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Reason to install a roof solar panel when you order your FWC or ATC camper


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#1 RC Pilot Jim

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Posted 27 June 2014 - 05:21 PM

After 3 months of researching this subject , I have re-written this report.

 

Summary (Deleted everything else as it is repeated in other posts)

 

Compressor refrigerators run off the battery or 110 volt shore power. Going down the road the truck alternator runs the "Refer" and charges the battery. When stopped to sight-see the "refer" runs off the battery discharging it over time. If the auxiliary battery gets to low(below 12 volts) - the "Sure Power Separator " disconnects the truck alternator to protect the truck battery.

 

It will not reconnect the alternator to the aux battery until an external solar panel or 110 volt charger - charges the battery back to 12.0 volts.

 

Solar Panel on your roof runs the "refer" when engine is off. And charges the battery. Alternator and solar "share" running the "refer" and charging the battery going down the road.

 

The large 65 Liter compressor "Refers" draw 3.5 - 5 amps per hour cycling on 50-70% (depends on how hot outside temp is) of the time. If you have one 80 amp battery you only have about 40 usable amps (roughly 50%).At average of 2.7 amps per hour you have about 15 hours of running time. If your camping without hookups you may not have enough reserve amps to run your lights, refer, water pump and heater overnight.

 

 

If you have older batteries you could have a problem if you do a lot of off-grid-camping.

 

Peace of mind
If your like me -you don't like surprises ...Especially when 50 miles in the back country. Putting a solar panel on the roof could give you peace of mind as it one less thing to worry about.

(2015) Four Wheel now installs one solar connector on the roof as a standard feature. The one on the back wall is still optional. At $50 better to buy it now.  If you regularly camp in shaded woods you may need a portable solar panel. 

 

You  have a choice to buy the panel from the manufacture at time of purchase or third party company such as www.solarblvd.com or www.amsolar.com or whomever and install it in the future. Most cities have RV company's that install roof mount solar panels.


Edited by RC Pilot Jim, 20 June 2018 - 11:05 PM.

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Jim

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#2 Casa Escarlata Robles Too

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Posted 27 June 2014 - 05:53 PM

Jim in my case another good thing about the roof solar is that I have  a battery "isolator" and when the truck battery falls below it's 12.8v level the solar starts charging the truck battery. Great during the times the truck/camper sits idle.

 I also try to take the camper fridge,I have a 3 way, off 12v about an hour or so before reaching our destination for the night. That way the camper battery gets a full charge.

Go solar. Have solar on my house also. Best thing we did.

Thanks for the info.

Frank


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#3 RC Pilot Jim

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Posted 27 June 2014 - 06:10 PM

I didn't know the "isolater" would reverse charge the truck battery. the "isolater" your referring to is the standard "Sure Power" FWC installs, correct?

 

Good advice on taking 3-way off line and hour before shut-down to "top off" camper battery.


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#4 Casa Escarlata Robles Too

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Posted 27 June 2014 - 06:36 PM

I didn't know the "isolater" would reverse charge the truck battery. the "isolater" your referring to is the standard "Sure Power" FWC installs, correct?

 

Good advice on taking 3-way off line and hour before shut-down to "top off" camper battery.

No what you have is a "separator". A separator is a solenoid type ,an isolator is not.Someone on the site will tell you more about the difference, also not being an electrical engineer.

 Back in 2011 there was a recall on the "surepower" separators. When this happened Marty from ATC got in touch with past customers about the need to get a new one or the replacement ATC was using. I went with Marty's advise and replaced mine with the isolator. After a short time I noticed the isolator was "on" while the truck wasn't running. After a call to ATC about this ,is when I learned it works both ways.

Frank


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#5 RC Pilot Jim

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Posted 27 June 2014 - 09:02 PM

Frank, the isolator is "Bi- directional". Could you reply with the brand and model number?

Sure Power offers a "Bi-directional separator. Don,t know if "isolated" and "separator" work the same if they are both "bi-directional".

Anybody out there know? And can explain it to the rest of us?
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#6 Casa Escarlata Robles Too

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Posted 27 June 2014 - 09:31 PM

Jim this is my isolator.

Frank

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#7 RC Pilot Jim

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Posted 27 June 2014 - 11:46 PM

Frank. picture is fuzzy so guessing at the make. Is the word "AOPEG? or AOPEC?"


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#8 Casa Escarlata Robles Too

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Posted 28 June 2014 - 12:12 AM

Frank. picture is fuzzy so guessing at the make. Is the word "AOPEG? or AOPEC?"

 

Sorry for the fuzzy picture.

 

The name is   AOPEC  #R12140B

 

specs

 

Aopec smart battery isolator

 

cut in voltage 13.3

cut out voltage 12.8

140A/170A

 

aopec.com

 

Hope this helps.

I think if you search there is a pined thread about the "surepower" separators and the recall with #s.

I don't get anywhere searching,but that is just my lack of knowledge on how to search this site. I think the author of the thread is "uglyscout"from back about June/July 2011.

Frank


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#9 ntsqd

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Posted 28 June 2014 - 12:33 AM

Interesting that the aopec unit looks to be exactly the same housing as the BEP Marine "Voltage Sensing Relay" that we use.

 

75990_primary.jpg

Ours is a "single sense" in that it only looks at the starting battery voltage to decide when to turn on and when to turn off.

http://www.delcity.n...System/p_793852

I plan on replacing it with a 'dual sense" VSR so that our solar will do exactly what frank's does.

http://www.delcity.n...System/p_793863

 


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Thom

Where does that road go?

#10 ETAV8R

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Posted 28 June 2014 - 12:35 AM

Or you could use this and not worry about having roof mounted solar while driving...

http://www.ctek.com/...gers/D250S DUAL

 

D250S%20DUAL_0.jpg


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