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01-30-2022, 11:04 AM
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#1
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2022
Location: Petersboro
Posts: 7
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Solar ready?
I have a 2021 Keystone premiere 23RB. In the storage under the front there is a plastic Box over a hole and it says solar ready. there's nothing in the hole. Is there supposed to be wires that run up to the roof and to the battery? Or is it just a hole that they put in the wall for no reason whatsoever?
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01-30-2022, 05:35 PM
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#2
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Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Wandering the Country
Posts: 588
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hey23rb
I have a 2021 Keystone premiere 23RB. In the storage under the front there is a plastic Box over a hole and it says solar ready. there's nothing in the hole. Is there supposed to be wires that run up to the roof and to the battery? Or is it just a hole that they put in the wall for no reason whatsoever?
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Is the 2021 Keystone Premier "off the grid" (OTG) prepped?
In 2020 my Keystone Cougar was wired, and Keystone called it OTG. As I recall Keystone advertising said they were going to do that on all Keystone products. But maybe my recall is wrong.
OTG means there should be a loop of 8ga wire (red and black pair). And a loop of Romex 14ga wire as an INVERTER prep.
Line worker workmanship being what it is, they failed to leave a loop of slack for the 8ga wire in my unit. I had to cut holes in the front wall of luan to find the wire. And yes, that's the wire from the rooftop solar plug in. And from there out to the battery. Install a solar charge controller in the loop.
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01-30-2022, 07:23 PM
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#3
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2022
Location: Petersboro
Posts: 7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mikec557
Is the 2021 Keystone Premier "off the grid" (OTG) prepped?
In 2020 my Keystone Cougar was wired, and Keystone called it OTG. As I recall Keystone advertising said they were going to do that on all Keystone products. But maybe my recall is wrong.
OTG means there should be a loop of 8ga wire (red and black pair). And a loop of Romex 14ga wire as an INVERTER prep.
Line worker workmanship being what it is, they failed to leave a loop of slack for the 8ga wire in my unit. I had to cut holes in the front wall of luan to find the wire. And yes, that's the wire from the rooftop solar plug in. And from there out to the battery. Install a solar charge controller in the loop.
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Thanks for your reply. The OTG was a option and it had 2 panels and the controller installed.. the romex is in the box to the right and I already installed inverter but the dealer told me that I need to run wire for panel on the roof and I asked them so solar prep is drilling crap hole in the wall and that's it. I figured wires are supposed to be there. I will try to work it out again, keystone has been no help either.
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01-30-2022, 08:26 PM
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#4
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Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Wandering the Country
Posts: 588
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hey23rb
Thanks for your reply. The OTG was a option and it had 2 panels and the controller installed.. the romex is in the box to the right and I already installed inverter but the dealer told me that I need to run wire for panel on the roof and I asked them so solar prep is drilling crap hole in the wall and that's it. I figured wires are supposed to be there. I will try to work it out again, keystone has been no help either.
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The rooftop port and 8ga wire was supposed to be part of the OTG prep, whether you ordered panels or not. You can see the black and red wired in this picture, the line worker forgot to create a loop. If you have the rooftop port, you probably have these wires in your front wall...
You can see how far to the right the red/black wires are relative to the Romex loop far to the left. The two loops should have been together under the same cover on the left. I determined the location of the red/black by finding where they came out from the bottom of the wall (under the trailer) and out to the batteries.
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01-30-2022, 09:01 PM
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#5
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2022
Location: Petersboro
Posts: 7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mikec557
The rooftop port and 8ga wire was supposed to be part of the OTG prep, whether you ordered panels or not. You can see the black and red wired in this picture, the line worker forgot to create a loop. If you have the rooftop port, you probably have these wires in your front wall...
You can see how far to the right the red/black wires are relative to the Romex loop far to the left. The two loops should have been together under the same cover on the left. I determined the location of the red/black by finding where they came out from the bottom of the wall (under the trailer) and out to the batteries.
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I have two plastic covers, 1 for romex and 1 for solar. I have nothing coming out bottom of trailer to battery unfortunately but do have roof ports. Will have to dig around some more.
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01-31-2022, 07:52 AM
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#6
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Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2020
Location: jackson
Posts: 1,109
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hey23rb
I have two plastic covers, 1 for romex and 1 for solar. I have nothing coming out bottom of trailer to battery unfortunately but do have roof ports. Will have to dig around some more.
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Do you have a Giggy box/battery shutoff with this trailer? My solar prep cover had 2 wires (one to the roof and one to the battery). the one to the battery was wired into the giggy box and would not be evident at that end.
Assuming Giggy boxes (started with trailers built last summer) If you take off the cover and post some pics of the guts it will easily be able to be identified.
__________________
JXNBBL (Jay)
Jackson, NH
2021 Keystone 330BHS
2023 Ram 3500 6.7L diesel, 3.73 ratio
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01-31-2022, 07:54 AM
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#7
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Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2020
Location: jackson
Posts: 1,109
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Actually this picture from Keystone shows the wiring. Although mine is a bit different and different fuse type...it is connected to battery side of the switch.
https://images.prismic.io/keystone-r...&w=2112&h=1416
__________________
JXNBBL (Jay)
Jackson, NH
2021 Keystone 330BHS
2023 Ram 3500 6.7L diesel, 3.73 ratio
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01-31-2022, 08:57 AM
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#8
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2022
Location: Petersboro
Posts: 7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jxnbbl
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Thank you for reply.
Yes I have the shut off box. The trailer is at the dealer now getting some other repairs done that's why I want to get this figured out prior because they said there's nothing wrong with it I want to have them fix it while it's in there.
I do know that the sideport wiring that it shows in that Box is not how mine is. mine runs straight from the battery to the side port does not go into that giggy Box. I know that because they had smashed wires between that black plastic that covers the bottom and the frame and it pinched the wires so I had to crimp back together and they also hooked both terminals to the positive side of battery.
Maybe my roof solar goes in to there. I will have to check when I get it back.
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01-31-2022, 09:23 AM
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#9
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Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Wandering the Country
Posts: 588
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I don't have a giggy box, so if I'm off base just ignore me.
When you get a chance to look at the wires, keep this in mind. I believe there's a Red 6ga wire coming from the charger/converter that's inside the RV. That has to travel to the battery. I think if it goes into the giggy box, then there has to be a 6ga from the giggy box to the battery.
Then if Keystone wired the rooftop port (let's assume they did) then there has to be a Red 8ga wire going to either the giggy box, or directly to the battery, and it would have a 30A blade fuse to cover max amps coming from the solar panel (that will be installed someday).
The side port solar panel is only good for up to 10A. The wiring from it to the battery, or giggy box, is 10ga or 12ga. But if memory serves me, it's 10ga. And it has an inline fuse holder with a 10A fuse.
I saw the side port wiring in the picture of the giggy and wondered about that. The wire looked too small to be 8ga, but check the fuse in the holder and see what the rating is. But let's say it is and that it has a 30A blade fuse. The other Red wire in the picture is larger, but again I don't think it looks big enough to be 6ga coming from the charger/converter.
If the idea of the giggy box is to clean up and centralize all the wiring, do you really have just one Red cable going to your battery post? And if so, what gauge is it?
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01-31-2022, 09:41 AM
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#10
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2022
Location: Petersboro
Posts: 7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mikec557
I don't have a giggy box, so if I'm off base just ignore me.
When you get a chance to look at the wires, keep this in mind. I believe there's a Red 6ga wire coming from the charger/converter that's inside the RV. That has to travel to the battery. I think if it goes into the giggy box, then there has to be a 6ga from the giggy box to the battery.
Then if Keystone wired the rooftop port (let's assume they did) then there has to be a Red 8ga wire going to either the giggy box, or directly to the battery, and it would have a 30A blade fuse to cover max amps coming from the solar panel (that will be installed someday).
The side port solar panel is only good for up to 10A. The wiring from it to the battery, or giggy box, is 10ga or 12ga. But if memory serves me, it's 10ga. And it has an inline fuse holder with a 10A fuse.
I saw the side port wiring in the picture of the giggy and wondered about that. The wire looked too small to be 8ga, but check the fuse in the holder and see what the rating is. But let's say it is and that it has a 30A blade fuse. The other Red wire in the picture is larger, but again I don't think it looks big enough to be 6ga coming from the charger/converter.
If the idea of the giggy box is to clean up and centralize all the wiring, do you really have just one Red cable going to your battery post? And if so, what gauge is it?
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I will go through it when I get it back from the dealer. I did finally convince them that the wires should be there so they're gonna run a camera in there and see if they can see it.
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01-31-2022, 11:46 AM
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#11
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Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2020
Location: jackson
Posts: 1,109
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hey23rb
I will go through it when I get it back from the dealer. I did finally convince them that the wires should be there so they're gonna run a camera in there and see if they can see it.
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The wires from the solar panel roof cap will not go directly to the batteries more the battery side of the giggy box. There has to be at least one solar component installed between them called a controller. This monitors the battery charging. Below is a picture of my bare bones quick install to use 2 of my 3 panels for a trip. The "solar prep" cover was removed and there were two sets of wires (instead of just a hole). One set went to the roof cap and the other to the battery(ies in my case) with a fuse in between. This wiring was installed in my trailer and I just had to buy the controller and mount/wire it in. You can see the wires connected to the controller.
Now, with the help of this forum, and reading I found out there is a *lot* of confusion at the dealer since the "solar options" change have been changing every year. So when I talked with them about buying the panels I got a zamp starter set and two additional panels. What I found was that the only component I actually used in the starter set was the controller...and have the wiring, another 3 port roof cap all on eBay just to get rid of them!
Last some sales people think the solar prep is that connector outside (either on the front/side near the A frame. This is just a hardwire connector for a 'suitcase' panel system and was the "checkbox" for trailers to say they were solar ready.
__________________
JXNBBL (Jay)
Jackson, NH
2021 Keystone 330BHS
2023 Ram 3500 6.7L diesel, 3.73 ratio
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01-31-2022, 02:58 PM
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#12
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2022
Location: Petersboro
Posts: 7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jxnbbl
The wires from the solar panel roof cap will not go directly to the batteries more the battery side of the giggy box. There has to be at least one solar component installed between them called a controller. This monitors the battery charging. Below is a picture of my bare bones quick install to use 2 of my 3 panels for a trip. The "solar prep" cover was removed and there were two sets of wires (instead of just a hole). One set went to the roof cap and the other to the battery(ies in my case) with a fuse in between. This wiring was installed in my trailer and I just had to buy the controller and mount/wire it in. You can see the wires connected to the controller.
Now, with the help of this forum, and reading I found out there is a *lot* of confusion at the dealer since the "solar options" change have been changing every year. So when I talked with them about buying the panels I got a zamp starter set and two additional panels. What I found was that the only component I actually used in the starter set was the controller...and have the wiring, another 3 port roof cap all on eBay just to get rid of them!
Last some sales people think the solar prep is that connector outside (either on the front/side near the A frame. This is just a hardwire connector for a 'suitcase' panel system and was the "checkbox" for trailers to say they were solar ready.
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Yes, I understand that, that's why I'm trying to get them to fix it. The problem is they said there is not supposed to be any wires in my pass through where the solar ready plastic Box cover is. I. I'm trying to figure out anybody else who had another trailer so I could get a picture of the wire's poking out because I know I need a controller I just didn't want to run new wires from the roofports down to a pass through and then to the battery if there are already installed which they are supposed to be. I'm just trying to get the dealer to fish the wires out because it's a brand new trailer and I don't want to be cutting holes in they're looking for wires when I know they're there. if they're not there they need to run them.
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01-31-2022, 03:00 PM
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#13
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2022
Location: Petersboro
Posts: 7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jxnbbl
The wires from the solar panel roof cap will not go directly to the batteries more the battery side of the giggy box. There has to be at least one solar component installed between them called a controller. This monitors the battery charging. Below is a picture of my bare bones quick install to use 2 of my 3 panels for a trip. The "solar prep" cover was removed and there were two sets of wires (instead of just a hole). One set went to the roof cap and the other to the battery(ies in my case) with a fuse in between. This wiring was installed in my trailer and I just had to buy the controller and mount/wire it in. You can see the wires connected to the controller.
Now, with the help of this forum, and reading I found out there is a *lot* of confusion at the dealer since the "solar options" change have been changing every year. So when I talked with them about buying the panels I got a zamp starter set and two additional panels. What I found was that the only component I actually used in the starter set was the controller...and have the wiring, another 3 port roof cap all on eBay just to get rid of them!
Last some sales people think the solar prep is that connector outside (either on the front/side near the A frame. This is just a hardwire connector for a 'suitcase' panel system and was the "checkbox" for trailers to say they were solar ready.
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I know exactly what supposed to be there it's trying to convince the dealer that that's what's supposed to be there. I already have a charge controller I have everything out of my old trailer I know how the solar works it's just getting them to realize that the wires that are supposed to be there are missing. That's why I was hoping for a picture from somebody because they keep saying that it's just supposed to be a hole in the wall which that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
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02-01-2022, 02:20 AM
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#14
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Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2020
Location: jackson
Posts: 1,109
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hey23rb
....That's why I was hoping for a picture from somebody because they keep saying that it's just supposed to be a hole in the wall which that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
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Got it, there was something about attaching it to the battery that sent me sideways. Anyways good luck I wish I had the original pic that was deleted from my phone that looked exactly like yours but with two wire coils with 2ft of wire coming out.
As for the above, that is the killer that is hard to imagine when I got into this last year.
__________________
JXNBBL (Jay)
Jackson, NH
2021 Keystone 330BHS
2023 Ram 3500 6.7L diesel, 3.73 ratio
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