Wire Routing

[Loki]

I plan to install wired remote controls for monitoring the inverter and battery status, especially amp-hours. Is there a way to run the wires inside the interior walls, from the battery and the inverter compartments to the location of the controls, so that they are invisible?

[hankpage]

Wiring for battery status should already be to the panel with water and waste tank levels. You should be able to access that wall from the power center to add anything else you need.

[campingcpl]

I wired up some new stuff in our trailer and what I did was ran the wire along the frame to the location where I needed to go up into the unit and then drilled a hole up through the floor and then feed the wire up into the hole using a wire snake. I wire tied the wires to the frame members leaving enough slack to allow for the flex in the frame but not enough to where the wires were hanging loose. The only thing I could see being a problem would be if you have a holding tank in the way, luckly I didn't have anything in the way when I did my wiring.

[SteveC7010]

Keystone has a bunch of different brand names and many model under each brand on their website. I'd like to help, but I don't feel I should be the one to have to look through all these brands to find a 313RE. How about telling us what brand it is so that we can easily find and look at the floor plan over on Keystone's website?

Knowing which trailer you have could be very helpful to figure out wire routing. For example, my Cougar is a fifth wheeler which means it is super easy to run wires from the area of the battery back through the basement area because all the panels in there are held in place with screws and can be easily removed to expose the framing. In fact, I can get easily get wires to the monitor panel because it is directly above a rear corner of the basement.

It would also be good for you to tell us the location of the monitor panel. Again, knowing that helps to figure how to get wires routed.

FWIW, I have done custom wiring on all kinds of vehicles and RV's for many years so I do know how to do this pretty well. I'd like to offer some help but....

[Loki]

Thanks for the offer to help, Steve. Being new to this forum, I though it would be obvious to Keystoners what a 313 RE is, guess I was a little naive ... LOL. It's a Montana High Country 313RE 5th wheel, and the panel with the controls for battery status, slides, tanks etc. is located between the two cabinets on the right side of the entrance door. Problem is, there is not enough space anymore for the control panels of the Xantrex inverter and the Progressive Industries surge protector that I want to install. There is some wall space around the corner, above the stairs to the bedroom. In general, is it feasible at all to route wires inside a wall, or do you just try route them along a wall and disguise them as good as possible? In my case, one option would be to drill a hole from the lower cabinet through the floor and run the wires inside the cabinet. Assuming that it is not wise to just go ahead and drill a hole, what are the precautions I have to take before drilling into the floor?

[campingcpl]

Originally Posted by Loki

Assuming that it is not wise to just go ahead and drill a hole, what are the precautions I have to take before drilling into the floor?

Before drilling through the floor there are some things you would need to check first.
1) Am I going to hit any floor joist?
2) Is there any water lines or sewer lines in the way?
3) Am I going to drill into the heat duct?
4) Are there any tanks under the floor that could be hit?
5) Though it might not be that common but I have seen some wiring ran through parts of the floor specialy on units with laminated roofs.

The same would apply for drilling into a blind wall where you can not take the wall panel off to see what is in the wall. When doing a project like that it's best to do the planning before just doing.