Cable tv Coax replacement

[hillrider11]

I have just discovered the coax from the shore connection to the amp inside the camper is toast. literally - inner insulation melted. Has anyone replaced this wire. How? I think I may be in deep dookie here.

[hillrider11]

I hadn't thought of the 'hot skin' possibility. I stopped looking when I found the blackened screw on connector.

[myredracer]

DiskDoctr wrote:
If you had a bad pedestal ground and your cable was hooked up, it is possible the camper's ground found your coax to be quite enticing :E

I think you probably nailed it. The sheath on the coax became the return ground path. That means there could be a more serious problem - a "hot skin" condition, which be deadly in some cases. Turn power off and find the cause.

Mike Sokol talks about a melted coax in an RV park here.

[DiskDoctr]

I'll speculate 😉

If you had a bad pedestal ground and your cable was hooked up, it is possible the camper's ground found your coax to be quite enticing :E

"Hot skin"

I think others covered the coax replacement part, but it would be wise to find the source of the problem. "Melting" is not good 😉

[wa8yxm]

I do not know how that happend (Insulation melted) or perhaps I do. but I'll not speculate

How hard it is depends on the RV.. Mine it is not easy but it is possible.

Howeer my recommendation depends on the location of the Winegard Selector seitch/power supply or (if you have a sensar pro) 2nd pre-amp

Ohk the 1st amp is in the antennak the standard wall plate is just the power supply and a switch.

I'd run new wire from there (the switch) to any handy point .. not necessarly the original connection point. and then cap off the original.

[myredracer]

All is not lost if you use some patience to work through it.

First question is why was there a short?? That could mean 120 volts got transferred on to the coax. There are lots of screws the the ceiling luan plywood that have sharp points. The factories just run wiring around loose by running it over trusses and letting it lay on the luan. They don't staple it down. Perhaps a screw penetrated romex somewhere and also into the coax? Or maybe romex and coax got pinched together somewhere? Does the coax run directly to a faceplate on the wall or ceiling (the one with the amplifier power button on it)?

New wiring can be run through ceilings, interior walls and inside cabinetry. I've done lots of it - coax, HDMI, romex and low voltage cable. Wire can be fished from opening to opening in a ceiling such as speakers, lights, AC outlets, skylight trim, etc. Luan paneling can be peeled away from the interior wall of a cabinet and wire run in a wall cavity. Look inside a cabinet for where the existing exterior wall jack is and scope out a route to the coax faceplate (or satellite box). It takes plenty of patience to run wiring in a ceiling and walls. Use a fish tape or bent coat hanger wire to pull sections of wire at a time.

You can just abandon the old coax in place. I would really figure out what happened so it won't happen again or do even more damage. Is there an exposed part or damaged romex? Hard to guess at causes without seeing it in person. You *could* possibly trace the existing coax routing through the ceiling by reaching up through some openings in the ceiling and seeing if the entire length of coax was damaged or if you can find the point where the damage happened.

Good luck and don't give up. Maybe some pics would help?

[hillrider11]

Yeo, deep dookie. The amp is overhead on the curb side and the shore outlet is 4' forward on the pedestal side. Looks like new wire overhead and down the side to new outdoor outlet. And a fun time was had by all.

[SDcampowneroper]

I agree you have more of a problem than just running a new coax. CATV and Sat. power is about 18v DC, milliamps of power. To have a melted cable means somehow it was subjected to far higher amperage. Solve that issue first.

An rg6 coax has about an 18 ga. core, more than a couple of amps would cause it to overheat.

[Gdetrailer]

I think you have an even bigger problem than the coax.

You may have a SHORT somewhere and you have a voltage that should never be on that coax to start with.

The only time there could be a voltage on coax is when feeding an external antenna amp and even that should be current limited which would not have enough current to melt coax insulation.

As far as replacing the coax goes, seriously doubt you will ever be able to pull out the original. It is most likely stapled into place and or may make a few very tight turns in the wall cavities making pulling impossible.

Best bet would be to bypass the offending coax by running a new run.

You will have to get creative in order to accomplish this.

If wall outlet is above say a table or cabinet, go below the surface of the table or cabinet then drill a small hole to fish the wire up the wall to the outlet..

Then run the wire any way you can find to the shore connection, through wall cabinets or even under the floor then back up to get it where you need to go.

[wildtoad]

Where is the amp/power box? Is it on a side wall or inner wall or in a cabinet? If it’s on an outer wall it may be possible to drill a new hole through the side of the RV directly behind the box and put a new cable connection there. It doesn’t need to be a big hole and they make connector.

[donn0128]

Depends on a lot of things. But it is very possible to run a new cable by simply drilling a couple of small holes and fishing a new wire. You could, depending on howmfar apart they are to connect two ends together amd try pulling the new coax thru with the old one.