Kodachrome
Senior Member
So as a main, I am running a Sears Group 31battery off of a 135 watt panel on the roof full time, it is paired with a Sunsaver 15 MPPT charge controller. I have a Optima Blue top as a lighter backup battery that shares the isolator from the truck's 12 alternator driven system switched with a Blue Sea marine battery switch.
Overall, this system has worked great, the big battery can be charged via either the truck and the solar or just the solar with an additional slide out 100 watt "Winter-light" panel bringing it to 235 watts. But the little battery can only be charged by the truck at the moment, so in the Winter time it can get low if I don't drive the truck for a bit.
What I am planning on doing is mounting a nice 3 pound, 29"x17" 40 watt flex panel I just got on my wind deflector and running it straight to the spare charge controller I have and have that go to the spare battery only. I figure 40 full time watts will keep it topped off nicely making it to where both batteries will stay topped off in the Winter time even if the rig is just parked. I thought about using the 100 watt slide out, but I need something more full time that does not need to be "Deployed". Yep, 275 watts is a lot of solar for a small camper that uses an efficient 12 volt fridge and all LED lighting. But I am often parked in one spot on projects for 1-2 weeks at a time and up to 3. Also I know the setup of what is essentially two separate solar systems may seem like overkill but in using this rig professionally, having full redundancy is appealing to me.
So the question:
I plan on not attaching anything to the load portion of the secondary controller going to the spare Optima battery, just keeping the wiring running off of the switch via the isolator. That way the only job the charge controller has is to charge the battery via the 40 watt panel on the wind deflector ( or the 100 watt if I swap the plugs when parked ), not deal with any loads at all.
Do I just hook up another negative and positive lead from the charge controller to the battery in addition to the ones that are already there?
Is this making sense or am I missing something?
Overall, this system has worked great, the big battery can be charged via either the truck and the solar or just the solar with an additional slide out 100 watt "Winter-light" panel bringing it to 235 watts. But the little battery can only be charged by the truck at the moment, so in the Winter time it can get low if I don't drive the truck for a bit.
What I am planning on doing is mounting a nice 3 pound, 29"x17" 40 watt flex panel I just got on my wind deflector and running it straight to the spare charge controller I have and have that go to the spare battery only. I figure 40 full time watts will keep it topped off nicely making it to where both batteries will stay topped off in the Winter time even if the rig is just parked. I thought about using the 100 watt slide out, but I need something more full time that does not need to be "Deployed". Yep, 275 watts is a lot of solar for a small camper that uses an efficient 12 volt fridge and all LED lighting. But I am often parked in one spot on projects for 1-2 weeks at a time and up to 3. Also I know the setup of what is essentially two separate solar systems may seem like overkill but in using this rig professionally, having full redundancy is appealing to me.
So the question:
I plan on not attaching anything to the load portion of the secondary controller going to the spare Optima battery, just keeping the wiring running off of the switch via the isolator. That way the only job the charge controller has is to charge the battery via the 40 watt panel on the wind deflector ( or the 100 watt if I swap the plugs when parked ), not deal with any loads at all.
Do I just hook up another negative and positive lead from the charge controller to the battery in addition to the ones that are already there?
Is this making sense or am I missing something?