wiring route from solar to the batteries

[chin_k]

The route that is obvious to me so far, is from the roof down to the cab area, then it connects with solar controller and then it disappears into some hidden space. It then emerge out of the bottom and into the battery box. there is a 7.5 A inline fuse for the red wire, and finally connect to the battery.

I want to redo the wiring from the solar controller to the batteries. Anyone have an hint where the wires goes after leaving the controller before getting into the battery box?

[Roly]

Chin,

I know where my solar cables run because I have a Premier and ran them down the column behind the driver's seat myself. I expect the Concourse would do the same with the original wires. Blue would know for sure. My wires entered the roof where the crank up antenna used to be. The Concourse's must enter elsewhere because they have both solar and antenna wires. I bet it is described somewhere in earlier conversations here.

Roly

[chin_k]

I can tell easily how the wires in thru the opening in the roof, but the part that I don't know is how the wires go from the solar controller to the battery tray. I want to know before I rip out the entire cabin. I assume it goes across the cabin, but don't know the exact route.

[BobW9]

It was one of the first things I had done when I bought my Concourse, back before I started working on it myself. I think it went from the solar controller in the upper right front, across the cabin behind the front (inside both closed spaces, controller and VCP and stereo on right, tv on the left), part of a wire bundle that when it crosses the large front pop-up door is tucked into the space on the inside above the opening, where there is a piece of wood going across as support for the door frame. I think it was inside conduit there, but there might have also been some other wires - there are quite a few wires going from left side to right side, for various things (stereo, TV to VCP, surround sound amp to tv, speaker wires).

After that it went down the left side pillar and into the floor and took a turn just under the chassis into the battery compartment. It did NOT go through the LVD.

Oh, and though it was not easy in my concourse, one way to get some access to those side compartments is through the middle compartment, as both the triangle sides inside it can be removed. After taking the screws off, we had to get something under the bottom front edge and pull the carpet-covered triangle piece inwards from its front most bottom corner. It eventually came, though really tight fit with the carpet, and had to be twisted to finally get it loose. But once its away you can get behind the sides, though you have to be kind of slim and okay with twisting around. My back was not so good after working in there when I later did a bunch of rewiring. Pulling the TV on the left may help too, to access it from the front, though I found coming in from the side was still better at times.

In the photo you can see how the triangle pulls away. You can also see a wire hanging down from the top. It is crossing the front, like the original wiring bundle did. The wires were all taped tightly together inside conduit, so if you want to look at any single wire, it'll be a mess following it.

The black box you see on the floor inside the right compartment is the amp that supplies power for the TV to speakers surround (I had a switch on the left side to switch between TV and Stereo and adjust the amp a bit, yet another set of wires going across the top). It was originally on a piece of the oak mdf, not just sitting on the floor, and if you look closely you can see the mdf board kind of at an angle in the photo (I was working on things at the time and had moved it).

[chin_k]

Bob, thanks again for the info. However, I think there is some differences between your 2000 Concourse, and my 2000 Concourse. Mine is the one with chrome front bumper, and I guess yours must be the later version with painted bumper and integrated utility door?

The reason I suspect that, is because I do not have the partition between the compartment in your picture. So there is no oak strips to hold it in place either. The cabin is one large cavity with two access doors and an opening for the TV. Another thing is that I don't think the large wires from the solar controller is in the bundle that goes across the top of the cabin with the VCP and stereo. I will check again, but last time I checked, it seems to be going across the cabin in the space between bottom of the cabin floor, and the top of the headline for the van. I am not 100% sure, however, so that is why I asked.

Again, really appreciate you sharing your knowledge and info.

[chin_k]

I believe that the slightly larger gauge black and red wires are the wiring from the solar controller going down to the battery tray. The rest of the bundle are wires from LVD going to the switches/indicators on top of the driver overhead.

[BobW9]

Interesting, I hadn't realized they split the 2000 model year that way. I thought the change was just between 1999 and 2000.

[caconcourse]

Interesting, I hadn't realized they split the 2000 model year that way. I thought the change was just between 1999 and 2000.

I think the change was in the 2000/2001 model year. I have seen 2000 models with the integrated utility door panel and some without. My 2001 is the newer design. However, I have never seen that triangular panel in the overhead compartment, which seems would greatly reduce the storage capacity of the front overhead. Removing the TV of course opens up a lot of space on the left, but even with the VCP and radio, there is a fair amount of space behind them. I keep a pack with the manuals in that area.

The VCP amplifier and "surround" option was a funny joke, as it was not even stereo. The stereo signals from my VCP went into a combiner and went into the amplifier as a mono signal before the little equalizer device. I took all that out, and now run a headphone cable from the new TV to an aux input in the stereo, so we get all four speakers in the audio from the TV and VCP using the stereo. I did have to splice the input and out wires from the old amplifier to cut it out of the speaker wiring. I removed the equalizer panel, and put in a digital indoor/outer temperature and voltmeter display in the opening.

[chin_k]

I heard a 2001 model was on a 1998 Ford chassis, which may explains why the serial numbers is not chronological... just a wild hypothesis.

Anyway, Clay, did you document the stereo update here or on your blog page? I would like to know more details.

If I can pull out the two wires from the controller, I will either leave it in place, and run a separate pair of wires right next to it. It looks like I need to remove the front panel (the piece with three large openings and a few other ones for the speakers/VCP/etc. and get access to the wirings. Any hint or suggestion will be appreciated.

[caconcourse]

I heard a 2001 model was on a 1998 Ford chassis, which may explains why the serial numbers is not chronological... just a wild hypothesis.

Anyway, Clay, did you document the stereo update here or on your blog page? I would like to know more details.

If I can pull out the two wires from the controller, I will either leave it in place, and run a separate pair of wires right next to it. It looks like I need to remove the front panel (the piece with three large openings and a few other ones for the speakers/VCP/etc. and get access to the wirings. Any hint or suggestion will be appreciated.

Hi Chin,

My 2001 is built on a 2000 chassis, thank goodness I think. It's old enough.

Here is an old entry on the stereo/TV install: viewtopic.php?p=4655#p4655 and if you read the rest of the entries in the thread there is more info on the thermometer and voltmeter.

I did all of the wiring through the center door or openings of the units I was working on. If you remove the solar controller, there is easy access to the ends of the wires. It's pretty easy to feed your new wires across the top inside front of the overhead from the center door without removing things. The stereo is kind of a bitch to remove, because there is a metal strap connecting the rear of the unit to the ceiling, and you have to remove the screws in the blind, but that's how I did it. It's a standard single-DIN stereo, so not hard to replace, except for re-installing that hanger. The wire connector to the back of the stereo is pretty standard pinout, so I did not have to rewire for the new stereo. The 8 speaker wires (4 plus and minus) come out of the rear connector. The house speaker wires are in a bundle behind the stereo/VCP, so you have to trace the pairs and cut out the wires that go between the speakers and the amplifier if you have that and just connect the radio wires to the speaker wires as appropriate.

I did a long and hard search to find a single-DIN stereo that had a rear aux-in (3.5mm socket) connector, but I found one. I wanted a rear aux unit specifically so that I could keep all the wires behind the wall. Do a Google search for "single-din rear aux input" and you can find some. This one looks nice for $50: https://www.amazon.com/Multimedia-Bluet ... B07Q837744 Then you use a 3.5mm to 3.5mm like this one: https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Ste ... 73Q84?th=1 to connect the headphone output of the TV to the aux-in port on the stereo to get your TV audio.

ps: This is the radio I actually have. Surprised to see it is still available: https://www.amazon.com/JVC-Single-Din-E ... B00UK31PX8