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Old 05-10-2013, 09:31 AM   #1
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Poptop Wiring

I will be tackling the wiring for the work lights/off-roads/backup camera I installed on my roof rack and am wondering how everyone, including SMB routes the wires through the poptop.* Do they simply drill a strategic hole through the top/overhang portion of the poptop fiberglass and route everything through there or did they come up with something a bit more clever?

Anyone have photos of the holes in their poptops where SMB routed the wires for off-road and work lights?

Would appreciate any input.



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Old 05-10-2013, 11:36 AM   #2
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Re: Poptop Wiring

I assume you're gonna use the van electric to do this, rather than the house electric? I'm wondering where they take off for that, even before it gets through the penthouse. I looked at my penthouse mounted stoplight once to see if it was feasible to use that (drill through right above it) but I wasn't sure the wiring could take the amps of lighting, and in the end went with another solution (basically, batteries). And it was only hot on brake activation, which would've meant some more rewiring. But it might work for you.
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Old 05-10-2013, 12:14 PM   #3
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Re: Poptop Wiring

For my lights I ran the wires on the inside drivers corner of the penthouse and then over the canvas wall. You have to loosen 4-5 of the screws that attach the canvas to the penthouse roof in order to fish the cables through. Split wire loom covers the wires. This is how SMB routed my solar panel wiring.

From there I drilled a hole through the penthouse roof (outside of the canvas) and used a 1/2" NPT waterproof cable gland to route the wires to the top of the penthouse. Sealed the gland with butyl. Warning: The threads on the cable gland I bought were too short so I couldn't attach the bottom nut. In order to mitigate the risk of the gland leaking or coming loose I drilled the hole just large enough to fit the gland. This created a tight fit on the threads and with the butyl tape there's no way it will leak or fall off. If you can find a gland with longer threads it would be even better.

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Old 05-10-2013, 04:46 PM   #4
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Re: Poptop Wiring

I ran my own wiring and chose not to drill through the top of the roof. Instead, I fished the wires between where the canvas meets the inside if the roof and then used liquid tight fittings to come out the back of the PH top.

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Old 05-10-2013, 08:12 PM   #5
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Re: Poptop Wiring

Can't help you with the light wiring, but this afternoon I was out scoping out the rear of the pop top to install my new backup camera. I had assumed that the upper brake light in the PH was screwed into the fiberglass, but on mine (at least) it's just press-fit into the fiberglass and held on with foam double-stick tape. I'm going to mount the camera to one side of the brake light mounting bezel and run the small wire under the side of the light bezel. From there I haven't yet looked to see how to run it inside the canvas, but I assume I'll just follow however they ran the brake light wire.
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Old 05-11-2013, 11:25 AM   #6
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Re: Poptop Wiring

I supplied SMB with a marine thru-the-hull water proof connector for going through the roof which runs along with the solar wire loom that enters under the butyl seal between the PH canvas and the roof. The lighting I have feeds 3 banks of lights (each side and rear) plus 3 LED lights on the front. All the circuits to the side and rear lights run inside the rack tubing.
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