For those of you who have installed solar on your RV I would be interested in hearing what you have done with the rooftop wire management issue.I'll have four panels with two #10 wires each needing to run between 10-14 feet to the combiner box so a total of eight #10 wires to manage. Outside of the obvious "conduit" answer what have you done to manage these wires? I'm planning on a tilt option so any wire management scheme needs to consider this issue.Thanks in advance for your inputs.

I ran the wire neatly and then put Dicor 501 every foot or so. I only have a single panel.That idea came from a previous RV where the factory bonded coax on the roof that way. Once the Dicor sets, it's fairly tough, is compatible with the rubber roof, and requires no holes.

I used Dicor several feet apart on my panel wires. Used some temporary tape to hold the wires until the Dicor set. No need for conduit with UV wires.

You can have simpler wiring if you wire them up in series. One wire.

I used relatively stiff and UV resistant MC4 wire to put mine in series.A few zip ties to minimize stress on the panel connectors. Nothing else.

2oldman wrote:You can have simpler wiring if you wire them up in series. One wire.Yes but wired in series if one panel gets blocked they all shut down.Parallel wiring at least keeps the other three operational.

Solar Wire Management | Good Sam Community

29 Replies

MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Oct 15, 2017

Use BLACK parts which is UV resistant.

The mounting pads are adhesive but cannot be used without help.

Put a dime-size spootch of Goop on the pad and press it onto a cleaned roof.

Every 12" or so is stout enough.

Let pads set for 24-hours for maximum adhestion

Snip the cable-tie to fool with the wires to the panels.
TechWriter
Explorer
Oct 15, 2017
allen8106 wrote:
Outside of the obvious "conduit" answer what have you done to manage these wires?

Eternabond tape. It should last at least 5 years in SouthWest sun, so longer up North. On the other hand, zip ties/plastic tie downs will only last a few years before turning very brittle.
CA_Traveler
Explorer III
Oct 15, 2017
time2roll wrote:
allen8106 wrote:
Yes but wired in series if one panel gets blocked they all shut down.

Parallel wiring at least keeps the other three operational.
You mean shaded? Bypass diodes take care of that. They are built into the panel.
X2
time2roll
Nomad
Oct 15, 2017
allen8106 wrote:
Yes but wired in series if one panel gets blocked they all shut down.

Parallel wiring at least keeps the other three operational.
You mean shaded? Bypass diodes take care of that. They are built into the panel.
allen8106
Explorer
Oct 15, 2017
2oldman wrote:
You can have simpler wiring if you wire them up in series. One wire.

Yes but wired in series if one panel gets blocked they all shut down.

Parallel wiring at least keeps the other three operational.
time2roll
Nomad
Oct 08, 2017
I used relatively stiff and UV resistant MC4 wire to put mine in series.
A few zip ties to minimize stress on the panel connectors. Nothing else.
2oldman
Explorer II
Oct 08, 2017
You can have simpler wiring if you wire them up in series. One wire.
CA_Traveler
Explorer III
Oct 08, 2017
I used Dicor several feet apart on my panel wires. Used some temporary tape to hold the wires until the Dicor set. No need for conduit with UV wires.
Joe417
Explorer
Oct 08, 2017
I ran the wire neatly and then put Dicor 501 every foot or so. I only have a single panel.

That idea came from a previous RV where the factory bonded coax on the roof that way.

Once the Dicor sets, it's fairly tough, is compatible with the rubber roof, and requires no holes.

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Solar Wire Management

29 Replies

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