Wire access through floor on permanently mounted flatbed camper (for ham radio)

[wicked1]

I'm adding a ham radio system to my camper and need to pass some wires into the camper.
The camper power lines currently go through the front wall of the camper, but that wall is difficult to access from both inside and outside the camper. I'm thinking about drilling a hole through the floor, into the battery compartment. I have a lot of room in there, as I've replaced the 2 lead batteries w/ one lithium.

I'm curious what others think of this idea. The camper is permanently mounted, so there's no concern about being able to easily disconnect this. The couple issues I've thought of are that this would be a deep hole. I'm not sure how I would build a safe wire passthrough for it. I'd be drilling through the wood camper floor, and the aluminum tubing the flatbed is made from.. Several inches deep all together. I guess I'd just run a pipe through the hole. Maybe w/ an angle on the bottom to aim the wire out some direction rather than straight down. I guess I'd 'glue' the pipe in w/ 3m sealant. And after passing the wires through, seal the pipe w/ silicone. But if I ever do have to remove the camper, that becomes something which has to be completely disassembled before taking the camper off.

Does anyone have any better ideas?

Anyone else running a radio in their rig? I thought it would be fun to try keeping communications if the family goes hiking and I stay at camp. Also fun to have my wife's radio sending out an aprs beacon of her location so I can see where she is.. And have ability to send out my location and talk to others in case of emergency.

Edit to say, in case someone is curious, I'm thinking of putting the radios in the camper rather than the truck so they can be run off the house battery instead of the truck one.. That way they get recharged from solar while I'm parked. Can leave it running as a repeater and not worry about draining my truck battery.

 

[Vic Harder]

Why do you need another set of power wires? Why not just wire the radio into the existing camper battery box?

 

[wicked1]

I have been thinking about installing the radio itself in the battery box, because there is enough room in there. But then I'll have antenna wire to get outside. And I'll have the control head and audio wires which ideally I'll route to both the truck and the camper, so I can plug in the removable head and handset in either location.
Even if I gave up the in-truck use, I'd still have the antenna.. So no matter what, I need a hole in my camper, I think.

Previous owner installed a gray water tank and has a hole in the floor for the sink to drain to it, but I just checked and they did a good job. No extra room to squeeze wires through.

 

[ntsqd]

Typically ham radios want direct to battery power and ground wires/cables that are not shared with anything else. It is an electrical noise thing.

What I would do is to put an exterior J-Box over the proposed hole in the camper. Use some 5200 to seal the body of the box to the floor and screw it down. Run the wires/cables thru a weather-tight cord grip in the side of the J-Box.

Can do this again if felt needed in the battery box.

 

[wicked1]

Junction box is a great idea.. Solves all the problems, I think.
Other than still needing to drill a hole through the camper and truck bed.

I'm thinking about less destructive, less convenient options, at least to get started.
Mounting the radios in the truck. Then when I camp, running a bundle of control and power wires to the camper through a window or door. Should be fine except for extreme bug or weather conditions.

Or don't mount anything permanently and move the radios to the camper when I set up camp. I'd have antenna wires to deal with and get tucked away every time I use it. But then I'd also have options for mounting the antenna on the roof of the camper or other places.

(I keep switching singular and plural about some of the radio stuff.. I'll technically have two.. One mostly does some automated stuff and I don't interact w/ it. But it is another antenna I have to manage.)

 

[ntsqd]

I take it we're talking about a multi-band, detachable face mobile radio? Why not leave the automated one in the truck and not move it at all?

If the other radio's face has a mic jack then it's main part too could be permanent in the truck, with an RJ45 "extension cord" to move the face to the camper when needed.

If you have heavy enough gauge charging cables from the truck to the camper you could tap those for radio power on the camper battery's side. Unless you've done like me and put the ACR/VSR in the camper. Then you'll need dedicated wiring.

When I do radio relay / remote pit work for the guys that I support in desert racing I put a J-Pole up on an RV flag pole and connect the coax with a SO/PL259 coupler. A remote speaker mounted to an old cb antenna's mag base and an extension cord for the mic sets me up. On the Blanc-Oh! (a white Full Size Bronco) I have a DPDT switch that selects between an interior or an exterior monitor speaker.

 

[wicked1]

Yes, about the radio. Looking at icom id-5100. Unfortunately, the mic plugs into the radio, and not the face, so that's another wire. Unfortunately the mic/handset won't do audio out, so that's another wire for speaker. Unfortunately I have a redarc manager and the power from the truck battery is one way to the camper battery. So, I have to install power cables when I want to run off the camper battery.. (Or do my initial idea and have them mounted in the camper, attached to the camper battery, but that brings up the holes in the camper issues)
If you know about radios, then the "automated one" is really APRS. And while I don't need to touch that radio, I will want it on and consuming power so I can connect to it via bluetooth to map things. So will want that on the camper battery too.

I think I'll do basically what you said in paragraph 2 for now. It'll be more than one rj45, but still.. I'll have an 'extension cord cable bundle' set up and ready to go to the camper.

Unfortunately, none of the radios are ideal. I want APRS and a digital voice option.. and I have icom at home, so am going w/ dstar for digital. But Icom has gone out of their way to make sure APRS won't work on their radios. So now I need 2 radios. And then the little things like the handset doesn't plug into the head.

I built a J-Pole last night!
Thanks for the reply. I feel like ending this reply w/ "73" but I'm not that big a radio dork yet..

 

[PaulT]

Check out the website of Julian (OH8STN.org)
He is a retired broadcast engineer /HAM living in Finland. He publishes a lot of stuff on off-grid/portable/EMCOMM communications. Some of it should be of value. His focus is grid down communication; or how can I keep in communications with My People rather than helping agencies communicate among themselves. His remote activations are commonly north of the Arctic Circle using digital technology in addition to voice.

Paul

 

[wicked1]

Thanks Paul, I hadn't seen his site yet. I'm not really worried about the end of society, but personal family comms is what I'm trying to do. The grid has never been 'up' in the places I go . Looks like great resource.

 

[pvstoy]

About the wires, I have a flatbed Hawk. Removed the mounting bolts and moved the camper back on the bed, that allowed access to the front.

The 10 gauge wires ripped them out from truck battery to camper battery. Replaced with 4 gauge that needed bigger hole into the camper. Drilled bigger hole and installed grommet and sealed.

On the passenger side with the outside access battery box, I also drilled that side and ran wires out.

All wires have Anderson connections for disconnect for camper removal.

You could do something similar for antenna wires.

 

[wicked1]

Thanks, your camper layout sounds to be exactly like mine. I did replace my 10 gauge truck to battery wire w/ 4 gauge, but that was very difficult.. Because I did not slide the camper back on the flat bed. My arm barely squeezes in the space between the camper and truck bed.
Sliding it back would be the correct thing to do, I guess. Then I could install a nice access panel/box on the front wall of the camper outside the battery box. But I currently have no way of doing so. I don't have jacks for the camper. It has not been moved since it was built 6 years ago.
But when I get tired of my temporary 'extension cable' method, this sounds like the correct thing to do, rather than drilling down through the flat bed.