adding solar panels and charge controller

hsmunoz · 10-03-2011, 02:59 PM

those of you who have added solar panels I have some questions
- Keystone connects the negative side of the 12V battery to chassis, however the Solar controllers want that leg isolated. What did you do?
- did you connect your controller directly to the battery even though Keystone hard wires a DC charger that will be on at the same time when tied to shore power?
- how did you mount the panels on to the roof? screws? rivets? what depth on either? I know about self leveling caulking so I will do that.

any other tips and tricks?
thanks

**hankpage** · 10-03-2011, 07:28 PM

I haven't used a solar panel in years but I do remember having diodes in both wires so shore power could not feed back. I,m sure someone else will have more info, Hank

Festus2 · 10-03-2011, 08:37 PM

hsmunoz:
I use a somewhat different method of "mounting" our solar panel and the wiring from the panel to the controller to the battery is a bit different as well.
The panel is not mounted on the roof but is "portable". When in use, I stand, fasten and anchor it to a sandwich board/easel. This board can be moved from place to place depending on the position of the sun in the sky and when not in use, is kept in a specially made rack in the storage compartment.

This method, obviously, has some advantages as well as some disadvantages. The wiring is very simple. If you are interested in finding more about this option, send me a PM and I will go into more detail for you.

kingji · 10-05-2011, 07:22 PM

I'm right in the middle of installing to 80 watt panels on the roof. I found some 11/2" aluminum metal that I'm making my brackets out of. They are 21/2"x11/4" with a 1/4" hole on the long side and two 3/16 holes on the camper side. I'm going to mount them on the ends so that I will be able to raise the panels for a better sun angle. I'm going to use some 3/4x10 screws and some Dicor as sealant. I ran my 12/3 wire down the fridge back side and out the bottom of the camper. I'm going to fuse it and tie it into my Go Power regulator. I've be doing the portable method and still may to an extent if the two 80's don't keep up. As soon as I figure out how to attach some picures I'll include some of those.

JK

hsmunoz · 10-07-2011, 07:03 AM

Hi Kingji
so your just going to screw the brackets into the roof? no expansion anchors or such?
I am going to make my own mounting brackets as well, out of L shaped stock and just use two of them to form a Z bracket.

please post pics when your done and any other tips.
I am going with two 235W panels as we pretty much exclusively dry camp.

kingji · 10-09-2011, 04:30 PM

The screws I used were size 10 I think. My thinking was that two screws per bracket barely passing through the roof wouldn't create any great damage. I was careful not to strip the holes. I finished them off today with a good layer of dicor. One thing I might do different next time would be to allow for a little more space between the roof and the bottom edge of the panel. It would make it a little easier to get the 1/4" bolts in and out. Still haven't fiqured out a good and simple way to make the lean up braces. My fifth wheel doesn't have a ladder so I might just leave them flat. I didn't get any picture of my brackets but they were 90 degree angle with two holes on the camper side and one 1/4" on the panel side. 21/2"x 11/4"
JK

kingji · 10-16-2011, 10:58 AM

Pulled the camper out of it's storage and after pulling the battery down to about 12.6 vdc plugged in my inline fuse. It was about 10:00AM and the sun wasn't quite over head and as you know in the southern half of the sky. I was drawing 6.1 amps with the panels laying flat. I could probably get closer to 10 amps during the middle of summer and if I had the panels angled toward the sun. I was pleased with the 6 amp charge regardless. It should save lots of unneeded generator running. I'm ready to give it a real try next month on a 5 day camping trip.
JK

rlevitt · 10-16-2011, 02:59 PM

Hi
I installed my two 100 wat panels to the roof with 6 brackets per panel and 1 screw per bracket using lots of self leveling sealer. I also tried to hit a stud with every screw but that did not happen. I left a 1 1/4 air gap beteen the panel and roof as they get hot in the sun .
Also on the front end of the panels I siliconed at an angle a 6 inch tall piece of plastic material the same width of the panel as a wind deflector. My thoughts on this were that wind at freeway speeds would try to lift the panels like a wing or a kite.
I ran 10 guage wire from each panel to the controller mounted above the fridge with fuses. From there I ran 10 guage to the fuse panel and used the ground terminals mounted behined the panel. The positive wire I hooked up inside the panel using an unused fuse in the panel.
So far it has worked great for me and I have seen as much as 11 amps of charge in full sun.
Was thinking of running separate wires to the battry but my system seems to be good. Some people hook the wires to the fridge pos and neg and I think that is a bad way of going.

Ron

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