Does anyone know how the Cruise America trickle charge solar panel is wired into the system? I have two 2015 Majestic 28a units. The one in question has the small 10w solar panel mounted on top of the roof AC unit. The wires appear to drop down somewhere over the kitchen/bathroom (I need to look closer...maybe they drop down right by the monitor panel that has the little green "solar" light bulb that lights up when it's sunny outside).
What I would like to know is WHERE does the Pos/Neg of the trickle charger actually tie into the 12v system? Underneath the RV there is a Post mounted on the backside of the factory battery box and it has all the 12v Positive cables joined (from battery, from alternator, to Electrical box, and one other thick cable that I can't yet figure out what it's to). There is also a bolt into the frame connecting several Negative wires. But I don't think the trickle charger is tying in underneath the RV. I think it is happening somewhere else. Does anyone know?
I had a bit of a confusing situation around dusk tonight. I disconnected the coach batteries (and chassis battery) because I wanted to clean off (sand) the Pos/Neg terminals underneath the RV to make sure they were getting a good connection (they were looking a little corroded). I had forgotten about the solar trickle. I got some minor sparks which wrenching and thought, "That can't be right!" So I put a volt meter on a few things and I was getting 5-6 volts. I thought, "What the heck?? How in the world could there be something at 5-6 volts....no battery is connected." Finally I remembered the trickle solar charger. Since it was dusk and the sun was going down, the panel was only generating 5-6 volts. I threw a towel over the panel to confirm (and then measured zero volts as expected).
It got me wondering...how exactly does this trickle charger work? I know that the simple ones don't even have a charge controller. What does a weak 5-6 volts coming from the solar panel do to the 12v coach battery?? I'm not sure. Maybe since it is so weak it doesn't matter?
My real plan is to put 400w of solar on top of this RV. I just got through putting up 500w on my other Majestic and so this 2nd RV should be much easier. So I think I will simply disable the existing trickle charger. That's why I'm trying to figure out WHERE it actually ties into the system.
My "brute force" solution will be to simply cut the wires on the rooftop going to the 10w trickle solar panel and then tape them off (so the wires aren't shorting). But I'd like to find a more elegant solution.
Thanks in advance!
Chris
