Anyone ever install on a doublewide?

[Tazz 316]

My co-worked has a doublewide with no attic and a small crawl space. He wants a few cameras installed but does not want any holes drilled into his doublewide so i am looking for ideas.

He lives in the country in a big field with nothing around him. His ideas are to drill them to the gutters run the wire behind it into the crawl space so he can see anyone before they ever get close or put a pole up somewhere with a ptz.

Any ideas?

 

[TonyR]

My co-worked has a doublewide with no attic and a small crawl space. He wants a few cameras installed but does not want any holes drilled into his doublewide so i am looking for ideas.

He lives in the country in a big field with nothing around him. His ideas are to drill them to the gutters run the wire behind it into the crawl space so he can see anyone before they ever get close or put a pole up somewhere with a ptz.

Any ideas?

I put 4 cams on a single wide in 2017.

• Took the four CAT-5e's down through 2 holes in floor next to the wall and behind an entertainment center where the NVR would live on bottom shelf; be sure stand out from the wall enough to avoid steel truss, it was about 4" there, IIRC.
• Removed 1 section of skirting about the single-wide's middle, at the front; used a Grabbit (only $75 in 2012!) to snag 2 cables and pull toward me.
• Ran those 2 cables out to that side, along the bottom above the skirt, 1 each direction and up a corner trim to the cam which was mounted on a junction box. I used the boxes in this post and mounted as mentioned there. Caulked the 2 screws where mounted and screwed into existing wood frame under the metal skin.
• Mounted a cam on the 2 front corners.
• Ran 2 more cables to the opposite (back) side of the single wide and repeated as I did out front; cable up the corners then along and under the trim gutter to the 2 cams on the 2 back corners.
• I used these clips (image below) to hold down the cable, be sure to mount them on existing 2" x 2" under the metal skin, where the existing screws are (this was a 20 year old single wide).
• After terminating and testing, I labelled the cables behind the NVR, aimed the cams while looking at app on my phone, put duct seal where cable entered the junction boxes, caulked the pigtail going into cam and weatherproofed the connections, including dielectric grease, as here.

As mentioned, this was almost 6 years ago...not a single trouble call either. I remote into them from time to time and they are still going strong...which surprises even me, with all the severe lighting we get in NW Alabama and these cables are on a metal-skinned single wide!

I guess if he insists on no holes you could use some 3M double sided foam tape on zip tie mounts or 3M sticky mounts and zip tie the cable to them after cleaning thoroughly where the mounts are to be stuck. Same method for the junction boxes as well, just a LOT more 3M stickers!

 

[Mike A.]

Get some 4x4's and mount at whatever height to those instead? I have a few off-the-house cams done that way.

 

[Keizer]

I own a double wide manufactured home. Mine had furred in soffits so all my cameras are soffit mounted. I was able to run all my cabling through the soffits to each camera. The cabling exits the soffits in three places and runs in 1/2" steel electrical conduit behind my gutter downspouts, then under ground in liquid tight to the crawl space. Then I ran all the cabling to my office wall in the crawl space. The install is almost invisible.

Here's a few pics of how I ran the cabling in the conduit behind the gutter downspouts. The Lorex camera in the one pic has since been swapped out for a 4KT.

 

[Mike A.]

Here's a few pics of how I ran the cabling in the conduit behind the gutter downspouts...

Nicely done.

 

[Tazz 316]

Get some 4x4's and mount at whatever height to those instead? I have a few off-the-house cams done that way.

Have any pics by chance? Are you referring to 4x4 post stuck in the ground.

 

[Tazz 316]

I guess if he insists on no holes you could use some 3M double sided foam tape on zip tie mounts or 3M sticky mounts and zip tie the cable to them after cleaning thoroughly where the mounts are to be stuck. Same method for the junction boxes as well, just a LOT more 3M stickers!

He wants zero drilled holes even his electrical panel box is not mounted to the house.

 

[Mike A.]

Have any pics by chance? Are you referring to 4x4 post stuck in the ground.

Yes. I used post sleeves over mine to make it look a little nicer and gives a hollow area inside for cable connections, etc.

There are examples of others that people here have done off the house in various ways... similar posts, fake rocks, bird houses, etc. Not sure how to tell you to search for them in any easy way but you get the general idea.

 

[Tazz 316]

Yes. I used post sleeves over mine to make it look a little nicer and gives a hollow area inside for cable connections, etc.

There are examples of others that people here have done off the house in various ways... similar posts, fake rocks, bird houses, etc. Not sure how to tell you to search for them in any easy way but you get the general idea.

That post sleeve makes a big difference and it's a lot shorter than i thought it would be but i guess that is my only option.

 

[Mike A.]

The sleeves come in various lengths up to ~100" so you can make it taller or shorter. For where I wanted mine I used a ~8' 4x4 cut in half with a foot and a half or so buried and cut the sleeve down to about 3' or so. So I got two out of the same post/sleeve. I think it comes out at about 34" with the cap.

Search Results for post sleeve at The Home Depot

Search Results for post sleeve at The Home Depot

www.homedepot.com

They start to get kind of expensive beyond white vinyl at Home Depot/Lowes.

 

[Tazz 316]

The sleeves come in various lengths up to ~100" so you can make it taller or shorter. For where I wanted mine I used a ~8' 4x4 cut in half with a foot and a half or so buried and cut the sleeve down to about 3' or so. So I got two out of the same post/sleeve. I think it comes out at about 34" with the cap.

Search Results for post sleeve at The Home Depot

Search Results for post sleeve at The Home Depot

www.homedepot.com

They start to get kind of expensive beyond white vinyl at Home Depot/Lowes.

Is that camera facing a road? looks like it's around 4 feet tall.

 

[Mike A.]

That one does face a road but it's perpendicular to it and not really intended for that. It looks out to the street from the rear of my house and is mostly to cover the far side of cars in the driveway that my house-mounted cams can't see well due to the angle. Also picks up anyone coming into the yard from that side.

 

[Tazz 316]

That one does face a road but it's perpendicular to it and not really intended for that. It looks out to the street from the rear of my house and is mostly to cover the far side of cars in the driveway that my house-mounted cams can't see well due to the angle. Also picks up anyone coming into the yard from that side.

I like it!

My co-worker has another idea and wants to use galvanized poles painted to match the gutters and use clamps to hold the pole to the gutter and simply run the cat5 cable inside the pole with the camera using a pole mount.

Not sure how much weight that could hold.

 

[wpiman]

I love that post, but isn't that camera mount install upside down? I would think water would get into camera mount and pool?

 

[Mike A.]

It is "upside down" in a way I suppose. Better with the cut-out area at the top to have more adjustment up. Otherwise, turned the other way it doesn't have enough. I wanted to use one of the wall mounts but not enough upward adjustment with that. No way for water to pool there. Just runs out. I spray it with the hose all the time watering things. The hole for the cable is about at the top of the ball of the cam so it would have a long way to go to get there and it's duct sealed and things are wrapped up inside. I have a splitter inside and run an IR illuminator from that same post. I like it. Was an easy and clean way to hide stuff.

Cam view looks like this. There's no house behind that area to mount anything so that's the only way that I can see that side of cars parked there.

 

[Gimmons]

He wants zero drilled holes even his electrical panel box is not mounted to the house.

He's using it as a Faraday cage.

 

[Tazz 316]

He's using it as a Faraday cage.

His previous doublewide that he rented had a leak from the satellite dish install on the roof and ended up leaking into the house causing damage that he was forced to pay for. So that is why he wants no drilling.

he liked the post in the ground idea but said that would require a trench for the cable as to where the painted galvanized pole would be easy.

 

[TonyR]

He wants zero drilled holes even his electrical panel box is not mounted to the house.

That's standard procedure in this neck of the woods for manufactured homes, trailers, temporary construction office shacks, etc.

His previous doublewide that he rented had a leak from the satellite dish install on the roof and ended up leaking into the house causing damage that he was forced to pay for.

Understandable, I would avoid as well....but since the topic came up, in my opinion at no time should anyone allow anyone to install a satellite dish, antenna tripod or any other similar device on a roof unless:

• There are NO other options (there are) AND
• The installer REALLY knows what they're doing AND
• The owner of the building is willing to accept the risks and fully expect possible leaks.

The one time I had to install a J-pole on a roof for a dish I placed it as close to the edge as possible over the eave so that any leaks would head toward the fascia board/gutter area and limited to the soffit and NOT make it inside the structure...but still not optimum, IMO. I was lucky in that the LOS for the dish allowed such placement.