Running a wire from battery to inside T@b

jkjenn

I know some have done mods requiring you to route wiring. Any tips for running one from the battery box to inside the T@b? I am going to run an RJ45 wire for my battery monitor from the battery box to inside the T@b. I think I would like to mount the monitor below the Alde control panel, so if I can get the wire to the bench area where the converter is, I should be OK. Is it as simple as using the wire fishing thingy and following the existing wiring?

Nomad

I'm betting the easiest way is to run underneith along the frame to just ahead of the wheel well and up through the floor into the bench seat cavity. You can then take the mirror off and snake down the wall to get the wires up to where the Alde controls are. Make sure you call the floor hole.
Oh, and there's also that removable panel on the living side of the shower wall. Between those two openings it should be fairly easy.

manny

Can't u just  connect your wire off the pos. connection at the converter.  12v dc ?    Manny, 2015 t@b L max

JandJ92010

When I installed a 12volt receptacle, I found several unused taps on the back of my converter. Tap into one of those, much easier.

Nomad

Hmmmmm - Hadn't thought of that - Would that give you a direct read on your battery state just as if you were connected to the battery directly?

JandJ92010

Yep. I connected a panel mount volt meter that way also.

Verna

Jenn, I'll be running two cables from my battery to the area of the converter. If you open the bench seat to see...  I'll drill a hole large enough for a conduit through the 2x4 on the floor that your A/C hose goes through. I haven't done the measuring yet, so be sure you will miss the gray water tank. But anyway, because of road debris, etc., I'll run mine in ridged plastic conduit to the area of the battery. I will use a good quality silicon caulk around the conduit where it goes through the floor and also fill both ends with silicone (after I am finished) to keep bugs and water out of the conduit. Hopefully I can get this done in the next two weeks.

As far as fishing the wall for your wiring to go up the wall, drill your appropriate sized hole, tie a screw to the end of a string and drop it down inside the wall. It "looks" like that wall is hollow and you should be able to tape (or core-hitch if you're familiar with that) your RJ45 cable to the string, and then gently pull the string and cable up to the hole.

If you are using a standard inside flat cable with the RJ45 connector already on it, you'll have to protect it from the weather. Those inside cables aren't made for taking the outside extremes of weather. 

Nomad

Jenn/Verna - Sounds like JandJ's method would save a lot of work.

Verna

My new 500 watt inverter says to run cables directly to the battery for the full 500 watts. 

Nomad

Verna - Ya, anything above 400w goes direct but you'd still be "direct" wouldn't you? Or would the converter draw away from the inverter?.
JandJ's should work for a battery monitor like Jenn wants though I'd think.

Verna

The solar battery monitor I have has the RJ45 wiring, but it plugs into one of the pieces of equipment I purchased. Yeah, something I had to have, but my finger surgery got in the way of me installing all of this equipment. I'll get "round to it". 

Jenn will need to research her equipment to see where it can be connected. 

Photomom

There's some great info about inverters here: https://www.donrowe.com/power-inverter-faq-a/258.htm

"Direct to the battery" means connecting the terminals on the inverter directly to the terminals on the battery, using a pretty darn short wire of pretty darn heavy gauge. There's a nice chart part way down the above page that helps identify the appropriate gauge wire given inverter wattage and length of cable run.

What we've found using in inverter to charge a laptop while traveling is the inverter gets very hot - which means that some of your precious battery capacity is being converted to heat instead of electricity. 

Also, be sure to see the "How long can I run the inverter on my battery" calculator on this page.

ChanW

Don't make the mistake I made, thinking I could pull the mirror off the shower wall. 

It's glued on tight, to seal against water. I made a bit of a mess back there.

ChanW

You could try to fish the cable through the same route as the existing wire harness, it would be a little tricky. On mine, the outside wires go into the Tab from the junction box in the middle area of the front, which puts them inside the cavity below the water-pump in the shower.

See if you can peek down in the bottom of the water pump area, maybe with a mirror, to see what kind of room you'd have to work.  I fished a wire from the convertor area up to the pump area to install my tracking device, and that was pretty easy. The wires and pipes run in a pretty big space along the outside wall of the Tab next to the black-water tank. You can see them from under the bench there. That big bump in the bottom outside wall of the shower is empty.

I think the tricky part will be getting the wire into the Tab. You might want to go in the same hole that the other wires go through, from the outside junction box.

Nomad

ChanW - Mine isn't - Loosen screws, comes right off.

Nomad

Photomom - good to know - thought there might be a cable length issue as both my inverters have short (2ft max) direct connect cables.

jkjenn

Battery monitor shouldn't gave anything connected before it or it won't measure it. It needs to reconnected directly to the battery. It has proprietary cables that'd rather not mess with, too.

Thanks, Verna and Chan. Chan, wonder if I could fish it from pump area to outside and then from pump area to convertor area? Going to try to take a look a little later. Probably won't attempt this until the weekend when I have ample daylight and time. I also have to figure out if the shunt will fit in my battery box. It had a little spare room.

This is why I ask. I knew I wasn't the first or only one who had done this! I also guessed @Vernawould have some insights from her Telco says.

Nomad

If connected to the same battery cables as the the converter, you don't exactly have something in the middle. As I recall from the last time I looked, it seemed the cables ran underneith that ledge on the outside wall of the shower.

jkjenn

PXLated said:

If connected to the same battery cables as the the converter, you don't exactly have something in the middle. As I recall from the last time I looked, it seemed the cables ran underneith that ledge on the outside wall of the shower.

Battery switch and solar. Besides, uses an RJ45 cable and a positive with a special connector on the end.

Verna

The last time I put the creeper under the T@B, I saw no wires that were coming out of the front of the T@B. My thought is that you would be taking a great chance of water intrusion if you drill out the front. That is why I will be drilling downward. 

Normfun

There is a conduit that the hitch and battery wires run in. There might be room for your wire in there. It's easy to see from under the bench. Try feeding a thin wire snake through then pull your wire back. 

ChanW

The little junction box (on ours) is about 3"x7", plastic, and it's where the wires from the battery and the 7pin connector enter the trailer. There might be room to go through with those wires.

jkjenn

normfun said:

There is a conduit that the hitch and battery wires run in. There might be room for your wire in there. It's easy to see from under the bench. Try feeding a thin wire snake through then pull your wire back. . 

Thanks. I fish wires in frequently enough that I always do this backwards. I know exactly where that is.

Verna said:

The last time I put the creeper under the T@B, I saw no wires that were coming out of the front of the T@B.

Creeper. I really need to get one as much I have slide under my vehicles.

I am going to do my best to avoid drilling, but if I have to, I will follow @Verna's advice. ChanW said: The little junction box (on ours) is about 3"x7", plastic, and it's where the wires from the battery and the 7pin connector enter the trailer. There might be room to go through with those wires. I found this because I was curious over the summer where the wires entered the T@b.

Verna

Harbor Freight has a plastic creeper on sale frequently. I never thought I'd ever need one, but it sure comes in handy for the T@B and the former Silver Shadow. 

Michigan_Mike

I have used flex tubing and ran inverter cables into my Silver Shadow, drilled up into my under-bed storage area and mounted an inverter in that area.  What I did was use straps and secured the flex tubing to the frame and applied silicone to both entry points to protect the wood against moisture.  

I bought these cables on Amazon and they worked great up in Alaska and back.  

Mouseketab

When I installed my power mover, I had to run the wires from underneath the trailer to the inside battery. (DM clamshells have the battery under the front closet). I simply drilled a hole and ran them through, then added a ton of silicone caulk from both the inside and out.

Bgkirk

Jkjenn, are you installing the trimetric 2030?  I installed ours above the Alde controls. I drilled thru the floor in the bench seat area and ran along the frame to the battery area. There is aluminum in the floor so make sure you don't drill into that if you decide to drill. I mounted a small electrical box on bottom side of trailer for wire to come thru floor into and exit with conduit connectors.  I think you will really like the addition to your system. 

jkjenn

Bgkirk said:

Jkjenn, are you installing the trimetric 2030?  I installed ours above the Alde controls. I drilled thru the floor in the bench seat area and ran along the frame to the battery area. There is aluminum in the floor so make sure you don't drill into that if you decide to drill. I mounted a small electrical box on bottom side of trailer for wire to come thru floor into and exit with conduit connectors.  I think you will really like the addition to your system. 

Thanks. Close...Victron BMV-700. Where did you install the shunt? It won't fit where I thought it would down on the bottom of the battery box (literally about 5mm too big) so I am leaning towards a small project box (to keep it clean and dry with adhesive on top of the battery.

Bgkirk

Our batteries are inside the T@B diamond plate propane box. I mounted the shunt to the aluminum structure on the back wall then brought the negative up thru the shunt inside the box. A little different setup as compared to your nice setup. Little project box sounds like a great way to go. 

jkjenn

I starting fishing wire today. For other's reference:

There was not enough room in the conduit that goes from the battery to the junction box. The junction box, itself, is plenty crowded, I could probably get a smaller, rounder wire through, but the flat RJ45 would be pretty tough.

After some investigation, which resulted in dropping my cell phone to the bottom of the space behind the toilet and me having to get help to fish it out, I decided I would use the vent below the fridge as my entry point.

I took the fishing doo-dad and ran it from the bottom cupboard, below the sink, up to the space behind the toilet. I taped the RJ45 to the fishing line and pulled it through to the cupboard where my freshwater tank is located. I will drill through from this cupboard space to the storage area below the fridge.

Next I fished a wire through the conduit that goes from the space behind and below the shower, accessed in the bench area where the converter is located. This goes to the space accessed through the panel behind the toilet. I then, taped the RJ45 to the fishing line and pulled it back through the conduit to the area where the convertor is located.

There is a piece of screen below the vent in the storage are so I just need to figure out if I want to cut that piece and put tape around it or try a different method (open to suggestions.

Verna

Jenn, I haven't looked at the fridge vent and its screen, so I have no suggestions as to what to do with the screen.  I do know that I sure wouldn't want to leave a hole in the screen.  Michigan Mike has had to fight fire ants (or maybe just ants) a couple of times while wintering in Florida and that would be an excellent entry point for the ants.