I contacted Forest River customer service to ask where the "pre-wired" solar wires terminated.  They were not behind the GoPower template label that was on the cabinet by the door, like it said they would be.

Here's their response:

The dealer would also be the one to install the solar panel and converter.

What a joke! After the problems I have had with my new travel trailer, I wouldn't let the dealer anywhere near my camper!  i've had to fix so many things that were not assembled correctly.  I can't install solar power ON MY OWN CAMPER?!?!?!

Thanks.  Yeah I know I can install it on the camper, I just think it's ridiculous that they won't answer the question.

So you are saying that the pre-wired solar cables terminate at the battery?  There are 2 smaller cables/wires attached to the battery, that may be them.  I will use my digital multimeter to check those.

Dealers will get smart to this ploy very quickly and will decline to give "advice" to FR product owners.  If this is going to be the future for FR's customer service, then I, for one, if I ever buy another trailer, will be looking at manufacturers who give support to their customers.  

As for what FR has to lose by declining to provide information and parts for their products, the answer is simple: customers.  If people can't get information they need to maintain their RVs, and the dealers are not inclined to be helpful, then smart buyers will look for other manufacturers.  

Thankfully, most RVs are built of generic parts that can be purchased through after market vendors.  There are very few brand specific parts apart from interior decorative materials such as wall panel vinyl or cabinetry.  

In regard to specific vendor produced items, such as a solar system or a stove, they've always referred inquiries to the manufacturer of the item.  But for FR designed connections to those appliances, they used to give some advice.  Now, you must beg the information from your nearest FR dealer regardless of whether the dealer is familiar with that particular brand of trailer.  The dealers are going to get smart real fast and stop offering advice.  Effectively, it's a concerted effort to stop maintenance outside of FR's dealers which effectively is a restraint of free trade and invites foreseeable misuse which will cost FR and the dealers in the long run both in loss of customer confidence and in legal fees and judgments.

Yeah, Forest River Customer Service, 'ain't'.

Like the OP, my nearest dealer is not knowledgeable on solar and such, they are too busy, and they are too far away to be of any use. Plus I can do this stuff myself. But I didn't really want to be looking without any idea of where the wires might be, so I called them. Keep in mind that my r-pod DID have the MC4 port on the roof but did NOT have a port or sticker or anything on the side or back of the outside of the camper. Nothing. Other than the port on the roof, there was a 'GoPower' sticker on the  cabinet above the sink, adjacent to the radio.

It would have been SO simple for the CS person to simply say, yeah those wires are in the so-and-so area normally, and we always use purple and orange wires, or whatever....

If this is any help to the OP, the two wires leading from the roof MC4 connector to the interior of the camper, were found tucked away inside the cabinet where the sticker is and the radio is mounted on my 171. The two pairs of wires were red and black, 10 (or maybe 12) gauge IIRC, and were bundled up with the existing harness for the radio with no markings or labels.

As we've seen in another post, Forest River will gladly sell an owner a new $1100 fridge...and certainly the removal of the old unit, and installation of the new one will expose the user (and Forest River) to risk.

Makes no sense to me at all.

The same rules apply to RV manufacturers.  Their failure to provide adequate service information, such as wiring schematics for solar pre-wire configurations, is risky business and at some point, if the trend continues, they'll be having pre-prosecution meetings with DOJ anti-trust lawyers.  It also exposes them to product liability.  The failure to give adequate information for service and repair is often the basis for product liability actions.  It is quite foreseeable that a user will legitimately attempt repairs or installations of various systems such as a solar panel.  If the manufactures fails to provide adequate information about which wires are which and a user makes a reasonable attempt to connect a solar system but ends up burning up the RV and some of the occupants, it is a virtual certainty that FR will be invited to the party in court and will probably lose.

Fires in occupied RV are terrifying.  I know.  I represented a defendant in an RV fire many years ago and no one in the camper escaped without serious 3 degree burns.  When the jury looks at those horrible burn scars and hears each victim recount the terror of being trapped inside a burning RV, they are not inclined to give a manufacturer, who withheld information that could have prevented the fire, any break.  It would not be hard to prove that their desire to withhold information was profit driven, as OG suggested in his post.  If the plaintiffs proved it was more likely than not it was profit driven, it would probably result in a punitive damage award.  Ford learned that lesson with their infamous Pinto many years ago.

Sorta like buying a new $45,000 F-150 from Ford, and a week later calling and asking customer service where the trailer brake controller wiring connector is....and them not wanting to tell you this. Huh? Its PART OF THE PRODUCT! Is there a 'risk' that you might get hurt messing with trailers and wiring and all that? Well YES...but you BOUGHT the pickup (in part) because you can hook a trailer to it!

Sorry, this is WRONG thinking. Makes NO sense. Customer service is supposed to also be about customer retention and maintaining loyalty...so you will buy another one from them and recommend them to all your friends.

There is certainly an 'incentive' to build customer loyalty...or...there should be.

IMO, the wiring for the zamp connector is just extra unneeded weight.