Is this a possibility?

bpounds wrote:

lc0338 wrote:

My main question/concern is if you have 4ea 6 volt batteries in series/parallel to yield 12 volts at 500ah..... can you then safely link them to 2ea 12 volt RV/house batteries?...

I don't see why not. Just turn the onboard converter/charger off.

I guess I got off track with the A/C thing, because you mentioned the heat of summer. My apologies.

I suppose that the reason you don't just mount all that stuff on your trailer, is that you want to use it for other trailers/purposes.

No problem on the A/C. There are multiple reasons I wanted a portable solar generator (PSG). One was "heat of summer" and I want my RV in the shade. Solar panels like/need sun and since I can't generate enough electricity for air conditioning I need to take advantage of nature to help keep me cool. Secondly, when I started on the path of PSG I had both an 5th wheel trailer and bumper pull. Didn't want to duplicate solar systems and didn't know how long I would have either RV and it almost impossible to recover your costs. Since I have the solar generator completed I have downsized to 1ea 5th wheel trailer but it is a different one than I had when I first started on this journey. I have also switched tow vehicles and had to do a little redesign to be able to load the solar generator. These are all separate issues but with a separate stand alone solar generator you have a lot more options like I live on a farm so if I'm not RV'ing the solar generator can be used around the farm to put power at remote locations and be utilized 12 months of the year, not just during RV season.

lc0338 wrote:

My main question/concern is if you have 4ea 6 volt batteries in series/parallel to yield 12 volts at 500ah..... can you then safely link them to 2ea 12 volt RV/house batteries?...

I don't see why not. Just turn the onboard converter/charger off.

I guess I got off track with the A/C thing, because you mentioned the heat of summer. My apologies.

I suppose that the reason you don't just mount all that stuff on your trailer, is that you want to use it for other trailers/purposes.

bpounds wrote:

lc0338 wrote:

Here are the components of my solar generator:

1) TM-2025-RV Battery Monitor Package - pkg includes 35ft of wire and 500amp shunt

2)Morningstar ts mppt - 45amp mpt charge controller

3)Caster Wheels - on bottom of generator so it can be moved

4) Batteries - 4ea 250 ah full river 6 volt

5) Samlex PST-2000-12 Pure Sine Inverter

6) IOTA Battery Charger - 12V 55A - If I need to use a generator this charger should charge the batteries more quickly.

7) solar panels - 2ea - 270 watt monocrystalline from Solarworld

Is this something you've assembled yourself? Or purchased as a package?

That is a good list of components IMO, and what you propose I believe will work, with the exception of running an A/C. That is not enough battery capacity to run an A/C for long, and not enough solar capacity to replace the state of charge in a day. I think that inverter would run a 12.5 A/C just barely. It is a 2kW continuous, 3.5kW surge. 500AH of battery won't sustain that for long.

I purchased all the components and had another guy put it all together. He had a local metal fab shop build the equipment box and frame. I think you may be mis-understanding my intent. For 110 volt needs, yes, I will have an extension cord ran between the solar generator and RV, however I understand, and do not plan to run all 110 volt appliances continuously or together at the same time.
My real intent is to see if possible to directly link my solar batteries and RV batteries so that I do not have to turn on the inverter in the solar generator, and also the converter in the RV to recharge the 2ea 12 volt house batteries.

You could be correct in the earlier message that my solar generator will not know I have 2ea extra batteries attached, and I guess that would be OK because I can monitor them via the RV house light panel inside to see their state of charge.

My main question/concern is if you have 4ea 6 volt batteries in series/parallel to yield 12 volts at 500ah..... can you then safely link them to 2ea 12 volt RV/house batteries? My goal here is to eliminate the need to run the converter in the RV to recharge the 2ea house batteries. But, I don't want to damage the solar generator batteries or any batteries for that matter. Please note that the 500 AH is the total capacity of the solar generator batteries and I plan to not discharge them below 50%.

lc0338 wrote:

Here are the components of my solar generator:

1) TM-2025-RV Battery Monitor Package - pkg includes 35ft of wire and 500amp shunt

2)Morningstar ts mppt - 45amp mpt charge controller

3)Caster Wheels - on bottom of generator so it can be moved

4) Batteries - 4ea 250 ah full river 6 volt

5) Samlex PST-2000-12 Pure Sine Inverter

6) IOTA Battery Charger - 12V 55A - If I need to use a generator this charger should charge the batteries more quickly.

7) solar panels - 2ea - 270 watt monocrystalline from Solarworld

Is this something you've assembled yourself? Or purchased as a package?

That is a good list of components IMO, and what you propose I believe will work, with the exception of running an A/C. That is not enough battery capacity to run an A/C for long, and not enough solar capacity to replace the state of charge in a day. I think that inverter would run a 12.5 A/C just barely. It is a 2kW continuous, 3.5kW surge. 500AH of battery won't sustain that for long.

double post

Would be good if you could post some specs on the solar generator unit. I don't know how familiar anyone here is with those. I've never seen one. Having said that, I doubt that it puts out enough power to run your A/C for more than a few minutes, even in full sun. Which I assume is your goal, since you mentioned summer heat. I'm just thinking that "portable self-contained" does not have much solar capacity. Need specs.

Here are the components of my solar generator:

1) TM-2025-RV Battery Monitor Package - pkg includes 35ft of wire and 500amp shunt

2)Morningstar ts mppt - 45amp mpt charge controller

3)Caster Wheels - on bottom of generator so it can be moved

4) Batteries - 4ea 250 ah full river 6 volt

5) Samlex PST-2000-12 Pure Sine Inverter

6) IOTA Battery Charger - 12V 55A - If I need to use a generator this charger should charge the batteries more quickly.

7) solar panels - 2ea - 270 watt monocrystalline from Solarworld




12VDC can come from multiple sources, and as long as polarity matches up, nothing blows up. But what you describe would have the batteries trying to charge themselves, due to the onboard converter. If you turned that off, I think you would be okay. But need to make sure about voltage matching up. Because 4 x 6V batteries in your solar generator may be putting 24V into the inverter. Lots of ways to screw this up. As far as monitoring, if everything is connected properly at 12V, your monitor doesn't know that there are 6 batteries instead of only the 4. Could get more complicated than that if the monitor is a smart one, including a shunt, like a Trimetric setup. But it is probably just a voltmeter.

Really don't have enough info here to give good advice.

lc0338 wrote:
Have a portable self contained 12 volt solar generator with 4ea 6 volt full river batteries. My RV currently has 2ea 12 volt house batteries and a separate 12 volt battery located near the on-board onan propane generator. My current set-up plan is to sit the solar generator in the sun and park my RV in the shade and run an 110 volt extension cord in-between (during heat of summer).

Would be good if you could post some specs on the solar generator unit. I don't know how familiar anyone here is with those. I've never seen one. Having said that, I doubt that it puts out enough power to run your A/C for more than a few minutes, even in full sun. Which I assume is your goal, since you mentioned summer heat. I'm just thinking that "portable self-contained" does not have much solar capacity. Need specs.

lc0338 wrote:
My question - If winter camping someplace and the solar generator could be sitting very close to the RV (within 10 feet say) would it be possible to connect the solar generator batteries to the 2ea house batteries (with jumper cables or heavy gauge wire / anderson connectors)?

I would still have an extension cord attached between the generator and RV and would of course have to turn on the inverter to generator 110 volt from the solar generator, when needed, but if I could connect the 2ea battery systems directly it would eliminate the need for the RV converter to have to cycle to charge the 2ea RV/house batteries. I don't want to damage either battery system. The solar generator has a battery monitor so I presume if the 2ea battery systems were hooked together as a second question would the battery monitor also be monitoring the 2ea RV batteries since there are all connected together?

12VDC can come from multiple sources, and as long as polarity matches up, nothing blows up. But what you describe would have the batteries trying to charge themselves, due to the onboard converter. If you turned that off, I think you would be okay. But need to make sure about voltage matching up. Because 4 x 6V batteries in your solar generator may be putting 24V into the inverter. Lots of ways to screw this up. As far as monitoring, if everything is connected properly at 12V, your monitor doesn't know that there are 6 batteries instead of only the 4. Could get more complicated than that if the monitor is a smart one, including a shunt, like a Trimetric setup. But it is probably just a voltmeter.

Really don't have enough info here to give good advice.

lc0338 wrote:
Have a portable self contained 12 volt solar generator with 4ea 6 volt full river batteries. My RV currently has 2ea 12 volt house batteries and a separate 12 volt battery located near the on-board onan propane generator. My current set-up plan is to sit the solar generator in the sun and park my RV in the shade and run an 110 volt extension cord in-between (during heat of summer).
My question - If winter camping someplace and the solar generator could be sitting very close to the RV (within 10 feet say) would it be possible to connect the solar generator batteries to the 2ea house batteries (with jumper cables or heavy gauge wire / anderson connectors)?

I would still have an extension cord attached between the generator and RV and would of course have to turn on the inverter to generator 110 volt from the solar generator, when needed, but if I could connect the 2ea battery systems directly it would eliminate the need for the RV converter to have to cycle to charge the 2ea RV/house batteries. I don't want to damage either battery system. The solar generator has a battery monitor so I presume if the 2ea battery systems were hooked together as a second question would the battery monitor also be monitoring the 2ea RV batteries since there are all connected together?

Might want to ask the mods to move this to Technical. Lots more solar stuff over there.

Lyle