the cover use Olympic rivets.

After removing the cover clean off any old caulk from the cover and the AS body and use new caulk when replacing the cover.

I bought a pack of grommets at Home Depot or Lowe's that would offer a tight seal for my cable. That should help you to know what size hole to drill in the side of the vent.

I also drilled out about half the rivets holding the vent screen down so I could pull it out off many way and manipulate the cable more easily. I used a 1/8" bit and later used standard aluminum 1/8" rivets to fasten the screen back down. I also used a zip tie looped through the screen to cinch my cable tight after out was run and connected top and bottom. I did this as a precaution so it could not be accidentally pulled from either end. Watch that screen the edges are very prickly.

When closing the cover I first used an erasable marker to outline the ends of the cover so I'd be lined up with the holes in the body as they'd be hidden under the caulk. I reapplied fresh caulk generously because over sized holes had been previously drilled. I installed Olympic rivets and made sure to get them tight. I have an Olympic rivet cutter, but I did not use it. I just clipped the mandrels off at the top of the rivet hat and dabbed caulk over them as they were out of sight.

Sorry, I did not take pictures.

Sphere Guy · 11-18-2016, 06:40 AM

Dnzf0g, thanks, I will look for the conduit. That would be sweet.

I do have an access panel under the dinette table and removed it the other day. It is inside of the main frame rails. I think that the panel is an after thought because the wires for the auto lift are just spliced inside the belly pan and not secured nor heat shrinked against moisture. And it had been removed before because there are 2 sets of screw holes for the panel. Wow, sloppy workman ship!

I did not see the conduit in there, but should be able to get thru the cross member holes.

dznf0g · 11-18-2016, 07:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sphere Guy

Dnzf0g, thanks, I will look for the conduit. That would be sweet.

I do have an access panel under the dinette table and removed it the other day. It is inside of the main frame rails. I think that the panel is an after thought because the wires for the auto lift are just spliced inside the belly pan and not secured nor heat shrinked against moisture. And it had been removed before because there are 2 sets of screw holes for the panel. Wow, sloppy workman ship!

I did not see the conduit in there, but should be able to get thru the cross member holes.

Look under the rear dinette seat, just forward of the wheel well. If they still use the conduit, there should be the ends of two PVC elbows. One with 120 volt wires and one with 12 volt wires coming up out of the floor. The other end of the conduit is under the Credenza. A second set runs from under the credenza to under the streetside arm of the sofa. It may be different in your newer unit, but look for how they ran the wiring from the front , across the living room and across the dinette to the wheel well area. Use the same routing for your cables.

Conduit is OUTSIDE the frame rails, running through the outriggers. See attachment.

Frame_line_drawing.pdf

The Colonel · 11-19-2016, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sphere Guy

Can you post some pics, Please. I need to run a line thru there as well.

Also, How do you get to the vented compartment? My Classic has a solid ?? ceiling in the exterior compartment.

I plan on running a line thru there to the wheel well inner housing to the belly pan and exit at the spare tire recess, and to the A-Frame. It's for a wired rear camera.

Thanks

Here's a link to some photos of installation before I sealed top.
https://goo.gl/photos/qqApJ4JhQhAB39hq9

switz · 11-19-2016, 11:00 AM

Wish it was still conduit. There were just holes in the floor on either side of the coach with a sheet metal trough under the flooring on our 2014 31' Classic.

Gotta cut costs where we can!

dznf0g · 11-19-2016, 12:46 PM

I'm not talking about the cross coach utility tray. I'm talking about conduits running fore and aft along the street side wall.

Sphere Guy · 11-20-2016, 07:52 AM

Thanks dnzf0g,

The drawing helped, but, the new(er) Classics seem to not have the conduits, just wires coming out of the floors under the dinettes.

Under the rear dinette is the 120 volt incoming, outside shower PEX, the 12 volt to the pedestal, and the sub woofer and wires, and a bundle of wires going inside the inner skin.

Under the front dinette is the inverter and battery incoming wires.

Inside the street side couch cubby are the 12 volt wires for the recliner.

I also found that the screws to attach the rear dinette to the floor are not screwed in all the way. Only about 1/3 the way in. So I tried to tighten the up and no way. They are self starting #10 wood screws. Dumb to have that type of screw. But the reason they are not all the way tight is that they are hitting the metal crossmember. DUH.... They didn't even attempt upon assembly to get it right. Now that is POOR workmanship.

switz · 11-21-2016, 02:50 AM

We have retrofitted two runs of PVC conduit street side behind the banana wrap that start at the front of the trailer under the sofa arm rest. One runs all the way back to the front of the wheel well and the other comes up in the triangular cabinet attached to the dinette and then goes back down to the front of the wheel well. The long run is for the 120Vac power wires coming to the Magnum MS-2812 inverter/converter under the sofa from a new sub panel in the street side access storage under the twin bed and then returning to the factory circuit breaker panel in the roof locker above the twin bed. The interrupted run is for the solar wiring that came down the chimney from the roof and we have the TriStar MPPT solar charge controller in the void of that triangular cabinet.

mojoe7009 · 03-23-2017, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dblee1950

Here's what I did. The combiner box idea made me relook at how to get it in. I decided to drill a hole on the lower side of the vent under the rain cover. Then ran cable through a grommet and into the vent cavity. This way I bypassed the grill on top of vent. I'm running a low loss 240, BTW. The cable hung up on top of fridge so ended up pulling fridge forward a few inches to see what was going on. Got it through and all cleaned up. I just have to seal a few things on top in the morning and done.

How did you the cable from the vent area behind the refrigerator into the entertainment cabinet? We have a '17 Classic.

The Colonel · 03-24-2017, 05:46 AM

I only had to run cable from refrig vent down to base where refrig sits. Then used an existing rubber grommet in base, moped it up a little and ran cable inside. From inside, cable was easily pulled thru and for my configuration, routed to the next compartment aft where I setup my wifi and cell boost boxes. I also ran a cable from there aft to the aft wall and mounted an internal cell antenna. My entertainment center (where blue ray, etc) is is in the aft end of AS but up. I didn't have to route anything there.

Erfmann · 04-16-2017, 02:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dblee1950

Here's what I did. The combiner box idea made me relook at how to get it in. I decided to drill a hole on the lower side of the vent under the rain cover. Then ran cable through a grommet and into the vent cavity. This way I bypassed the grill on top of vent. I'm running a low loss 240, BTW. The cable hung up on top of fridge so ended up pulling fridge forward a few inches to see what was going on. Got it through and all cleaned up. I just have to seal a few things on top in the morning and done.

I drilled into the side wall of the vent cover also. But I can't get a wire or string to drop down to the access behind the fridge. Seems like I'm landing on something....possibly the top of the fridge.....how hard is it to pull the fridge out a bit? I imagine I would have to disconnect the propane line, but how is it held in place? Any help/pictures would be great.
Thanks
Erf