Solar Trickle Charger on Roof

Yes, that 5 watt solar panel is an engine battery maintainer.
Yes, it continues to charge the engine battery when the main disconnect is off.
There is a 3 amp fuse in your Battery Control Center for your solar panel.
If it is working correctly, there will be an illuminated red LED in the living area.


Richard
95 Bounder

Did u shut the power anntena off

Thanks, everybody, for the input. If this thing is trickle charging my engine battery, does anyone know if it still provides that charge when I have disconnected the battery via the disconnect switch?

Something has been draining my battery to the point that, if I don't use the motorhome for even a week, it doesn't have enough charge left to even start the engine. I've been told it's the power steps draining the battery, but even if I shut off the disconnect switch, it still dies in about a week.

Rick in PA

Mine came equipped with one. I'm in Seattle and mine is wired to keep house battery topped off. It is a whopping 5 watts. See any problems there?


Went to remove it and the wires go though a maze of stuff, so its still up there doing nothing IMO

Are you sure it's not just hooked up to some fans at the back of your fridge?

Actually it could be providing as much as 24V in bright sunshine, depending on how many solar cells are actually in it. It's probably used to trickle charge your batteries, but make sure it has a voltage regulator/charger on it or it will boil your batteries out and ruin them.

I've been researching adding just such a thing.... seems that everyone says the same thing about their being useless, except for folks that actually have them and use them for their intended purpose.

True, not enough power to offset useage much. Not usefull for a boon docker....
but for maintaining charge against self discharge in storage?
maybe even with a very small parasite load?
Maybe not so useless.

I'm not writing from first hand experience.... just research and intuition.

Pretty much useless, no big enough to help keep a battery charged that is being used for anything. Normally connected to the house battery.