Solar Ready Zamp Input Port Mod

[Cheesehead4Life]

As many of you know, that sales pitch on your rig being "solar ready", can be quite a stretch of the imagination. On my 2020 Outback 341RD, it simply meant the Zamp input port on the side and nothing else. It is meant to be directly connected to the battery/bus. I say 'meant' because on mine, the battery end of the wires with ring terminals were simply hanging loose up under the tongue area. This is really just an extension cord and port to the side of the rig. This has been discussed many times.

The wires are 12g at best, and the plug itself is only rated to 10amps -- not terribly useful. I wanted to make this port better, more capable, and more versatile so I could charge from it with portable panels, or run loads from it such as the 12v macerator, air compressor, etc. Here's is what I did to it:

Removed the input port from the side of the camper, removed the zamp fitting, drilled out a large hole and installed an Anderson PanelPole port using their 45amp connectors.
I also reran the wire using 10g giving me 30amp capability. (and of course a new fuse to accommodate that) For me the wire rerun was not a big deal because my relocated lithium batteries were directly inside the wall of where this port is.

On my macerator and compressor I spliced in the 45a Anderson connectors in-line on the wires so I could still use the alligator clips, cig lighter adapter, etc or just unplug those and connect directly to the new input port on the camper.

For solar charging this setup does require the charge controller to be integrated into the panels, or you have to use a charge controller between the panels and the new input port so you can disconnect it. That isn't ideal, but I'm more that willing to accept that extra step/tradeoff for the multiple uses I now have for this port.

I have seen this zamp port topic many times, and thought I'd share what I did to improve on it.