Solar Panel wiring advice (1 Viewer)

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I have a local shop currently in the process of doing the install on my lithium dual battery setup. The owner of the shop called me a couple days ago and said he wanted to drill a hole in the roof to run the solar wire down to the DCDC (in the rear drawer wing). He said he recommends this route vs running through the tailgate grommet as he's had leaking issues in the past when he's done that. he said he uses silicone and seals everything, and tests with leaks with a hose. But a couple scenerios in the past he said he had customers develop a leak months or years down the road from the tailgate method. He also said he recommends the roof drilling method as well for shorter cleaner wire running because he can go pretty much straight down from the solar panel. He said it looks cleaner than running the wire all the way back to the tailagte on/under the roof rack. Any concerns I should have with this? Airbags etc? Just curious if anybody else has gone this route, Or if everybody has just done the tailgate method
 
I assume based on the recommended wire routing your solar charge controller is being mounted in your trunk?

I wouldn't be a fan of this approach on my vehicle, personally. I'd rather run the wires down the A pillar along the windshield in a 3/8" conduit like I did for my LED lighting. It's a longer run, but if you're using 8 gauge wire the DC loss won't really matter in my experience. No change of leaking, easy to undo/modify in the future if your needs change. Failing that run down the tailgate and come up under the vehicle (there's a grommet behind the rear wheel).

I'm not positive where the airbag is but if he's going through the roof then I would assume the headliner needs to come down in order to drill and route.

I'm not a fan of this approach, personally. Granted it's what I did on my travel trailer (using a cable entry gland and sealing with Dicor, which looks meh), but that's a more common install plus nobody sees your trailer roof.
 
I have a local shop currently in the process of doing the install on my lithium dual battery setup. The owner of the shop called me a couple days ago and said he wanted to drill a hole in the roof to run the solar wire down to the DCDC (in the rear drawer wing). He said he recommends this route vs running through the tailgate grommet as he's had leaking issues in the past when he's done that. he said he uses silicone and seals everything, and tests with leaks with a hose. But a couple scenerios in the past he said he had customers develop a leak months or years down the road from the tailgate method. He also said he recommends the roof drilling method as well for shorter cleaner wire running because he can go pretty much straight down from the solar panel. He said it looks cleaner than running the wire all the way back to the tailagte on/under the roof rack. Any concerns I should have with this? Airbags etc? Just curious if anybody else has gone this route, Or if everybody has just done the tailgate method

While direct drilling and sealing is a reasonable approach, that's done all the time on police cars, commercial, RVs, etc, I personally am not a fan.

There's a variation to the tailgate bulb seal strategy that would all but eliminate the possibility of a leak. Run the wire alongside and all the way down the outside of tailgate seal. Only crossing to the interior of the seal coming up from the bottom. If that makes sense. Another way to say it is not to cross that bulb seal at the top of the hatch, but below at the tailgate hinge area. The wire can still be hidden well behind the seal when running alongside.
 
I don’t have any good suggestions, but I’d rather run wires through a good grommet on an existing body hole than drill. Eric Sarjeant posted a part number for the grommet his team uses awhile ago.

518AD2A5-4F41-4A89-B7F0-81AFC0F8E544.jpeg
I set mine up for simplicity with an Anderson connector and portable panel. The panel is one I use with my camper, so I went with a grey sb50 not yellow as I would have liked. They don’t physically mate up due to keyed parts, so I opted for compatibility with my solar panel plug.
A3730A5C-BF81-4932-A933-3AF16BAF523F.jpeg

Note that this is only set up for dual battery, not my self jump and other accessories. I’m in the process of reinstalling everything fro my former ‘13 into my ‘16. And yes, I know a lot of people will have issues with where I ran my positive wire, but I am content with it.
 
Don't drill. Use the spare hatch grommet. Much cleaner and factory looking.

rear hatch.jpg


 
Don't drill. Use the spare hatch grommet. Much cleaner and factory looking.

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Ok I like that method thank! I just shared the link with my install guy so fingers crossed he hasn’t already drilled the roof. I gave him the go ahead to drill last week but hopefully he hadn’t gotten to it yet. And yes his plan was to drill near where the sides of the roof rack attach, then drop the headliner so I wouldn’t see anything inside. He also is adding an Anderson connector under the solar panel if I do want to change anything in the future
 
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