i'm finishing up the rebuild of my mast. i've added a larger vhf cable and some additional wires for lights. but now the exit hole is not large enough to accommodate all the wires. before i go drilling another or enlarging the existing hole. i figured i'd see what others have done. i'm curious if people have multiple holes, a larger hole, and where said holes might be.
currently i have ~1/2" hole in the front rounded portion of the mast. i don't know whether it's wise/safe or not to drill another 1/2" hole next to/above the existing hole making it oval or move over a ways and drill a second hole. i need to fit (4) 12awg wires, (3) 14awg wires, (1) wind sensor, (1) rg213 cable through the base somehow
The number or size of holes doesn't really matter (within reason). Just make sure you use a properly sized cable/wiring gland at each penetration
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I just replaced my VHF cable with LMR-400 (it was rg-59!!! So tiny) and I did a large oval hole so i could do a drip loop. The wire comes up the conduit, over the mast head bolt and then down again with a large radius loop back up to the antenna.
thanks, wrong end of the mast though :) i'm talking about the bottom near the mast step. (i'm keel stepped)
Ah... here are some pics of the other end when I was re-stepping after painting and rewiring the mast. Lots of wires (electronics, etc.) exiting on both sides of mast. I had to slightly shave bottom of floor board to make a smooth no chafe exit under floor. Sorry pics are old. Red tape was to stop deck turnbuckle padeye fromgetting lost/sliding off before I reconnected to turnbuckle at inside of coachroof.
There's no problems, structural wise, enlarging the hole to an oval, or with placing an addition one nearby. Vanilla or Chocolate, YBYC (not meant in the usual derogatory tone.) :D
I went with a larger hole at the forward end of the mast for my stack of wires. There was wone there already, but i drilled with a hole saw a larger one that overlapped the existing one and made that whole thing into a rounded triangle hole. I left the bottom of the extrusion in tact to make sure the loads were transferred to the step. As Noah said, a small amount of relief was necessary in the floor boards to provide a clear path for the wires.
Photos of before and after for reference
Before the bigger hole
thanks all. mine has the little hole as shown in post #8 right now. looks like it shouldn't be an issue enlarging. my floor boards need to be redone so whatever i end up putting back i'll make sure the wires clear.
as a after thought, what have people done about the bridge connections at the bottom of the mast. i was going to get a small waterproof outdoor electrical box. like the gray ones they sell at lowes/home depot and put the wires inside. i'm sure there's eight thousand and one ways to do this, just curious what others have done
I used deutsch connecters for all my mast power connections. The radar wire will also get a deutsch connector but I javent done it yet. The wind transducer uses a small waterproof barrel connector I found at an electronics shop.
Guys : When I added the TV cable I just drill a new hole in the inside of the mast and brought it thru that way. I protected that cable with a rubber/plastic grommet around the hole - that's important!!
I connected that wire from the antenna to an A/B switch. That way all of the signal went to either the TV "A" position or FM "B" position.
A thought