Greetings from the Michigan

[broch9901]

I was on the old board and just got the notice to sign up.
Good to have a forum again.

We have a 2011 DB16 and tow with a 2013 F150 Lariat with the EcoBoost.
We use the trailer primarily for weekend Music Fests and we can be found in state parks on occasion to feed my Nature Photography passion.   
Trailer will get a lot more use when I finally give up working and retire!

Planning to install a 200W solar panel on the roof when the snow melts so we can keep the battery charged and have free power in the field at festivals.    Anybody know of an opening for me to fish the wire from the roof to under the trailer?  I will drill a hole in the roof (they make wire entries that are sealed and water proof!) and go right through to the floor and underneath then I can pull the wire into the area under the sofa where the Charger / Power Inverter is.  That way the solar controller and the trailer Charger / Inverter are together.  I was thinking of looking behind the microwave above the refrigerator or at the (sewer) black tank vent area.  Asked service at LL but they weren't interested in suggesting anything.  So - I will figure it out - I'm DIY guy. 

[djmiller]

I will take a stab at this and possibly others could help.  The walls are laminated and there are no conduits or raceways run in the walls.
The wiring for the powered roof vent motors and the Roof AC do utilize the roof rafters as a raceway that usually runs to the side of the trailer and either is in or close to a floor to ceiling cabinet where the converter is, like the fridge cabinet, or into an overhead cabinet where you may see  an aluminum covered raceway that leads to the cabinet where the converter is.  It may be possible to use the powered vent wires as a wire pull to pull replacement powered vent wires along with a couple of 12 or 14 ga. wires through to that cabinet.

I may be wrong with this assumption but isn't all you really need to connect to is the Deep Cycle battery that is on the tongue of the trailer?  That is where we, and most of the RV manufacturers, tie in the pre-wired for solar Zamp connector?  If that be the case it may be easier to run externally and use something like a black vinyl floor raceway using double stick tape to fasten it to the aluminum.

[broch9901]

Dan:

Good idea re pulling wires through the rafters.  Hadn't really considered that.  And I want to put a better fan in one of the roof vents so these wires will at least be disconnected.

Since the Microwave is above the refer I was going to pull the microwave out and see if there's space there.  If so I can drill into this space from the roof and access a spot to drill into the space above the refer and drop the wires down there to the underside of the trailer.  Tie them off real well also - I don't want them dancing around when towing. 

I was also planning to put the solar controller beside the trailer inverter and then connect to the battery right there at the inverter under the sofa.  No external wire runs except a short run on the roof and then under the trailer but I can tie these up and protect them .

I wont tackle this until it warms up here which will be a few months and will post what I find and do in case others want to do this.
Gee isn't that what we're supposed to do on a Forum