59 replies to this topic

[97grandby]

Hi Y'all, Well good topic, I have a lot of questions. I know there has been a lot of feeds on this subject.

Being a recent owner of my 2016 Raven, I had it prewired for solar and had a Zamp charge controller added too. The only thing I do not have is the actual panel. I understand everyone wants to mount them but I keep the Raven in my garage and want to keep the battery charged. So portable seems to be the best. I'm looking for 120 watt (portable) that will travel with me and I can put outside the garage every few days to get the sun instead of having to pull the camper out.

Any suggestions of what's better? I do not want it mounted on the roof of the camper. I see Zamp has a suitcase style and soon a flexible one also. Will 120 Watt be enough for weekend trips?

all depends on your battery bank and how much power your going to be using. If you can tell us a little but more about your batteries and how much power you use on any given day in sure we can help size a system for you. And at least get you in the all park of what size to look for. DrJ has a nice write up on how to size a system and what size battery bank and solar system to get


1990 Ford F-250
1997 fwc grandby

[ofc11066]

Yes thank you, and I have one battery. I really would only use battery power for a max of 2 days for fridge, vent fan and lights. Most of the time I will be plugged into shore power. 

Hope that helps.

[97grandby]

What type of fridge are you using? Propane or compressor 2 way?


1990 Ford F-250
1997 fwc grandby

[ofc11066]

Compressor 2 way (Isotherm 65L 2.3 c/ft) and the lights are all LED.

[97grandby]

The compressor fridges are great and I have one as well. I have two large 6v( golf cart batts) wired to give me 225 amp hour power. But you can really only take them down to 50% by rule of thumb before damaging them so that really means I have 112 amp hour that is useable. On average with fridge lights and furnace I use around 50 amps a day of power so I can go two days with nothing helping raise my power. To run forever I can use some math that my old high school math teacher/ football coach would be proud of. To charge at least 50 amps a day with 6 hours of direct sun light i need at least 100 watts to break even. But things with solar are rarely perfect. You get clouds, rain, and sometimes parked in a some what shady area. I would at least double it to be safe. So I went with 240 watts (2-120 watt panels) and seems to run my system long as it wants to. I left it on for two weeks in my drive way and it was always up to 90%+ by end of the day. I am very likely to add an additional 2 more panels for 2 reasons. 1st is this is not only my camping/ hobby rig, it's also emergency prep to have a stand alone system to keep my family comfortable if something ever happened. I have had clients that with hurricanes and natural disasters been out of power for 3-4 weeks while waiting to get it restored. I like knowing I can run some bare essentials to keep my little family comfortable. The second reason for more power is my brother has 385 watts of solar and having 100 more then him just seems like something I ought to do. You can click on my link in my signature to see my full set up or also search for DrJ system. He is the real expert i just copied him.


1990 Ford F-250
1997 fwc grandby

[Vic Harder]

I'm looking for 120 watt (portable) that will travel with me and I can put outside the garage every few days to get the sun instead of having to pull the camper out.

 

Any suggestions of what's better? I do not want it mounted on the roof of the camper. I see Zamp has a suitcase style and soon a flexible one also. Will 120 Watt be enough for weekend trips?

What 97Grandby said is good advice.  DrJ is the man.  

[ofc11066]

Thanks a lot y'all. I do think I will also start with 120 W and then build up from there as needed, extra batteries and panels.

[ofc11066]

Thanks again 97 Granby, I have read about your family and have been watching your build. Awesome. I can't wait to start camping with other people (family) too.

[97grandby]

Anytime, hopefully it has been helpful to you. And I enjoy camping but doing it with my family takes it to the next
Level. Any other questions feel free to ask.


1990 Ford F-250
1997 fwc grandby

[Will.I.Am]

So back in July, before our trip to central Oregon, I finally settled on a roof install method for the HQST flexible 100W and 50W panels I had bought.  My goal was to install these panels on our 2005 FWC Hawk in a lightweight, low profile mode, with the smallest footprint possible.  I also wanted the panels to be able to get max sun at the same time our boards were up top.

 

I started by shortening the Yak tracks...

IMG_7494.jpg

 

I then cleaned the roof, and began the panel install.  I used long strips of industrial strength velcro from Home Depot on each panel, installing four lines of the self adhesive velcro on each. The photo below shows the underside of the panels with velcro before installation.

IMG_7501.jpg

 

I drilled holes in four locations on each panel, corresponding to points above the aluminum ribs of the FWC roof, and dumped a boat load of silicone in each hole.  I set the panels on the roof, removing the plastic protecting the velcro adhesive, dipped 1" sheet metal screws w/neoprene washers in silicone and screwed the panels down to the roof, being careful not to warp the panels at each attachment point by over-tightening the screws.  I slipped a piece of clear plastic corner protector on the leading (forward facing) edge of each panel to protect them from rocks, bugs, etc.  Here's a picture of the installed 100W panel leading edge.

IMG_7509.jpg

 

Here's a pic of both panels, installed.  I used the factory roof SAE connector and wiring.

IMG_7511.jpg

 

I noticed that the "diode" (not sure what it's called exactly) on the 100W panel (top of the photo below) was pretty close or even overlapping with one of the solar cells...very different from the space between the cells and diode on the 50W panel.  I emailed HQST and they replaced the 100W panel.

IMG_7507.jpg

 

I ended up also installing a TriMetric battery monitor and solar charge controller.  Suffice it to say the install necessitated occasional morale boosting, but was pretty straight forward in the end.

IMG_7491.jpg

 

Two weeks and a few thousand miles later, the install remained solid with the panels providing somewhere around 8 amps peak power.  The 150W array, TriMetric setup, and 125aH Lifeline battery kept our huge Dometic CR1110 going the entire trip, even after days in shady campsites...maintaining >50% on the battery most of the time.  There were several days where battery couldn't make it past 70% however.  The panels definitely warped a bit in the sun, following the contours of the roof, but they're functioning pretty much to spec.  Here's a picture of the leading edge bug deflector protector on the panels post-trip.

IMG_7940.jpg

 

If I have occasion to reinstall the panels at some point, I might reorient the velcro lengthwise, parallel to the roof, so that water can drain more easily.  Right now it pools just a bit under the panels.  I also might run larger gauge wiring to the charge controller.  Will probably also add another HQST 100W as a portable panel to help out in shaded campsites.

 

Quick follow up, the 100W HQST panel I installed here failed yesterday, almost 4 years later.   The failure is complete: no voltage/amps to the controller.  I haven't attempted to figure out what exactly happened...I honestly didn't expect it to last this long. The panel is very opaque at this point, but was still producing about 50% of rated power as far as I could tell.