Colorado B.S. Thread

Gourgeous truck


I already have 3 vehicles though and am looking at a 4th... And I'll have my buddy's Forester XT while he's out of country

 

I was sad when you originally posted yours for sale because it was just a bit after I had bought mine... Would have much rather bought it over the one I picked up...

 

This made me lol

 

Hey man! I have two 100 watt panels. Both Renology. I don't know much about the Zamp but that seems expensive for 200 watts. My system kind of evolved. One is on the roof, so I can charge while driving from place to place. The other one is portable:

$155 Renogy 100 Watt 12 Volt Portable Solar Panel for Power Station, Foldable 100W Solar Panel Suitcase with Adjustable Kickstand, Solar Charger for RV Camping Off Grid System,Black

https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts...ywords=renology+100+watt+solar+panel+kit&th=1

For the portable one, I made an extension cord that ties into my controller panel. Made the cord out of 6 gauge welding wire and quick disconnects, I guess the same disconnects that are used for winches and CIA torture probably.

$53 EWCS 6 Gauge Premium Extra Flexible Welding Cable 600 Volt - Black - 25 Feet - Made in the USA

https://www.amazon.com/Gauge-Premiu...26437579&sr=8-2&keywords=6+guage+welding+wire

I just zipped tied two black black 6 gauge wires together. I don't recall whether this is overkill, I think I did some math, but basically I was hell bent on having essentially no voltage drop with a long extension cord to get a panel away from trees.

They do make a roof mounting kit that is tiltable, but realistically, that's a pain in the ass. The top panel is not efficient all the time, but I can move the portable one around to make up for that. And, when my camper is stored I am keep the batts in good shape with the top panel.

Let me know if your camper was not "solar ready", and I can throw out some more ideas on controllers and monitors.

Last thing, I did go with two 6 volt batteries. I just went with Energizer brand from Sam's Club. They are cost effective and decent. The batteries are what I'd like to upgrade at some point. There's a place in Denver where you can get Trojans and Crowns. Really the main thing is the number of amps you think you'll need. For me, I end up not really needing a lot of amps because: fridge, not worth trying to run this on electricity. It could be done, but I would really need four batteries to do that I think. And, heater: I don't use the gas/blower combination that comes with the camper. Too inefficient both with gas and electric. I use an Olympian Wave 6 heater, and I crack a skylight to keep my wife from getting freaked out about the carbon monoxide, but that is not an issue, they burn too clean (as far as I can remember). Plus the gas heater is silent.

This guy has the best website I've seen with info about do's and don'ts, tech info about charging and wire sizing...

http://www.jackdanmayer.com/rv_electrical_and_solar.htm#The Golden Rules

200 watts is a good amount to work with IMO. With the proper controller and wiring setup, you can charge pretty fast when the sun is out.

 

see my reply to @Stig, I quoted the wrong message...

 

Awesome, I have been looking at the renogy 200w portable kit but it is out of stock. Main downfall of that kit is the controller isn't waterproof. Knowing me I would leave it out and it would get rained on. Haven't found a negative for the Zamp except for the price. Still doing research because I don't want to spend $900 on solar + cost of the batteries.

 

They make a renology version without the controller. I bought one with the controller but ended up re-wiring it and not using the controller it came with. If you did use it, it's tucked under the panel, I can't imagine that it would get wet.

I ended up rigging all of this stuff up, and running new bigger wire under the camper to the batteries:

 

Actually I don't know much about the Renology 200 watt version, I have the 100 watt. The 200 watt might not come with or without the controller. My camper came without being solar ready and the wiring sucked, so I ended up changing some of the stuff and got kinda into it...

The best controller and "brain" combination is this thing. It's way better than most of the offerings out there and will keep you batteries in tip top shape, makes them last longer.

http://www.bogartengineering.com/products/trimetrics.html

the 2030-RV is the bomb... but I'm probably making your life too complicated...

 

I am looking forward to actually building a proper setup. Timeframe is short right now though. I just want something quick and easy to start off with. Do you find yourself using the inverter a lot? I have a generator to run the ac and microwave. Just wondering what else I would need a inverter for at this stage. Maybe a tv but I was thinking a cheap small inverter at the tv location for that.

 

Hey yeah cool, I know where you're coming from. Really with the portable 200 watt setup, you can just clamp it right to the batteries. It's too bad they're not available on Amazon.

I ended up not keeping the gigantic inverter, though it was nice. The main reason was to be able to use the microwave, but we never really used it. I got this instead

Samlex America PST60S12A 600W Pure Sine Wave Inverter

https://www.amazon.com/Samlex-Ameri...4&sr=1-6&keywords=600+pure+sine+watt+inverter

The old inverter, I use it occasionally for a vacuum, air compressor, etc... I do like the new 600 watt inverter...

 

Forgot to say... We use the inverter a lot. It's hard wired into my main panel so, basically when I'm not on shore power, the inverter makes all of the standard AC plugins in the camper work.

 

And.... also forgot to say... the reason I went with this inverter is that it has an auto shutoff at 16 volts. One of the few that does. Many inverters will auto shutoff at around 14 volts. That's too low. A good controller will push above 14 volts to finish off a battery and get it 100% full, especially in cold weather, so watch out for the allowed voltage range on the inverter. A good controller will also overcharge a bit for battery health and they ramp up the volts to push the amps into the battery. Like blowing up a balloon, it gets harder as it get more full. Magnum is also a good brand, used to be anyway, I heard they got bought out.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dtools&field-keywords=600+pure+sine+watt+inverter&rh=n%3A228013%2Ck%3A600+pure+sine+watt+inverter&ajr=0

 

That does look like it would be good to have one hardwired in. Have you run into anything that you can't run that you would want to run? Or would you go even smaller?

 

You know i really haven’t had anything that I needed to run that the 600 watts couldn’t cover. The 600 gave me some cushion I guess. A lot of the thirsty camper components such as the heater blower, water pump, etc are already DC and are wired into the panel. So the inverter really just allows AC use of the plugins for charging speakers, phones, AA rechargeable batteries and things like that. Things I can think of that it can’t handle would be: coffee maker, which would actually be nice but we use a press. Hair dryer, but wife does not use one. Curling iron, same thing. I mentioned my portable ice maker. It will not run that. I thought it would but it won’t. But that thing isn’t really necessary. It was an impulse buy. Really the main thing that’s plugged in that comes with the camper that I need to run is the TV. Add a laptop, a few phones, etc. maybe 300 Watts is fine?

I looked at this 300 watt one too. It’s nice and a good brand. Decided it was too pricey and went with the 600 watt one by Samlex. I vaguely recall just not feeling confident about going down to 300 watts. https://www.gogreensolar.com/products/morningstar-suresine-300w-inverter

 

The other nice thing about that morningstar 300 watt inverter is it’s fanless. Mine, the fan does turn on and it is noticeable noise in my tiny little non Bigfoot camper.

 

is that @CharlieCafe house?