Installing a microwave and adding 110v outlets

[wanderso]

My 2001 Fleetwood Jamboree Class C has a cabinet above the range hood that was where an optional microwave would be installed from the factory. The cabinet floor has an electrical raceway for the 12v light and range hood and there is a 110v outlet in a raceway on the wall. I am hoping to add an outlet to power the microwave. I would also like to add an outlet above the dinette which happens to only have one near the TV coax jack near the cab separation wall.

Two questions

Is there any easy way to access this raceway without damage? These cabinets are the cheesy pressboard type. Or am I better off to just use new conduit and install that inside the cabinets?

Second - for the microwave install - are folks doing this retrofit using the rear draft type that vents to the outside (I'm not too excited about cutting a hole in the outside of the rv) or are you using one that vents to the front? One other option is to install one that replaces the range hood, but I'm concerned about the weight and it would have to be pretty short in height to still maintain clearance over the range. The latter does have the advantage of maintaining the cabinet space.

I've done plenty of electrical modifications in home situations but these cabinets is a new one for me.

Thanks!

["007"]

If you were to replace the vent hood with a micro with vent why can't you hook up to same exterior vent, the vent hood was using? May vent up to roof same as the fridge vent.
The new micro would mount on hooked plate at rear base and vent can be out the back or up from top of it.
May be able to make more room with old cabinet removed and raise new micro up on wall surface to commentate the vent opening for old vent.
A 110 outlet could be mounted in cabinet above micro and maybe feed of 110 outlet from the fridge element 110 outlet or ice maker outlet.

[wanderso]

Here's some photos of the area. The range hood currently vents to the RV sidewall. Unfortunately, the cabinet is too low to install a 'below the cabinet' microwave. The cabinet that the existing microwave is sitting in (I remove it and place on counter to use) is where the factory installation would be done. I inspected the cabinet 'floor' further and it appears that the raceway cover is stapled in place. Attempting to get this out without damage would be a good trick.

["007"]

Looking at your pictures you would have to change the cabinets because of size to accommodate a convection type micro and the vent hole out side may not be in same location for the existing vent.
Picture of outlet, may have a box in vent pipe to roof.

[richardcoxid]

For adding, moving 120V household duplex outlets go to Lowes, HD etc. and look at “Wiremold”, I have used Wiremold #800 to add 3 outlets to my RV.

[wanderso]

Thanks. I will check out the HD product. Installing STD microwave, not mircro+convection although that would be nice...

[wanderso]

Ok - so I removed the raceway cover inside the cabinets and discovered (to my delight) that Fleetwood had already sent 110V to the cabinet that the microwave installs in. I suspect that was so that it could be a 'dealer installed' option. I added a 110V outlet in the cabinet as well as an additional one below the cabinet to the left of the range hood. I have ordered a Contoure Black Turntable Microwave with Trim Kit $118.99 from Dyer's RV in Arizona. It will fit into the space. The only remaining question I have is any advice folks have for 'boxing in' the microwave. In this case, these microwaves duct through to the front, but they really are just allowing the air to escape through the front without any actual 'hard duct'. This is how fleetwood installed them as well. My concern with that is potential moisture buildup in the cabinet itself. Should I wrap the interior of the cabinet with vinyl or metal or just not bother?

[wanderso]

Ok - so the microwave arrived on Friday and I installed it today (Saturday). It ended up fitting the space perfectly. You will see from the below photos that this model includes metal ducting for the top and bottom.

Effort was: (to help those that might do the same project; I tested the microwave before installation)

1) Remove cabinet hardboard "floor" to expose the electrical raceway and remove the cabinet door.
2) Cut a rectangular hole in the hardboard to install the electrical outlet. In my case, I used the "decora" style with the built-in child protection. (The advantage is that the plug in that is not in use has an automatically closing plastic cover; assures that foreign material can't enter the exposed outlet. I also used this opportunity to install an outlet to the left of the range hood (will add a little shelf for recharging cell phones)
3) Reinstall the hardboard and wire the outlet. Since this hardboard was installed with staples from the manufacturer, I replaced those with self-tapping brass screws so that I can easily remove it for future access.
4) Install the under-the microwave metal duct (screws to hardboard)
5) Install the microwave faceplate and top metal duct
6) Zip tie the microwave cord to reduce length as desired.
7) Plug in the microwave and slide into place.
8) Screw metal faceplate into cabinet.

I then tested the microwave again; works great! The only item remaining is to fill the existing screw holes from old cabinet door hinges. For reference, this 1.0 cubic foot, 900 watt microwave is $120 including the installation kit. Contoure Black Turntable Microwave with Trim Kit - Microwaves - RV Appliances