Solar Prep Details? - Bullet Crossfire 2200BH

[Crossfire2200BH]

Where can I find details about the Solar Prep of a Bullet Crossfire 2200BH?

We need to run a few electrical items (laptops, hotspots, cpap) while boondocking. In some cases, running a generator will be prohibited, so we are considering solar and increased battery capacity.

Of course, a whole solar installation can be costly.

I know the Crossfire is prepped for solar, but what does that mean?
- There is a solar port on the side, is there also one on the roof?
- Has any prep been done to allow solar panel installation on the roof?
- Is there any sort of solar panel management solution built into the Crossfire? If so, where is it, where can I find details about it?

Has anyone upgraded a Bullet or Bullet Crossfire to Solar for outlet power?

Thanks!

[chuckster57]

Welcome to the forum

What your wanting to do requires an inverter. The inverter takes 12VDC and makes 110VAC. Solar will help charge the battery(s), but your probably going to need to upgrade your battery too.

You need to figure out just how much power your going to need and then size the battery bank, inverter and solar form there. There are different brands of solar packages, inverters and batteries.

[LabRatICMP3]

Originally Posted by Crossfire2200BH

I know the Crossfire is prepped for solar, but what does that mean?
- There is a solar port on the side, is there also one on the roof?
- Has any prep been done to allow solar panel installation on the roof?
- Is there any sort of solar panel management solution built into the Crossfire? If so, where is it, where can I find details about it?
Thanks!

The Solar prep on my 2018 bullet crossfire only included a solar port on the front of the trailer which was only a 10A fused connection to the battery. It did not include a solar charge controller, so it should only be used to connect a portable solar panel or suitcase that includes a controller like a Zamp portable kit.

None of the other items in your list was included. It is possible that things may have changed since the 2018 model year.

[jasin1]

I would look at your power center breaker panel. Your 120 volt breakers. See if one of the 15 amp breakers is labeled solar prep. In my cougar fifth wheel that’s how it is. That would probably feed a couple outlets in the trailer. Mine are marked solar prep right on the outlets not sure if it’s the same on TT.
If you have that it just means that they probably ran a little extra wire to a mounting location for a future customer installed inverter. I bought a renogy suitcase 200watt system for my rig. It comes with solar controller and everything needed except the reverse polarity adaptor( buy on Amazon for a couple bucks). I also bought a couple Trojan golf cart batteries and a xantrex 2000 watt inverter. Again yours may be different. But if you have the same outlet on the side I would think at the very least it would wire directly to the battery location and give you a means to charge batteries when your boondocking and running just 12 volt accessories like water pump and lights and furnace using a small suitcase system. Renogy is a great resource and affordable compared to zamp

[Crossfire2200BH]

Originally Posted by chuckster57

Welcome to the forum

What your wanting to do requires an inverter. The inverter takes 12VDC and makes 110VAC. Solar will help charge the battery(s), but your probably going to need to upgrade your battery too.

You need to figure out just how much power your going to need and then size the battery bank, inverter and solar form there. There are different brands of solar packages, inverters and batteries.

So, basically, start from scratch?

[chuckster57]

Originally Posted by Crossfire2200BH

So, basically, start from scratch?

I think that would be the best. Once you know how many watts of power you need on any given day, you can size the panels, batteries and inverter.

[Crossfire2200BH]

Originally Posted by bjasin1

I would look at your power center breaker panel. Your 120 volt breakers. See if one of the 15 amp breakers is labeled solar prep. In my cougar fifth wheel that’s how it is. That would probably feed a couple outlets in the trailer. Mine are marked solar prep right on the outlets not sure if it’s the same on TT.
If you have that it just means that they probably ran a little extra wire to a mounting location for a future customer installed inverter. I bought a renogy suitcase 200watt system for my rig. It comes with solar controller and everything needed except the reverse polarity adaptor( buy on Amazon for a couple bucks). I also bought a couple Trojan golf cart batteries and a xantrex 2000 watt inverter. Again yours may be different. But if you have the same outlet on the side I would think at the very least it would wire directly to the battery location and give you a means to charge batteries when your boondocking and running just 12 volt accessories like water pump and lights and furnace using a small suitcase system. Renogy is a great resource and affordable compared to zamp

Thanks for sharing your setup. So are you running outlets off of your Golf Cart batteries?

[jasin1]

My inverter gets here on Wednesday. It will power three solar prepped outlets in trailer. One for tv one in kitchen and one in bedroom. All marked with a sticker that says solar prep. The golf cart batteries are Trojan t105. 230 amp hour each 6 volt wired together for 12 volt net. I will end up with one giant 12 volt battery wiring them together. With only 230 amp hours. The voltage doubles but amp hour stays the same. I can use 50% of that safely and still preserve the battery longevity. So a little over 100 amp hours. I should be able to watch tv and charge iPads and possibly quick heat up in microwave and hopefully hopefully use keurig for a cup of coffee in morning but not holding my breath on that one. I mainly wanted for overnight boondocking on multi state trips Also I highly recommend victron bcm712 Bluetooth battery monitor. Suitcase solar should help to recharge batteries if there is still some sun out when I finish driving for the day but I really bought more for the interestin finding out about how solar works. I figured a suitcase system has everything I need and if I decide I want something more permanent I could always unload on Craigslist easy

[MarkEHansen]

Originally Posted by Crossfire2200BH

Where can I find details about the Solar Prep of a Bullet Crossfire 2200BH?

We need to run a few electrical items (laptops, hotspots, cpap) while boondocking. In some cases, running a generator will be prohibited, so we are considering solar and increased battery capacity.

Of course, a whole solar installation can be costly.

I know the Crossfire is prepped for solar, but what does that mean?
- There is a solar port on the side, is there also one on the roof?
- Has any prep been done to allow solar panel installation on the roof?
- Is there any sort of solar panel management solution built into the Crossfire? If so, where is it, where can I find details about it?

Has anyone upgraded a Bullet or Bullet Crossfire to Solar for outlet power?

Thanks!

We haven't started moving toward solar yet, so I can't answer your above questions, but just wanted to give you something else to think about. For our trailer, we converted all the items we could to run from the DC power grid.

It's much more efficient to run a DC-operated device directly from DC rather than from DC -> inverted to AC -> wall wart'd back to DC.

For example, our CPAP machines have accessory DC power cords which allow the machines to run from a 12V power outlet. I did similar with the other devices running in my entertainment area, like a Roku, a WiFi Router, etc.

For our TV, I just got an inexpensive 300 watt inverter.

Overall, this uses a lot less power than inverting the 12V DC to 120V AC and running everything off of that.

Good luck.

[Crossfire2200BH]

Originally Posted by MarkEHansen

We haven't started moving toward solar yet, so I can't answer your above questions, but just wanted to give you something else to think about. For our trailer, we converted all the items we could to run from the DC power grid.

It's much more efficient to run a DC-operated device directly from DC rather than from DC -> inverted to AC -> wall wart'd back to DC.

For example, our CPAP machines have accessory DC power cords which allow the machines to run from a 12V power outlet. I did similar with the other devices running in my entertainment area, like a Roku, a WiFi Router, etc.

For our TV, I just got an inexpensive 300 watt inverter.

Overall, this uses a lot less power than inverting the 12V DC to 120V AC and running everything off of that.

Good luck.

Great thoughts. I don’t have any outlets for 12v other than the USB style. I assume your CPAP is running on a cigarette lighter style outlet. Is that right?

[MarkEHansen]

Originally Posted by Crossfire2200BH

Great thoughts. I don’t have any outlets for 12v other than the USB style. I assume your CPAP is running on a cigarette lighter style outlet. Is that right?

Yes, ones which I installed as my trailer didn't have any in the bedroom area (other than a USB charging port, which was not up to the current load).

I also ran an 8AWG power cable from the power center (fuse box) to the area behind the TV so I could draw the necessary current to run all the components there - the largest of which was the 300 watt inverter for the TV.

I have two 6V golf cart batteries with a total 12V AH rating of 230 AH (20-hour rate) and was able to run all day, watch 2-3 hours of TV in the evening then use two CPAP machines over night and still be above 80% charge.

And that 80% is based on my battery monitor being configured to show 0% as the battery 50% state of charge. Meaning I was no where near low on charge by the morning.