Readout Wiring routing for Progressive HW-50C

wdk450

Well-known member
Gang:
It would be of great help to me to have somebody who has installed a Progressive HW-50C in a Bighorn similar to mine (2007 production 3670 RL with angled electrical control switch panel across from entry door) tell me what they did to route the telephone-type readout wiring from the panel to the surge protector. I took the back of the panel off (found a whole bunch of sawdust and wood chips), and tried to route my fiberglass electrical fish rod among the other cables down into the storage/crawl space near the steps. It felt like it kept hitting a wood stud. My next thought is to pull out the circuit breaker box adjacent to where I think the blockage is to get a look. I have one of those flexible rod drills somewhere I could maybe blindly drill a hole with.
Any advice would be appreciated.
 

jnbhobe

Well-known member
My 3370 is about the same up front and I was able to fish the wire up thru to the switch panel.
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
Bill, my readout was installed in that cabinet by the dealer, but I later installed the Charge Wizard next to it. You should be able to fish the wire down into the basement and then connect it to where ever your suppressor is. It was a little tricky, but if memory serves, I dropped a heavy fishing weight on a string through the cabinet panel into the basement cavity and then tied it to the cord for the display. Dropped the weight into the hole and jiggled it until it stopped feeding (hit the floor behind the wall) and then shoved the connector/knot into the hole. From the basement side, I pulled the weight/string and got the wire to the suppressor. It does take a bit of jigging because of all the wires behind the panel. Since the display box will cover the hole, you can make it big enough to get a good sized weight in. When I installed the Charge Wizard, I removed the display box to give me some room to work and brought the wire for it under the display.

I don't think there is a framing member across that wall section since the wires for the other switches have to run up there from the basement. An alternative might be to shove a straightened coat hanger up from below and have a helper snag it from above. Then tie your fish line to it and pull it down. Comfortable working in that area it is not, however, even for a smaller guy like me.

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wdk450

Well-known member
Thanks for the replies. I will try the weighted line, but I think my fiberglass rods are a better form of "coathanger". I just know i keep hitting a stop point about 2 feet down from the top counter.
 

wdk450

Well-known member
I worked out my readout cable problem.
I found that I was simply trying to run the fish rod straight down from the electrical control center trying to emulate what I could see of the path of the existing wiring. When I angled the fish rod towards the driver's side (ODS), the rod went right down to the basement. The cables are now pulled. I will do the final EMS install tomorrow, simply moving the from shore power and to breaker panel cables from the transfer switch I don't use to the new EMS system. At a later date I might wire my inverter output through the transfer switch (after the EMS).
 
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