Solar Re-wire
Following on from a great couple of days progress with the van, we decided to tidy up the work we’d started on the solar cables.
Day 3
In our post a few weeks ago, we had undertaken the massive job of re-wiring the larger solar panels. Unfortunately, at the time we’d not been able to post the cables back through the van due to the junction box that was in-situ being far too small and allowing only four cables to enter. We now have a total of eight cables to route through to the van, six for the larger panels and a further two cables from the smaller panels. After having a look around I managed to find a junction box on Amazon that was able to accept eight inputs and had ordered it in time for the weekend. With the new junction box in our hands we first had to tackle the removal of the old one, that had been stuck down fairly well with Black Sika-flex.
Ben headed up the ladder and began the tedious task of sliding a knife between the van roof and the old junction box. This took quite a while of gentle and careful easing, until finally the old box came off. At this point we were free to enlarge the hole that had previously been drilled through the existing plastic plug on the roof. All that was left was to stick our new junction box down over the hole. Once stuck, we sealed the box under plastic overnight to allow the fresh coat of Sika-flex to cure.
In the fresh light of the day Ben headed back up the ladder to thread the solar cables through. One by one and trying desperately not to get in a tangle, we soon had another job completed! Now that we had all the cables posted through it was time to do a quick continuity check before we paired off the wires.