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How to seal holes in your Camper Van Roof using Waterproof Cable Gland Seal Kit!
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May 3, 2025
Today at Van Builder HQ, Nick is showing how to seal holes in your camper van roof using Waterproof Cable Gland Seal Kit! Check this one out! Visit https://www.vanbuilderhq.com to learn more. Interested in buying a van? Check out https://www.odysseycustomvans.com
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0:00
[Music]
0:08
hey guys welcome back to the shop we're
0:10
on top of thomas's 2020 ford transit
0:13
mid-roof van and we're getting ready to
0:15
finish up the roof and before we did i
0:17
wanted to do a video kind of closing
0:19
everything up so when we get to the next
0:21
part of this series you guys can uh kind
0:24
of understand where we're at so where
0:26
we're at today is we're working on
0:28
sealing up
0:30
the holes in the roof and then cutting
0:32
new holes so that we can pass through
0:34
cables for the antenna
0:36
and as well as the
0:38
solar panel connections in the rear
0:42
the next video we're going to be doing
0:43
is the electrical system so we're
0:45
getting this done first so that we can
0:47
have the holes to run these wires down
0:50
and into our battery bank
0:52
all right so over here
0:54
let's bring the camera in
0:56
we are on top of the van and we have two
0:59
seals that we're working with today
1:02
they're both by scan strut
1:04
and these are cable seals for
1:07
essentially from the the marine industry
1:08
the boating industry
1:11
and we're using them on the van because
1:13
it's perfect for this application
1:15
and what i wanted to show you in this
1:17
video specifically was that
1:19
when you put solar panels on your roof
1:22
some vehicles come with a satellite
1:24
antenna so this could be for xm or
1:27
serious satellite radio
1:29
ford communication
1:31
stuff like that so that is the factory
1:33
antenna and this is the factory location
1:36
for that antenna
1:37
since we're putting solar panels on this
1:39
van
1:40
the solar panel is blocking the signal
1:42
or it will block the signal so when it's
1:45
over here we need to relocate it
1:49
i've decided to put it right up here in
1:51
this corner
1:52
it's perfect because we got good
1:54
protection with the fairing here as far
1:56
as the wind and rain goes
1:58
uh and even though this is weather
2:00
sealed at this location once we move it
2:02
from that location
2:05
ford has a double seal on here it has an
2:07
outer and an inner sill
2:09
kind of like as a backup
2:12
and it snaps into the top of the roof so
2:14
what we're going to do is where these
2:15
wires come through there's about a
2:18
about an eighth of an inch
2:21
gap in here that we're going to fill up
2:22
with silicone
2:23
and that will seal the wire input of
2:26
this antenna and then on the threads
2:29
this whole thing is one solid chunk of
2:31
metal it's all the circuits are sealed
2:33
in here
2:34
and the other location we'll be using a
2:38
lock type
2:40
to
2:42
not only lock our threads but
2:44
seal that up here when we mount it
2:46
so once we mount it or when we mount it
2:49
it's going to be right here so it's
2:51
going to be its new home
2:54
and
2:56
we've went ahead and we're still using
2:58
all the factory hardware so we drilled
3:00
out this hole to match
3:02
the factory screw that it came with
3:05
so that's good
3:07
now
3:08
when we're moving it from that location
3:10
to here
3:11
we need to do something about this hole
3:13
so what we're doing is
3:15
we're using this cable seal
3:17
and what's really nice about this is the
3:19
shape
3:20
so it's almost the exact same shape
3:23
just shrunken down
3:27
now what we want to do is
3:29
have the ability to
3:32
reuse this hole in the future so
3:34
say
3:36
he changes his mind he wants to change
3:38
up the roof rack put something on there
3:40
different and then take this antenna and
3:42
move it back to the oem location
3:45
i want to give him the option to do that
3:48
so it comes with this seal and if you
3:49
guys can look this seal
3:52
perfectly
3:53
covers the diameter of that
3:55
square cutout
3:58
and then what we're going to do is we're
3:59
going to take a
4:00
a little
4:02
hole punch we're going to be very
4:03
careful with this because
4:06
this roof is not you know it's kind of
4:08
flimsy so i'm basically just using this
4:10
hard steel end just to make our point
4:13
because i want to be very precise with
4:15
this gas gasket
4:17
because we're going to be pre-drilling
4:18
these holes
4:19
and then we'll use the supplied
4:21
stainless screws that it comes with
4:24
once this uh we peel this adhesive off
4:27
and we stick this seal down
4:31
next step is we will take our
4:33
uh
4:34
scan strut plate it comes into two comes
4:37
in two pieces
4:39
there's a rubber
4:41
seal right here
4:43
and let's see if i can pull that out
4:44
hold on
4:52
okay
4:54
so the kit comes with
4:56
a
4:58
six millimeter seven millimeter eight
5:00
millimeter nine millimeter pre-cut out
5:02
holes and a ten millimeter and then it
5:05
comes with one called self-drill
5:08
uh the self-drill one obviously you know
5:11
you can self-drill it whatever size you
5:12
want but what we're going to be using it
5:14
for is to just plug the hole
5:18
so we're just going to take this piece
5:20
we're going to take our plug
5:23
since we're not drilling a hole in it
5:25
and then we're just going to pop it in
5:26
there just like that
5:28
now what's really cool is
5:30
once we lay this on top of here
5:35
and we drill we put our four screws in
5:37
and that clamps down
5:41
this is the cap so what the cap does is
5:43
the way that it comes on is it goes over
5:45
the back
5:47
and then the front actually pushes down
5:50
and that is what seals it squeezes the
5:53
back
5:55
piece of rubber and seals the hole
5:58
so you get a very professional seal
6:02
even though nobody can see it still
6:03
looks really
6:04
nice in the future you can take that one
6:07
screw out
6:09
then reseal the holes and then you could
6:12
actually take this antenna and put it
6:14
back on there so that's that's the whole
6:15
thought process behind
6:17
using this type of
6:21
cable seal
6:23
moving over here we have this round
6:25
style
6:28
right here and this round style looks
6:30
like this
6:33
it's nice heavy duty it also has a big
6:36
blanket here that we're actually going
6:37
to drill out
6:39
to a dynamic diameter enough so that we
6:41
can squeeze in the end of this wire
6:45
the way that the
6:46
satellite antenna is made you can't
6:49
actually cut and splice this wire
6:51
because it's a shielded
6:54
like foil insulated wire it's a pretty
6:58
pretty technical
7:01
and yeah just don't mess with that
7:04
so we're not going to do that um we have
7:07
shaved the sides down here on the left
7:09
and the right there was a big square
7:10
piece of plastic on the left and the
7:12
right
7:12
everything functions
7:14
just the same but we did that so that
7:16
our
7:17
our whole penetration is
7:20
as minimal as possible
7:21
so once we drill that and we put our
7:24
cable through here
7:25
the next thing we want to do is find a
7:28
suitable location to drill our new hole
7:32
we don't want to drill it so that it
7:33
comes up under here and we can't access
7:35
it
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same for here underneath the bracket so
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just use common sense and you guys can
7:40
kind of see
7:42
we're going to put it right here
7:44
and that way it's kind of a nice square
7:47
and it's in the middle of everything to
7:48
where you can you can access it we can
7:50
drill our hole we can screw these and
7:52
we're good to go but it's close enough
7:55
that we can still make this
7:57
this cable run
7:58
because we are limited on the cable
8:01
length
8:02
hence why we are
8:04
moving it from here to here and not just
8:07
pulling the cable we actually need to
8:09
move it closer where it comes through
8:11
the top of the van
8:13
so that's going to be our new location
8:15
again
8:16
nice professional
8:18
solution for
8:21
relocating this
8:24
since this is blank once we drill our
8:26
hole what we're going to do is we're
8:27
going to take liquid rubber and refill
8:28
the hole
8:30
because there is once that plug goes
8:32
through there will be a little bit of a
8:34
void
8:35
where the cable is kind of rattling
8:37
around
8:38
so we'll mount this put this in here and
8:40
once everything is tightened down we'll
8:42
use our liquid rubber
8:45
we'll put some tape on the back side so
8:47
it doesn't go into the van
8:49
and then we'll pour it in and then let
8:50
it set and it's essentially going to
8:53
create a duplicate
8:55
of this rubber
8:56
then we're going to take a lap sealant
8:59
and we'll just
8:59
squeeze out a little bit of lap sealant
9:01
to make a puddle here on the top just as
9:04
uh some additional insurance as well as
9:06
lap sealant around this outside edge
9:09
so we'll do that there we'll do that on
9:11
this outside edge as well
9:13
and then that will be
9:14
our antenna location
9:17
so we can take our solar panel
9:19
and move it back over here and we're all
9:21
done
9:24
next i wanted to show you guys this
9:27
waterproof cable gland kit
9:29
this is just a kit from amazon
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they give you a ton of different sizes
9:35
and instead of cutting out uh like a two
9:38
to three inch hole and the roofs of the
9:40
vans that i build
9:42
i like to do
9:44
individual holes for cables so
9:46
solar kit solar panel wires are
9:48
typically you know one's positive one's
9:51
negative
9:53
so instead of getting that really big
9:55
cable gland like the wider the black one
9:57
that they sell or kind of give you for
9:58
free in the kits it's kind of like that
10:00
cheap plastic i like to do individual
10:02
run so i'll drill one hole
10:05
i'll put this uh
10:09
this cable gland
10:11
right here it's got a compression
10:13
fitting on the top of it so it squeezes
10:15
down and then this diameter is really
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very uh
10:19
very small diameter so we're not taking
10:20
out a lot of material from the roof so
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that'll be for one cable like the
10:24
positive
10:25
and then we'll do another one for the
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negative and so it's just
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very little material taken away like i
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just said
10:32
and it makes a very clean install
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and if something happens in the future
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you can just unscrew this pull the cable
10:39
out replace it if needed and then close
10:42
this back down
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and you're good to go so it is does make
10:46
it easier to service your
10:48
solar panel wires however
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very unlikely that that would ever
10:53
happen
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and then last
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we are
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going to be putting in baja designs
11:01
led light strip up here in the front
11:05
now we're not sure
11:07
until the kit comes in the diameter of
11:09
the cable
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so the nice thing about having this kit
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is when it does come in we've got an
11:14
assortment to pick from and we'll only
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be able to drill
11:17
uh it'll be easy because we have one
11:19
hole we'll drill and wire that cable in
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and we'll be good to go
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so i like doing stuff this way because
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it makes a very neat professional
11:28
these type of cable glands
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keep you from drilling
11:32
you know you're drilling more holes but
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you're not drilling a big
11:37
hole in the van if that makes sense
11:40
you get to have holes dedicated to
11:43
exactly where
11:44
the
11:45
equipment is on your roof so the solar
11:47
input will be over here on the right
11:49
the baja designs cable will be over here
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on the left driver's side
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and we're not having to extend all of
11:55
our cables all the way to just one main
11:57
port over there
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so yeah that is update
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of the roof
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because after this solar panel gets put
12:07
into place baja designs gets on
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we're done with the roof we'll be moving
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inside the van and beginning our
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power system
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completion
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we've already got a little bit of the 80
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20 put together to hold the batteries
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and way back in the shop we are actually
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using our victron
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30 amp lithium iron phosphate battery
12:32
charger to top off the batteries before
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we put them in the van
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and we'll be putting all that into a new
12:40
video in the future so look out for that
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one if you guys have any question on how
12:44
to seal up holes in your roof put those
12:47
in the comments below i'd be happy to
12:48
make uh or answer those questions in a
12:50
future video and until next time
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we'll see you in the next video
12:56
[Music]
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you
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