Solar Install

[Yosemitebob]

So after researching the whole system I came up with this for charging my batteries, that is all I'm using this for, and it works awesome so far:

2 - 100w mono panels, wired in parallel
1 - MPPT20 control charger
1 - MT-5 Tracer Meter mounted inside near control panel

For batteries I have two 232AH 6V Deep Cycle wired in series for 12V and 230AH entered on the remote.

The whole project took me all day. Hooking up was simple, but running the wires and hiding them was my idea of a good install, that took some time. I went basically down from the roof (used a Winegard roof plate) over the bathroom wall/living area to conceal the wires, from there down to the basement compartment just behind the electrics, converter, breaker box etc. and from there along the aluminum floor supports to the front compartment where by batteries are located. From there I had to backtrack with the RJ45 cable for the Tracer Meter.

[pnwham]

Looks like you decided to go parallel on the panels as opposed to series as you said you might do in an earlier post. I'm sorry to have to inform you, but what you have with 2 6 volt 232 AH batteries in series is 12 volts capable of 232 AH not 464 AH as you state.

Rich - 2014 Montana 293RK with 300 Watts solar and a pair of 6V GC Batteries

[Yosemitebob]

Yes, parallel it is, I can always go to series from here. But so far I'm happy. Thank you for the Amp Hour info. I'll set it for 230, has to be in increments of 10's for the remote. I watched the sun "shade" during the day, and one or the other gets some shade during the day but not both of them. So it was a simple decision.

Thanks again.

[cb1000rider]

I'm curious how you determined where to penetrate the roof and confirmed that you could route from that spot all the way down to under the rv....

[Yosemitebob]

Originally Posted by cb1000rider

I'm curious how you determined where to penetrate the roof and confirmed that you could route from that spot all the way down to under the rv....

Wellll, that took some doing, but I'll try to explain. My vents on the roof are centered in the centerline of the roof width. So I took a chalk line and gave myself a centerline on the roof. Now given the walls are the same thickness on the outside I found center on the inside of the trailer and put a painters take line from the wall separating the bathroom from the living room back toward the vent in the family room, now I have center inside. Now I measured along that line from the vent (in the living room) to the wall and then again from the vent in the bathroom to the wall and transferred those measurements to the roof. I took the inside dressing cover off of each vent so I could see the cutout in the roof. On top of the roof I ended up with the position of the wall, my upper cupboard is dead center of the trailer so I had 6" there, I laid the cupboard out on top of the roof and then I drilled through hoping the heck I was right. When I went back inside to look for the hole, I didn't see it in the living room and was thinking, well if I missed at least it's the bathroom, not there either, when I opened the top cupboard door, there it was right where I wanted it. In the back right corner, from there I followed the the cupboard down along the edge to the bottom where the circuit breaker panel is and the rest was along the floor supports for the bedroom to the front compartment.

If you look at my last picture that is actually what I have to work with so I wasn't really too concerned. I wanted to end up in the casing and route down the edge, so I had a 4" space I could hit but I did hit right where I wanted to so layout is the prime concern. Even after spending two hours of laying out for this I had second thoughts just before I drilled. Oh, cut the roof material first to your drill don't catch it and twist it up. Just a 1" cross cut works. My roof is EPDM (confirmed) for whatever that is worth.

[pnwham]

While Yosemitebob's way of getting the cable down certainly works, I always try to find the easiest way down. On many of our 5th Wheels with the bathroom in the middle, one of the easiest ways down is thru the grey water vent pipe. I doesn't require any drilling of the roof and usually provides easy access to the battery compartment thru the bathroom floor. If your grey water vent pipe is above the sink in the bathroom (as it was in my Montana HC 293RK) just drill a hole in the pipe above the sink's trap and fish a line thru the roof vent to the area under the bathroom sink. From there it was an easy run following the fresh water piping thru the floor to the basement and the battery compartment. Just another way of doing it.

Rich

[Cfoxtrot]

Looks good Bob, Looks like your set for some dry camping!

[cb1000rider]

Thanks, pnwham, never thought of actually going through the vent pipe... I'd love to do solar, but doing a roof penetration that can reach the battery area has me hesitant.