Anyone try to fish wires in an pre 1988 bigfoot trailer ceiling? - Fiberglass RV
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Old 06-06-2019, 05:57 PM   #1
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Trailer: Boler
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Anyone try to fish wires in an pre 1988 bigfoot trailer ceiling?

Hello again. My wife and I sold our boler 13 and picked up a 1988 bigfoot 17 a few years ago. My ceiling vent cracked so i went and bought a maxxfan deluxe and went to install it a few days ago. I removed my old original 14" vent and expected to find a channel on the left hand ceiling that ran to the kitchen cabinets. I viewed another post where a member installed a fantastic fan in a bigfoot 17 and his had the channel. Well here's information for those with an older bigfoot 17, there was no channel. I was worried about rain so i installed the maxxfan and planned on running the wires from the light above the gaucho couch on the exterior of the ceiling, and covering it with wire trim. Lets just say i'm a bit of a perfectionist and now i'm thinking i'd like to hide the wires in the ceiling. Has anyone ever fished wires through a bigfoot ceiling?
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Old 06-08-2019, 12:05 AM   #2
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Trailer: 1974 Boler and 1988 Bigfoot
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Hello my first Bigfoot was a 17ft Goucho and like you, I decided to change the vent to a Fantastic Fan, but there is no power at the vent. Like your trailer there is a light pretty close to the vent so I took out old vent and removed the light and than took a fish tape that was about 2ft long and put a small arch in the fish tape and than very slowly back and forth went from the light hole slowly making a channel through the insulation to the vent opening. It actually was quite easy and simple. After the channel was made added the two wires and it worked. Good luck even if your fish tape doesn't make it the first time you can't hurt anything as the fish tape is not sharp enough to puncture the fiberglass or the inside ceiling material.
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Old 06-08-2019, 04:42 AM   #3
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Trailer: Boler 13 ft / Casita FD
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I installed a new vent in my 79 Boler and the way I did it was I used a coat hanger wire to punch under the Ensolite, being careful not to come through the ceiling then pushed a thinner, but stiff, wire through this tunnel with the wire to the fan taped to it to the back corner of the top back cubby. took about 15 minutes to do.
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Old 06-08-2019, 07:30 AM   #4
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Name: Jack L
Trailer: Sold the Bigfoot 17-Looking for a new one
Washington
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Since your ceiling insulation is foam, you can probably push a wire or fishtape thru the insulation. A bell hanger bit would also work if you have access. Cutting the loop end off 1/8 inch fishtape would be my first attempt. Amazon has the bell hanger bits.

https://www.amazon.com/MAGBIT-786-24...l+hanger+bit&q
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Old 06-08-2019, 07:30 AM   #5
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Trailer: Scamp 19 ft 5th Wheel
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Harbor Freight sells two fiberglass rod wire fish kits, one with three foot rods and also a kit with one foot rods that screw together. The one foot section kit works great for running wires in tight spaces in RV's.

Eddie

Both kits (33/11 ft.) have the same description but the 11 foot kit has the short rods.
https://www.harborfreight.com/3-16-i...kit-65327.html
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Old 06-09-2019, 01:05 PM   #6
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Thanks to all of you with your helpful posts. I'm going to tackle this job soon with a fish tape.
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Old 06-13-2019, 09:51 AM   #7
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Here's an update. To those of you with a 17 bigfoot, it was very easy to fish a line from the 14" ceiling opening rear passenger side of the hole, to the double light wiring above the gaucho couch. I used a fish tape and ran the wires, and then spray foamed the channel i made. Wired up the fan and it runs perfect. It is glitchy when i'm running on 110 shore power. I can't run the fan past 60% or it goes into alarm and flashes green with a loud audible beep. On 12v it works on all settings. I'm thinking it's something to do with my old original 1988 converter system in the trailer. We primarily boondock so i'm happy. Thanks for the help everyone.
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Old 06-20-2019, 02:04 AM   #8
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Name: Elliott
Trailer: Bigfoot
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Some of the Maxxfan models apparently don't do well with higher voltages. If it becomes a big problem, a 12V regulator is probably the easiest way to fix it. A new converter might, but it's just as likely to be worse unless it's programmable and set to a fairly low charge voltage (which isn't great for lead-acid batteries long-term)
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