solarflex 200 and battery problems

[charlie75]

We have a new Cougar 316RL 5th wheel that came equipped with a 200 solarflex package, if I understand it correctly all this will do is keep my batteries charged. I have had more than one occurrence where I couldn’t extend my leveling jacks, low voltage. I plugged the trailer into shore power and everything worked fine. I left the trailer plugged in for the day and tried the jacks again, jacks did move but quickly ran out of juice. I’m not sure if this is a battery problem or a charging problem with shore power and/or solar systems. I have put the trailer away for the winter but am trying to gather information for when I bring it out in the spring. I have downloaded the App and tried to post but cant figure out how so here is what it was telling me while plugged in to shore power
FYI - battery was installed at the dealership in September when we bought the trailer

Solar - 35W
SOLAR
Voltage - 38.06V
Current - 0.9 A
Battery
Voltage - 13.73V
Current - 2.50
State - Bulk

I hope that I can figure it out so that I dont have to take it back to the dealer

[NH_Bulldog]

If you were running your refrigerator (or anything else) at the same time, the SolarFlex 200 can’t keep up and will not keep the battery/batteries topped off even under ideal full sun conditions.

That being said, there are several other issues that could be a factor. Since the dealer added the battery, the type of battery is important. If Keystone didn’t install lithium batteries at the factory, the converter is set to lead acid type. This is okay if the dealer installed a lead acid battery, but if they installed a lithium battery and didn’t set up the converter correctly, it could be an issue. Next is the “AH” (amp-hour) capacity of what they installed and also how many batteries. If they installed a “free” battery, you likely received the cheapest one they had on the shelf like a single group 24 hybrid rv/marine battery with both “AH” and CCA or CA (Cold Cranking Amps or Cranking Amps). Anything with “cranking” amps is intended to start an engine, not provide deep cycle power to an RV. A 100 AH lithium battery (preferably 2) paired with a properly configured converter charging profile, should provide ample power reserve to operate the slides and leveling jacks without issue.

Looking at your screen capture, your solar was producing 35 watts, which is about 18% of your system capacity. Battery voltage looks good. “Bulk” indicates the battery is substantially discharged and is currently accepting a full power charge. It looks like solar is only giving a .9 A output but your RV is drawing 2.5 A. In other words, you are using power at a rate significantly higher than your system can replace it.

[charlie75]

Thanks for the quick reply as it was very helpful. The fridge was not on and I am a little confused to what could have been drawing power as nothing was on in the trailer. That being said the microwave, TVs, smoke detectors... would have been using power(stand-by) but were not running, not sure how much power they would draw. The battery is a lead acid and I agree its probably the cheapest one they had. I will have a look at the battery to check on the other information you have provided. Thanks again.

[charlie75]

You were correct with your assumption, they installed a Group 24DC battery with CA-750, CCA-550, RC-140 and AH-77. Is it normal for the solar panel to only be producing 35W on a sunny day? Can you give me an idea of how much amperage my solar system should be producing or how much output it should be reading? Mine is reading 0.9 A

[RacerX]

Originally Posted by NH_Bulldog

Looking at your screen capture, your solar was producing 35 watts, which is about 18% of your system capacity. Battery voltage looks good. “Bulk” indicates the battery is substantially discharged and is currently accepting a full power charge. It looks like solar is only giving a .9 A output but your RV is drawing 2.5 A. In other words, you are using power at a rate significantly higher than your system can replace it.

Just a quick correction to the above….solar was producing 35w as noted (38.06 x .9a). However your system was not drawing 2.5A. Rather It was being charged at 2.5A. (No minus sign…. 2.5Ax13.73 = just over 34W to the battery coming out from the charge controller to the battery. )

So no draw but your 200w panel seems to be underproducing which could be from partial shading or because the battery won’t accept higher amperage.

If it was me I would check for a dirty, blocked or shaded panel and then I would connect to the shunt to see what it is reporting for the battery state of Charge.

I would also look for the battery settings in both the shunt and the solar charge controller. (Shunt should report 12 v system and approx 77 ah capacity in its settings and charge controller should prob use the Gel Victron deep discharge (2) and show a 12 v system and a 15 a max charge rate assuming a 75/15 charge controller. )

Then I would monitor the shunt voltage as I extended the jacks. It could be that your battery was somehow mistreated in its life cycle and is weak. You would see this as a substantial voltage drop while extending. A battery test might be in line. I suspected that the dealer gave me a battery off the “nearly dead” pile with our first rig.

If a battery has bad cells or is damaged it might cause the charge controller to throttle the amps back to what the battery can accept. The battery voltage reported by the charge controller is the voltage being supplied by the solar charge controller and isn’t necessarily the voltage of the battery. You could check that at the shunt when the charge controller was off (or in the dark with no sun power) with no shore power or via a battery tester with the same restrictions. You may find that your voltage with no other chargers connected is low.
Good luck!