Solar for 2018 1650EX

[Old_Stevenick]

New to the forum and to the Crossfire Bullet, so I may have a lot of questions! With time I hope to be able to provide answers to others as well

Our Bullet has a jack on it for solar hookup the salesman told me.

We mostly do dry camping, so being able to keep the battery charged will be an awesome upgrade. I've seen briefcase solar panels online for about $300.

What is the recommended way or some options for adding solar to our camper?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[chuckster57]

The plug on the side is for portable solar that has its own controller. If there is a decal next to it, it will tell you max amps allowed and if it’s still the same as always 10A is Max. If you want more, then you need to look at the roof and see how much room there is. Couple if different ways to route the cables. You can go down the fridge space, get a roof plate and drill a hole.

Solar is good, but you also need a good battery or two. Best for boondocking is a pair of 6V Golf cart batteries.

[Old_Stevenick]

Thanks. So if I plugged a 10A solar panel into it, what does it do?

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by Old_Stevenick

Thanks. So if I plugged a 10A solar panel into it, what does it do?

It will charge the battery.butnot enough if you are going to use it for much of anything. There aremany posts on here regarding solar panels, battery capacity, controllers, etc. I'd suggest reading up and continuing to research. The typical combo marine/starting battery most dealers install will not have the capacity to maintain much of a 12 vdc load and the 100 watt solar panel will not keep it charged if it's under a constant drain.

[GHen]

I first installed 100 watts with 30 amp controller which was great for keeping the batteries charged up, as long as I didn’t use much. The generator was used everyday. I now have 300 watts which is enough to boondock as long as I am conservative on power use. I think 400 watts will be the magic number for me.

As far as batteries, I have 2 6volt batteries, which is ok for conservative power usage. 4 6 volt would be perfect for our usage.

My kids all started with the suitcase style systems, they all now have 3-400 watts installed on the roof. They have said the first try at 100 watt 10amp portable system was a good starter but really a waste of money. 30 amp controller with 3-4 panels is an optimum system.

There are plenty of resources to do the math and not waste any startup money. Renogy.com has some great info... here are some basic numbers just so you understand how to plan. I know they are not exact, I’m just using it as an example so your do the real math with the specifications from the equipment you want buy and run.

Say you use about 60amps of power each day, your batteries may hold only 100 usable amps. 100 watt panel may give you 6 amps in full sun for 6 hours. Maybe more, maybe less depending on panel, it’s position to the sun and weather. 6 hours sun x 6 amps charging is 36 amps to the battery but you needed 60 amps, so your batteries get about 60% charged up each day. A cloudy day may only yield a 40% charge. In this case you need to use less power or get more panels. If your in the woods under trees, solar won’t keep up.

If all you need is lights, then you’ll use less than 20amps. If the the furnace comes on, you use the radio, water pump, tv, cell phone chargers and a fan, you easily can use 50+. Almost everything uses a little power, smoke and Co2 detectors, refrigerator and hot water even if you use propane. Then you have the hitch jack, slide outs, awnings...the list goes on. You need to do the math for your situation to get the best system for the least amount of money.

[Old_Stevenick]

Thanks folks, great info. I will also search around on the forum and read other things, but @GHen your post was very informative.

I'm in no rush to do this, we got by fine with our popup for a week at a time summer dry camping, just running lights and charging phones and we didn't need heat.

That said the hybrid may use more electricity inherently.

Lots to learn about electricity, having more than one battery, 6 volt batteries, etc. All new to me after years of just a 12V battery on the pop-up.

[Canonman]

We've had our Zamp 200 watt briefcase kit for several years now. Easy to set up and use.
If you're used to dry camping as we are, this simple solar "battery charger" has been all we've needed. LED lights, water pump and furnace when needed has not been a problem for us camping several days at a time. We'll often watch a movie, charge our phones, laptop and other accessories and have yet to turn on the generator. IMHO if it's just you and the DW, keeping the batteries topped off should not be much of a problem.
We did upgrade our batteries to 2, 6 volt golf cart batteries when the original (5 years old) 12 volt batteries pooped out . That said, we do still carry the generator just in case.
There have been many posts where folks have "gone wild" with solar installs capable of "running everything". But, if you're interested in keeping it simple, a briefcase kit is a good way to go. 100w minimum and I would say 200w maximum only because I think that's all they can pack into two panels and three would be a little heavy to carry around and set up.