Routing Rear Shell Solar Panel Wiring to Battery Compartment

[wedwards10005]

Hello friends! Does anyone have experience wiring a solar panel atop the rear shell into the rear battery compartment? I’m not entirely sure how to route the cable off of the roof, and it’s precarious because of how much the cable needs to move, unless you route it forward to the upright, which then requires the solar cable to go under the bag seal.

 

[jagizzi]

I tried to stay away from the bag seal and managed, mostly. There is a bit of chafing where the cabling takes its forward turn to run to the lift arm but not bad. This is now the 4th year and all has been good. Note the one cable anchor that had to be abandoned due to cable movement at the top of the lift arm. I went into the back compartment through the floor.

 

[wedwards10005]

Jagizzi, thank you so much! This is exactly what I have been looking for. I appreciate you taking the time to leave an answer. I’ll attempt to copy your setup and let you know how it goes.

Cheers!

 

[Matt C 310]

We ran our cable down the street side behind the window on the rear shell in a piece of wiremold, then along the bottom of the shell, down the lift arm, under the floor, then up to the battery compartment. Sealed the floor penetration with expanding foam with aluminum tape to cover and used silicone to seal the top of the wiremold. Install was done in 2019.

 

[rickst29]

Jim's method is good, but I use wire channel (like Matt) to protect the cables going down in Matt's locations (behind the Window).

But unlike Matt, I used another segment of wire channel, horizontal, along the 'bottom' of the rear shell vertical side (slightly above the edge). The loop to handle lift bar movement occurs at the end of that horizontal wire channel segment. From the lower end of the lift bar, my paired solar cables go through the tiilt-to-clamp "cover" for the 30A cable cover, and up from that area. You can trim a bit of the cable slot cover and inner "flexing pie" clamp arms to route the solar cable through the same entry, even when the cover is in the closed position.

If you use my method, you do need to be careful not to pinch the solar cable pair with the bar when you lower the shell..