Wiring underneath 5th wheel aatrailer

[Dale Participant S.E. Michgan Cheers: 47]

Hi All,

Hope everyone is enjoying the first days of Fall.

I am installing a Electric Fireplace in an Cougar 319 Sab and am at the point of the wiring. I would like to run a separate circuit for this as in the past when I used a portable electric heater along with the coffee maker neither one worked quit right. I would like to run the new wire underneath the trailer between the floor and the belly pan and tie wrap it to existing wires? then drill a hole through the floor next to the electrical panel and run the wire to the panel. The fireplace is in the slide out and I do have that figured out but would like to know if anyone has ran any type of wires underneath their trailer and what problems I may encounter. I did watch Rays video on showing the inside of the belly which was helpful.

Thanks all,

Dale

[Ray Keymaster Vancouver Island Cheers: 5 691]

When I ran the AC output from my inverter up front to the dedicated outlet in the living area I used some metal armor coated electrical wire with a vinyl waterproof covering on it. That way I knew it would be plenty tough and wouldn’t be  concerned about chaffing. Then I just followed the path of the other wires underneath and drilled a hole where I needed to pop it up.

I bought it at an electrical contractors type store so it was cheap to by bulk wire off the roll and then I put on the connectors I needed.

You can see the wire I used in about the 3 minute mark.

[Dale Participant S.E. Michgan Cheers: 47]

That looked great Ray, I did go to an electrical supply store and told the sales guy what I was doing. They did not have the type you used but they did have what they called SealTite which is a heavy walled PVC flexible tubing that is used to run wires in for outside or areas where the wires need to stay dry and protected. So what he recommended is running the Seal Tite underneath the trailer  using conduit straps every 3-4′ and fasten them to the  cross embers on the outside of the belly pan. Inside the Seal Tite run #12-2 Romex wire. My electric fireplace only draws 14 amps but he suggested the #12 which is good for 20 amps.  I am thinking about doing this as nothing will be rubbing against the seal tite and the wires inside will be protected from their own coating as well. I think dropping the belly to hide the wire would be a lot of extra work and I don’t know if it would gain me anything.I will drill my hole underneath the electrical panel and seal up any gap with that liquid insulation stuff. At the slide I will install a junction box and run flexible 12-2 wire up inside the slide. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Dale

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