coaxial cable roof penetration: no cable entry plate beware leaks

[silvertrooper]

Friends and countrypeeps,
For the five years I've owned the Turtle, I've noticed a musty smell in the closet. It's a 1996, so no wet bath but it has the black tank vent stack running through the closet. I've always thought that maybe there's a little leak in that. But then I realized that the smell was not sewer gas, but rather musty or mildewy, and probably indicative of a water leak.

I checked the roof on the rear passenger corner and the seals where the roof rack/antenna are mounted seem sound. However, at the penetration for the coax TV cable there was a problem. With no cable entry plate, the cable just ran through a hole in the roof into the van; it was sealed with a rubber-type sealant. But the cable had come loose of the sealant so any water that got on the cable could conceivably run down the cable into the van--in back of the 12v and coax connection plate above the stove. Others have noted that this can short out that connection.

I will soon be taking out the back panels in the closet (after Burning Man, because only so much time!) to see the water damage. But meanwhile, I pulled through cable for a cell signal booster, replacing the old coax with new, mounted that antenna aft of the A/C unit with a locking hinge https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08G4 ... UTF8&psc=1 on eternabond double sided tape[/https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JE ... UTF8&psc=1] and added a cable entry plate https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009L ... UTF8&psc=1 also attached with eternabond. All was sealed with your friend and mine, Dicor self-leveling lap sealant https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H5 ... UTF8&psc=1

[Rugster]

I've heard from other B190 owners, that the brackets which hold the luggage rack to the roof, can be a troublesome point of water ingress too. I only mention this because I noticed that your brackets don't have any sealant on them. It's possible that the black plastic/rubber gasket underneath the bracket will keep the water at bay, but why take the chance? Self-leveling lap sealant is easy to apply, and lasts a while. Here's a photo of one of my brackets. I am not miserly with the sealant. It may not look pretty, but it is not going to leak. Please note that this Dicor sealant was white when I applied it a couple of years ago, but it has since been colored by desert dust and general grime.

PS - I too, think that the idea of feeding the coaxial cable into a hole in the roof, with no use of a cable entry gland or similar arrangement, is somewhat inadequate. I used non-leveling lap sealant to seal mine. So far, it seems to work, but it's still not ideal.

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