[RockyMtnRay]

Originally Posted by Caver

This is the second season to use solar panels on our 3023 TM. I’m pleased with the capability and it has met my expectations but it may not be the solution for everyone.

Completely agree. The solar panels on my TMs roof are definitely the best mods I've done to the trailer. They've more than met my expectations.

A quick summary: Two 90 watt solar panels mounted on the rear shell with a BZ Products charge controller mounted next to the converter. The other component is a Bogart Trimetric battery monitor. The Trimetric allows monitoring current, voltage, AH used, and % battery capacity.

Mine are are a 120 watt and a 50 watt panel (170 watts total). Generate about 11 amps in full mid day sunshine. Basic controller, use just a digital voltmeter for monitoring battery voltage.

I mounted the panels on the rear shell using the adhesive technique that RockyMtnRay described. I did fabricate custom mounting brackets from aluminum. The combination worked well and I didn’t have to penetrate the TM roof. Thanks Ray! The aluminum mounts are still solid on the TM roof with the DuPont adhesive. These appear as strong now as when initially installed. The panels are mounted flat. I didn’t make any provisions for tilting the panels since I will primarily use them during the summer months.

Welcome. Yes, the Loctite "Depend" adhesive is superb. Mine are also still firmly attached to the roof after 2 1/2 seasons...despite much wind, rain, and even some snow.

Last winter I left the batteries in the TM. Since the TM is stored in the driveway and gets a few hours of sunlight per day in the winter this is more than adequate to keep the cells charged. It would be safer to remove the batteries and store them charged in a warm location.

My TM is stored inside my garage so little to no sun on the panels. I use a 3 stage charger to keep the batteries fully charged (but not overcharged) during the winter.

Since I use flooded lead-acid batteries, it’s absolutely essential to water the batteries every few months. I try to check them once a month but they seem to go for at least two months in the summer. They didn’t use much water over the entire winter. I use one of those auto-fill devices for the distilled water. This makes quick work of filling the batteries to the proper level.

Also use flooded cells (a pair of Trojan T-105 6V Golf Cart batteries). After two seasons of use, I find they need a water top off only twice a year...once when the trailer is brought out of storage in April/May and once when it's put back into winter storage in September. So far the electrolyte has stayed above the bottom of the slot in each cell's fill opening.

The biggest thing I would do differently is to install the charge controller closer to the battery and use a larger gauge wire between the charge controller and the batteries. The relatively long run of 10 gauge wire is limiting the maximum charge current.

Agree. My controller is about 18 inches from the battery and connected with 10 gauge wire. No limit being put on charge current.

During a four day boondock campout over Labor Day weekend, by the first morning I had used 40 AH of battery capacity. This was a record for me and was due to running the refrigerator on battery while en-route. That was about 10 AH. I left an outside light on all night for my kids and over a thousand fellow tent campers. I also made two pots of coffee with an electric drip coffee maker that uses 4 AH per pot. The batteries were back at 99% capacity by the end of the day due to clear skies and full sun exposure. In fact over the four days there was no reason to try to conserve battery power and the batteries were fully charged by the end of the day. We even ran the electric ceiling fan for part of each day. Multiple days of cloudy weather would have required more of the available AH capacity. You don’t want to regularly use more than 50% of your battery capacity or it will reduce the number of available charge cycles.

Solar may be right for you if:

- You do a lot of boondock camping

- Camp in a place where there is direct sun exposure

- Can’t or aren’t interested in running a carbon based electric generator

I’ll be interested in updates from other solar users. For those interested in solar there is a wealth of information at this forum:

Ray

Internal lights and the furnace are my biggest electrical power users. Last summer was downright cold and raining in the mountains and I used the furnace a lot...yet the battery state never dropped below about 50%. This year was much warmer & drier...and I replaced 3 light fixtures with fluorescents (roughly 2/3 the electrical load, yet much brighter)...so battery state never went much below 85% even if I used the lights for extended periods.

This year I needed to recharge/run my laptop computer from the TM's battery a number of times and the solar panels easily provided all the needed energy. On two occasions, I also had to leave the trailer parked in a parking lot for an extended period with the refer running on DC. Once was all day (8 am to 4 pm), once was almost an entire morning (9 am to noon). Fortunately both days were very sunny with almost no cloudiness and the panels came very close to meeting the electrical demand of the refer...battery state was down only about 10% when I arrived at my destination.

I'm fortunate that I camp in the mostly sunny West...and I've gotten pretty good at reserving campsites through reserveusa.com that get at least 3 to 5 hours of full, unshaded sunshine per day. As long as I can get 3 to 4 hours of good sunshine on the panels every day or so, having sufficient electrical power is simply no longer a factor in determining how long I go without needing to have an electrical hookup. For me having an electrical hookup is now purely a nicety and not anywhere close to being a necessity.