Question for 26RBS owners

[TimC]

Hi all,

This weekend I ordered a brand new Cougar 26RBS. I’ve got a few months before I take delivery so I’m starting to plan for my battery/solar/inverter setup. I’m contemplating locations of components and considering under the bed for some of them. So, I’m wondering if any of you Cougar 26RBS owners know the dimensions of the under bed storage.

I appreciate any information you can give.

Thanks,

Tim

[mikec557]

Originally Posted by TimC

Hi all,

This weekend I ordered a brand new Cougar 26RBS. I’ve got a few months before I take delivery so I’m starting to plan for my battery/solar/inverter setup. I’m contemplating locations of components and considering under the bed for some of them. So, I’m wondering if any of you Cougar 26RBS owners know the dimensions of the under bed storage.

I appreciate any information you can give.

Thanks,

Tim

We have a 2020 26RBSWE, the bed box inside the RV is 5ft wide, and close to 28 inches front to back... give or take an inch. In our western edition they installed the water pump and the auto level black boxes in a box that is half inside the under bed storage, and half in the limited walkway on the driver side of the bed. That's going to be a pain to get to the water pump to winterize it. But I guess the upside is that the pass through is unobstructed by that equipment. And I do appreciate that.

Here's a picture of my solar and inverter installation. I had to move a couple dc breakers on the tongue to make enough room to put two group 27 batteries (in boxes) on the tongue (lithium). The battery monitor, solar charge controller, and inverter (and a couple other items) are all mounted on the board located in the pass through.

[TimC]

Thanks Mike! That’s very helpful info!

Nice set up you have there. I have the same solar charge controller in my current rig for my roof array and a 100|30 for my ground array (only 200 watts at the moment). I’m curious what you have for batteries and solar if you don’t mind sharing.

I’ve attached some pictures of my set up. The charge controllers are under a rear bunk, and the batteries/inverter are under our dinette. I opted not to put the batteries on the tongue because I wanted to keep them in a spot I can control the temperature a little better. That and I didn’t want my super expensive batteries so exposed.

I’ve since cleaned up the wiring quite a bit. As you can see it was a bit of a mess by the batteries and inverters. I also added a breaker right next to the inverter, and there’s now two additional panels on the roof. Not sure why some of the pictures posted upside down, not going to fight it though.

[mikec557]

Wow, that's quite the setup. Are you going to bring any of that to your new rv?


Glad to. I have two Battleborn lithium batteries, so 200Ah total. I worry about them being on the tongue but it was both too much trouble to re-wire enough to bring them into the pass through or under the bed. And we need all the storage space we have. Since they're inside the battery boxes they can't be seen. So you can't tell that they're lithium.

On the rooftop I have two 160 watt each Renogy panels, so total 320 watts. My 100/50 is overkill, but wasn't too much more than the 100/30, so I decided to future proof my setup. By the way, the Zamp rooftop gland on our TT is a two port and embossed on the side is a notation of 500 watts maximum.

Victron didn't make the Smart Shunt when I bought my BMV-712 or I would have chosen that. I monitor both the MPPT and the -712 by Bluetooth on my phone.

My Parasitic load runs about 2.5ah, so overnight I'll use 20-25 amps not counting the variables like running the MaxxAir fan all night, or running the inverter for my CPAP, and in the winter time the king-sized electric mattress pad, etc.

Mostly we camp with hookups. But we've spent 25-30 one night stands at various places as we crisscrossed the US. And then there's the occasional boondocking.

I have to admit I'm interested in a 12vdc compressor refrigerator, but I'm not sure if it's worth the money to me. If I do I'll probably add a solar panel.

Which fridge did you spec when you ordered your camper?

[TimC]

My plan is to sell most of it with the RV. We’re taking a bit of a risk with that, but my thought is there’s a lot of interest in a system like this so hopefully we can get most, if not all, of our money back on it. Main reason for this is I don’t want to go through the work of pulling the whole system out, especially the panels. I used eternabond and dicor lap sealant to hold down the flexible panels, so theoretically I can get them off without destroying the panels (or the roof) but it’d be a chore I think. Plus, I’ve learned a lot from doing this system and I’d like to do it a bit different on the new rig. Even though the AIMS inverter has been great, I’d like to upgrade to the Victron multiplus for some of those added features. I’m also planning on going 24 volt for the battery bank to be able to boost the solar without having to do another cable run from the roof.

That’s very interesting that the cable gland says max of 500 watts. I wonder if that is because they expect most people would run the panels in parallel only at the 18 or so volts. I believe it was 8 gauge wire Keystone told me they use. So 500 watts would be pushing the ampacity limits of the wire if panels weren’t wired in series to up the voltage. Only other thing I could think of that might limit it would be the connectors themselves. I’m glad you brought that up, I’ll have to do a bit of digging on that because I definitely want more than 500 watts on the roof.

My 100|50 was overkill for me at one point too, and then it wasn’t. When I first got it I had 200 watts. But, then I couldn’t help but max it out. It’s actually technically over max, but we rarely hit over 700 watts in our 800 watts of panels in Wisconsin. So, I’d say good call on future proofing.

I also use the BMV-712 and Bluetooth. But will most likely go smartshunt in the Cougar. Just seems much simpler and with Bluetooth who needs the display? I rarely use the BMV-712 display anyway. I also bought myself a raspberry-pi and installed Victron’s GX operating system on it. Connected the BMV and charge controllers to it, and can now use VRM to monitor the system remotely. It was a bit of a pain to set up but way cheaper than buying the GX devices, and Victron offers their OS for free.

We often camp on hookups as well, but on our big trips it’s mostly been out of necessity. We’ve mostly roadtripped to the south east and we just haven’t had much luck getting into any places other than RV parks. But, we also dry camp a lot on property we own in northeast WI and we’d love to get out west and do more boondocking. And, like you we do a lot of parking lot camping on our way across the US. The system has been spectacular during those stays at Cracker Barrel. We had one night in southern GA. Temps were in the 90s and super humid. Our system is capable of running our air conditioner, so we were able to run it for a bit after we parked to take quite a bit of the edge off the heat. It sucked up a ton of power, but the batteries recharged nicely on the drive to FL the next day. It’ll take me a bit to get the Cougar’s system to the same level and it’s going to be tough to deal with during that time lol.

We ordered our Cougar with the 12vdc fridge. That will be one of the tough things to deal with before we have our system fully installed. But, from what I’ve read they cool much quicker, work way better, and use way less power than running the absorption fridges on AC (mine uses ~400 watts almost constant!). I’m looking forward to the extra space also. With a road trip south planned in December and delivery of the Cougar happening (supposedly) in November it’ll be a bit of a struggle. Hopefully I can at least get the batteries and charger installed, or just batteries if the stock converter is capable of charging lithium. Is that how you’re charging off shore power? Or did you upgrade to a better charger?

Sorry for the long post. I’m a bit of a nerd and get excited about this stuff. Lol

[mikec557]

Originally Posted by TimC

My plan is to sell most of it with the RV. We’re taking a bit of a risk with that, but my thought is there’s a lot of interest in a system like this so hopefully we can get most, if not all, of our money back on it. Main reason for this is I don’t want to go through the work of pulling the whole system out, especially the panels. I used eternabond and dicor lap sealant to hold down the flexible panels, so theoretically I can get them off without destroying the panels (or the roof) but it’d be a chore I think. Plus, I’ve learned a lot from doing this system and I’d like to do it a bit different on the new rig. Even though the AIMS inverter has been great, I’d like to upgrade to the Victron multiplus for some of those added features. I’m also planning on going 24 volt for the battery bank to be able to boost the solar without having to do another cable run from the roof.

That’s very interesting that the cable gland says max of 500 watts. I wonder if that is because they expect most people would run the panels in parallel only at the 18 or so volts. I believe it was 8 gauge wire Keystone told me they use. So 500 watts would be pushing the ampacity limits of the wire if panels weren’t wired in series to up the voltage. Only other thing I could think of that might limit it would be the connectors themselves. I’m glad you brought that up, I’ll have to do a bit of digging on that because I definitely want more than 500 watts on the roof.

My 100|50 was overkill for me at one point too, and then it wasn’t. When I first got it I had 200 watts. But, then I couldn’t help but max it out. It’s actually technically over max, but we rarely hit over 700 watts in our 800 watts of panels in Wisconsin. So, I’d say good call on future proofing.

I also use the BMV-712 and Bluetooth. But will most likely go smartshunt in the Cougar. Just seems much simpler and with Bluetooth who needs the display? I rarely use the BMV-712 display anyway. I also bought myself a raspberry-pi and installed Victron’s GX operating system on it. Connected the BMV and charge controllers to it, and can now use VRM to monitor the system remotely. It was a bit of a pain to set up but way cheaper than buying the GX devices, and Victron offers their OS for free.

We often camp on hookups as well, but on our big trips it’s mostly been out of necessity. We’ve mostly roadtripped to the south east and we just haven’t had much luck getting into any places other than RV parks. But, we also dry camp a lot on property we own in northeast WI and we’d love to get out west and do more boondocking. And, like you we do a lot of parking lot camping on our way across the US. The system has been spectacular during those stays at Cracker Barrel. We had one night in southern GA. Temps were in the 90s and super humid. Our system is capable of running our air conditioner, so we were able to run it for a bit after we parked to take quite a bit of the edge off the heat. It sucked up a ton of power, but the batteries recharged nicely on the drive to FL the next day. It’ll take me a bit to get the Cougar’s system to the same level and it’s going to be tough to deal with during that time lol.

We ordered our Cougar with the 12vdc fridge. That will be one of the tough things to deal with before we have our system fully installed. But, from what I’ve read they cool much quicker, work way better, and use way less power than running the absorption fridges on AC (mine uses ~400 watts almost constant!). I’m looking forward to the extra space also. With a road trip south planned in December and delivery of the Cougar happening (supposedly) in November it’ll be a bit of a struggle. Hopefully I can at least get the batteries and charger installed, or just batteries if the stock converter is capable of charging lithium. Is that how you’re charging off shore power? Or did you upgrade to a better charger?

Sorry for the long post. I’m a bit of a nerd and get excited about this stuff. Lol

That's all good stuff you've done there!

Our OEM charger/converter is/was a WFCO 9855. It did not have a lithium profile. Battleborn said it won't hurt their batteries because of their battery management system (BMS) but noted it will charge the batteries to only 80-85% capacity. Your solar system will pickup the slack and charge to 100%, but I replaced the WFCO with a Progressive Dynamics lithium compatible charger/converter anyway. Bought that too from Battleborn.

Which reminds me. If you haven't bought your equipment yet, Battleborn gives a good discount to members of Escapees RV. Something like $75 off each of their batteries and 15%off everything else. They sell Victron and Progressive Dynamics products, and other accessories. It's a $45/yr to join Escapees RV, but you'll save a lot of money for it. Goodyear also gives a good discount to members in case you want to replace those Trailer King tires.

Post some pictures when you get to your project.

[TimC]

Originally Posted by mikec557

That's all good stuff you've done there!

Our OEM charger/converter is/was a WFCO 9855. It did not have a lithium profile. Battleborn said it won't hurt their batteries because of their battery management system (BMS) but noted it will charge the batteries to only 80-85% capacity. Your solar system will pickup the slack and charge to 100%, but I replaced the WFCO with a Progressive Dynamics lithium compatible charger/converter anyway. Bought that too from Battleborn.

Which reminds me. If you haven't bought your equipment yet, Battleborn gives a good discount to members of Escapees RV. Something like $75 off each of their batteries and 15%off everything else. They sell Victron and Progressive Dynamics products, and other accessories. It's a $45/yr to join Escapees RV, but you'll save a lot of money for it. Goodyear also gives a good discount to members in case you want to replace those Trailer King tires.

Post some pictures when you get to your project.

I have not bought any of the equipment yet for the Cougar. Originally I was thinking I’d go with Battleborn, but there’s quite a few much cheaper options now. Some of those options have been subject of some YouTube tear downs and have actually had surprisingly good build quality. Only issue is the lack of low temp disconnect, but my current AIMS batteries do not have it either and I’ve found ways to protect the batteries. One being the low temp cutoff of the Victron solar controllers. The other being that I completely disconnect my inverter/charger in the winter, and use battery heaters. Since they’re inside the rig, there’s never been any concern while we’re out camping, even when we’ve been in some single digit temps.

I will look into that Escapees RV. I plan to run the stock tires maybe a year or two and then swap to Goodyear. Thanks for the tip.

Will definitely post pictures when I get to doing the install.

[mikec557]

Sounds like you've got a good plan. I'm looking forward to watching your install!