One 80 watt panel

[Tonopah]

I have one 80 watt panel and two 6 volt deep cycle batteries. I dry camped at the beach for the past three days. Weather was sometimes sunny and a lot of the time was overcast. I was surprised at the performance of the solar. I got anywhere from no charge, to just a small amount (0.2) to 3.0. In any case, my battery charge would go down and up as I used power and as it was slowly replenished. I expected the panel to only help extend the batteries somewhat, but ended the trip with a full charge. The solar is exceeding my expectations. Glad I have it.

[B_and_D]

That's good info. We've thought about buying a solar panel that we could use both on the TM and at the house. We're in the fog a lot here, but I do think that the solar does charge up pretty well even with the overcast, given the performance of our trusty little yard light that has faithfully lit up every day for the past two years, at least for the most part of the night.

What brand of a solar panel and controller did you go with?

[Tonopah]

Custom RV installed an 80w panel from a company called Solar Summit. The panel itself I think is made by Sharp. The package comes with a meter, that shows the current battery charge and also the current trickle in from the solar. I'm fairly clueless on those numbers but the current battery charge started at like 13.1 and would drop with use to 12.4 but then build back up again to 12.8 with the solar adding charge at the rate of anywhere from 0.2 to 3.0 depending on sun availability.

I have to store the TM in a storage lot but there is a lot of sun (So. Cal.) available there.

My issue was that I figured that with 2 6v deep cycle batteries, I'd probably be OK to dry camp for at least 2 to 4 days without a generator, but how to I recharge the batteries between trips? A 2000 watt generator was going to cost something like $1000 and the 80 watt solar was similar in price. I went with the solar on the theory that the batteries would always recharge fully in a few days during storage and while on a trip (both traveling to the campsite at while camped) the solar would continue to trickle charge silently. On this most recent trip, we did start with fully charged batteries and while on the trip, the solar did continue to replace some of the charge used and thereby extended the battery power somewhat.

I bought an ADCO cover for the trailer and do keep the cover on it when the trailer is in storage. A few days before a trip, we roll the cover back enough to expose the solar panel in order to charge the batteries. Then remove the cover on the day of the trip and off we go.

I understand that the charge provided by solar is always a "trickle charge" and that is good for the batteries from a stand point of less stress on them and longer life for the batteries. A generator shoves power into the batteries up to maybe 80% and then trickles after that. Not as good for the batteries, I understand.

[pjcoulter]

When ordering a new trailer do recommend ordering the factory solar or getting it after the fact?

[Tonopah]

I don't have any information regarding the factory solar package. When I ordered my 2720SL I did not include the solar option. Then I changed my mind but it was too late to secure it from the factory. The dealership installed mine. They ordered it from Solar Summit.
Since the solar panel is installed on the top of the front shell, and adds some weight, they adjusted the torsion bars a bit to offset the added weight so that the shell remains easy to raise and lower.