Solar panel wiring

[medicmaniac]

Wondering how to get the solar panel wires through the rear air vent and into the cab. 89 vanagon. Which side is easier? Is there any getting around drilling a hole once I route through the air vent? Ty!!

[Alaskaberrys]

I haven’t got that far yet on our westy, but on panels on the roof are planned. I’ve been reading of several routing options in these threads -
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/search.php?searc...=titleonly

If you have a tip top there are fewer clean options.
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'91 Westfalia, Bordeaux Red Pearl 2.1L 2wd Auto
'91 T3 Syncro Doka, Escorial Green 1.9L TD AAZ “Gremian” (to provoke, irritate, exasperate, vex...)

[DuncanS]

What kind of car do you have?

[Steve M.]

Where is your battery going to be?

Example: if under bench seat on passenger side then you would be putting a hole for the positive wire to the Alternator/starter connection to charge it while the engine is running. so that dictates putting your wiring on that side.

Mine is coming in through the passenger side air vent down along the power steering lines to go through a factory hole of passenger side forward engine compartment to follow along subframe to the rear bench seat body.
The my direct connection to the Alternator cable is at the bottom of picture.(it was easier then connecting to starter on the Syncro)

Note the rubber hose around the battery cable to protect against chaffing. Same on solar cables.

I had the holes in the bench seat metal from when the P.O. had LPG Fuel tank installed under the bench seat. Both battery and solar cables are protected from chaffing even though the red battery cable doesn't appear to be.

If the P.O. did not have the large holes cut through the firewall I would have use waterproof cable glands.

Coming off the roof through the air vent I have the solar wiring quick disconnects on the roof by the Yakima A1 Tower so the panels can be removed easily.

Another note: Use a Silver Sharpie to id the black cabled pos. & neg. especially at the ends!
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This free advice is worth exactly what you paid for it.

There are seven days in a week. Someday is not one of them.

[Crooked Designer]

Not sure what you're driving, but if it is a westy, you can hide the wiring by running it into the pop top (I have a gland behind the awning) and then drill two holes in the back just above the back hatch on the driver's side. There is room between the tent and where the pop top rests when closed (you can see the white line where the seal rubs on the paint. This drops right into the spot where the rear defroster wiring lives and there's already an access hole on the inside.. From there, ran behind / through cabinets. It's very clean looking.

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'85 Westy full camper, Subaru 2.5L, 5 speed SubiGears + 5speedbus shifter kit

[DuncanS]

Steve M write: My solution for that and the place to mount a solar panel:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=661562&start=80

Don't know why people are so afraid to drill holes. A huge number of us do and no van I know of has rusted to death as a result, nor has anyone drowned inside because of rain leaks.

There are a ton of ways to waterproof a neat entry point for wires that don't look like a fraternity dorm room with wires draped all over the place. If it were mine, I'd drill a hole under the plywood support cross member and just behind the left rear gutter post and thread the wire into the area I wanted it.

There are these: https://www.westmarine.com/buy/ancor-marine--through-deck-wire-seal--P009_275_003_512
and these
https://www.fisheriessupply.com/ancor-watertight-wire-seal-for-flat-cable/765012

I actually would use nothing and seal around the hole with 4200. Neater, and will never, ever leak. That way you have the advantage of having a hole large enough to pass the plug through if it can't be removed for an Ancor type of pass through.

Or you could take a bronze piece of threaded rod--a section from a 1/4-20 bolt and drill a ½" hole. Then a pair of rubber or silicone washers on either side of the tin with metal washers and nuts to hold eyelet terminals on either side. That way, your equipment or wiring is easily removed. Put some Plastic Dip on to seal the exterior connection from corrosion. If no threads are above the upper nut, then it will be a low and unobtrusive connection.

Lots of clean neat ways to skin this cat and have it look "right".

[Gnarlodious]

I runned the cables down the driver’s side vent intake. I drilled a hole with an air drill, which is small enough to fit inside the triangle you see back there when you take off the inside panel. I ran the cables through there and gooped up the opening to seal it. My charge controller is stuck on the inside metal with magnets.
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Vanagon ’83 diesel AAZ w/Giles injection, 5spd 4.57R&P+TBD and a '78 diesel Rabbit

[pemz0r]

This is how I routed my wires. I used a step up drill bit to drill a hole big enough for my wires from the outside to the inside. I have two wires from the solar panel and another wire that is from my light bar. I tried using a 3M sticky zip tie holder on the rain gutter but the wires over powered it, so I drilled into the rain gutter and zip tied it all down.

[Robw_z]

There is a bulkhead (panel you need to drill through) between the empty space behind the air vent and the cabin.

I removed the vent, and drilled through the bulkhead (the drill was pointed towards the front of the van). The wire then comes out under the bench seat, where my house battery is.

It’s been 10 years no problems. Be sure to leave slack in the wires behind the vent, so any water that trails along wire will drip off at it’s lowest point and not into the cabin.

-Rob

[Zeitgeist 13]

I used one of these I got off eBay for our EV

https://www.amazon.com/Link-Solar-Weatherproof-Pro...&psc=1

I'm not in the least bit shy about drilling into a van.
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Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[Sodo]

[Red Ryder]

Then again, one could use portable solar panels with a nice waterproof plug on the side of your van closest to the onboard electronics suite. Just sayin’…
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“Most everyone’s mad here. You may have noticed I am not quite all there myself.” — Cheshire Cat, Adventures of Alice in Wonderland

“Scarlett” — 1990 Vanagon Carat Wolfsburg Edition
Tornado Red

[DuncanS]

[Zeitgeist 13]

I ran both so the ground could be run through my house battery shuf off switch.
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Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[Sodo]

[DuncanS]

For main disconnect, ground is better to get rid of than hot. If you remove the positive and somehow the positive connects with the body then there are sparks. If you remove the ground from the battery the positive can't do any harm.

[Sodo]

[Zeitgeist 13]

My reasoning was that I didn't want any random ground back-feeding into house systems, but then again if I have engineered the system correctly that probably wouldn't happen. I'm not a great person to trust about these things, since I'm kinda new to rudimentary camper wiring, but I do think ground is the preferred shutoff pathway.
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Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[Steve M.]

In regards to drilling holes in my body my motto is " no new holes" mainly because anything and everything I have added to the vehicle I consider to not be a permanent addition in that particular location. If it goes through another "mod" and gets moved then I have a hole drilled that I no longer need.
If I absolutely need a hole I'll drill it as I have done underneath the Syncro.
Right now there are plenty of existing holes I can make use of!

As Duncan says there are plenty of leak proof solutions to passing cables from the outside to the inside that work.

For anyone not familar with the terms 4200 & 5200 they are 3M sealants. 4200 is a good long life sealant and the 5200 is permanent sealant as in you are going to damage something removing it. Sikaflex also has similar sealants.

As far as just running a solar ground to the body...it's just another ground wire to clean eventually no matter how well sealed from the elements.
_________________
This free advice is worth exactly what you paid for it.

There are seven days in a week. Someday is not one of them.

[DuncanS]

Steve--As a guy familiar with good sized powerboats, I'm sure you have tons of through hulls and know how to mount them properly. If you add stabilizers or trim tabs, there have to be new holes. We don't worry about them on boats so why worry about pieces of tin we call cars? If a hole doesn't get seen, I slap ss washers and a bolt through with sealant under the washers. If it gets seen, I slap some Interlux flag Blue on it. If the idea changes and the hole is no longer needed I weld it up, fair and paint it............well, actually not. I put some Gorilla tape over it and hit it with Flag Blue. The idea is, when I get enough welding do do, I'll hit all those spots and clean them up. Someday..........Yes, I know, there are 7 days a week and none are called Someday. That's why I don't have to rush into getting everything all pretty.