Hi All, I've the task this weekend of fitting & setting up my nice new solar panel on Harvey's roof, ready to head off to Le Bug Show in Spa next week. Since the panel will be on the roof & the battery, and neither are psychic, I'll have to physically connect the with cable. I'd like to do this as neatly as possible - ie without the cables visible - but I haven't been able (yet) to find a clear internal path from the roof the floor - the controller widget will be either under the bed or in the engine bay. I believe that cables from the dash area (courtesy light, for example) are routed up inside the A-pillar. Is there a similar 'hidden' path further back? I did try to find a path down through the 'pillar' between the 2 side windows, but without luck. Any ideas...? TIA cheers Paul
Thanks @JamesLey. @sANDYbAY ... Where you drilled the body, was that through into the fresh air duct over the LB? Did you mount the controller in the passenger compartment or the engine bay? Cheers Paul
I think you will struggle to get big enough cables down the pillars If you have no wardrobe you could try some trunking they do lots of shapes now or down the vents
I think I may have a cunning plan, from @sANDYbAY 'S pics. I think I'll route the cables down the roof supports and then behind the (ply) headlining to the rear corner of the roof, near the tailgate hinge. I'll mount the controller there, then run the cables to the battery through onto the air scoop and down into the engine bay. I should get away with just one discrete (grommeted) hole and almost no visible cable. P.
That's pretty much what I did. Because of the layout of my furniture I wanted the controller on the offside and obviously the LB is on the Nearside so my cables go down the offside vent and then across the roof of the engine bay.
Just make sure you have a fuse at the battery end to protect against shorts in the wiring going up to the controller and the solar cell.
If you have no cupboards in the back to hide the cable run. Go up the sliding door rear post, drill one small hole at the edge of the top of the post frame. It's hollow behind and you can thread the cable through and out again. I used the chassis as ground so I only needed to feed the +VE, so one tri-rated cable Not a great photo white cable with print on it then runs off to the left, make a better job of the drilling, but good route after a bit of head scratching.