{"id":295,"date":"2016-01-26T21:31:23","date_gmt":"2016-01-27T02:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sprinter-camper.com\/?p=295"},"modified":"2020-01-08T16:54:42","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T16:54:42","slug":"waterproof-solar-wire-routing-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sprinter-camper.com\/waterproof-solar-wire-routing-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Waterproof solar wire routing – Part two"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I did my solar install<\/a> last year I’ve settled on a marine style plug to make a waterproof connection from the solar panels to the inside of the van. I never really had problems with the connection itself (even though the plug showed some corrosion after 7 months) but I was never happy about having to reduce the wire size to make the connector work. Also the inside connection wasn’t that bullet proof – I was just waiting for an electrical short. The picture below shows the original connection from the inside – if you look closely you can actually see bare wires.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Marine style connector from the inside. Electrical short waiting to happen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I was recently picking up some plywood to build cabinets for the Sprinter, I was browsing through the electrical aisle in our local Home Improvement Store and found round plastic connection boxes [@Lowes]<\/a> that are watertight. They looked as they would fit on the roof so I bought one, the matching cover and some waterproof UF cable connectors [@Lowes]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

First step was to remove the old marine style plug that was held in place by three screws and some self leveling sealant.<\/p>\n

The new connection box needed some prep work before installing. First, I removed the two plastic tabs that you would normally use to screw the box in place. I wanted to use the existing three holes in the van to attach the box. Next, I’ve added some additional sealant on the bottom of the box (self leveling sealant and a cut to size cork gasket) to make the whole thing 100% waterproof.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The bottom of the junction box. Plenty of sealant and a cork gasket. What you don’t see is the hole in the middle to route the cables inside. I’ve drilled that after I bolted the box to the van.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After I mounted the junction box to the van all that was left was to route the solar cables through the UF connectors (I had to widen the rubber insert a bit to get both wires through one connector).<\/p>\n

\"\"
Junction box with solar cables<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Did I say already how happy I was that I decided to put the original marine connector right in the middle between to ribs on the roof? The plastic box has exactly the size to fit between those ribs. The only thing left was to attach the cover and we have a watertight cable routing for less that $10!<\/p>\n

\"waterproof<\/a>
Closed waterproof junction box<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The whole job took me not even 30 minutes. But I had already the holes drilled, so with measuring twice and drill once this shouldn’t take longer than 45 minutes to an hour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was not very happy with my first attempt to route the wires from the solar panels to the inside of the van but I found a very good and also very cheap alternative by using a plastic watertight junction box from the local Home Improvement Store. The only difficulty in this job is drilling holes in your roof to mount the box but in total this is not even a 2 on the difficulty scale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[36,54,59],"yoast_head":"\nWaterproof solar wire routing - Part two - Sprinter Camper<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A simple and cheap way to route wires from the outside to the inside of your van is to use a plastic junction box and watertight connectors.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Waterproof solar wire routing - Part two - Sprinter Camper\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A simple and cheap way to route wires from the outside to the inside of your van is to use a plastic junction box and watertight connectors.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sprinter-camper.com\/waterproof-solar-wire-routing-part-two\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sprinter Camper\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-27T02:31:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-01-08T16:54:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"thomas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sprinter-camper.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sprinter-camper.com\/\",\"name\":\"Sprinter Camper\",\"description\":\"How to build a Sprinter Camper Van\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sprinter-camper.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sprinter-camper.com\/waterproof-solar-wire-routing-part-two\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sprinter-camper.com\/waterproof-solar-wire-routing-part-two\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sprinter-camper.com\/waterproof-solar-wire-routing-part-two\/\",\"name\":\"Waterproof solar wire routing - 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