What option would you add?

Canadian Rainbirds wrote:
I am a big fan of solar, we have 420 watts (yes I'd like more) which is more than most.

However, using solar to help power a coach's drive train is a little unrealistic: 746 watts of solar panel is a pretty good solar installation for an RV;

746 watts is ONE horsepower. 300HP (my rig) would be 223,800 Watts. :E That's more than 500 times than what I have on my roof right now. I could just barely get 0.18 percent.

Since the total solar energy reaching the earth's surface is on average slightly under 1400 watts(less than two horsepower) per square meter, even with 100 % converstion you would need an awful lot of roof real estate to make a noticeable difference. (Just to be silly: Roughly 8' 6" wide and 211 feet long for the whole 300 HP) :B

Back to reality. To power other than the drive train, solar is very worthwhile IMHO, and I would like to see a useable solar prewire, with large enough wires for the maximum number of panels that would fit reasonably on the roof and room for a reasonable bank of batteries.

Of course solar power wouldn't be all that useful for highway travel. However, with a sufficient battery bank (such as hybrid vehicles have), sitting parked at a campsite for several days ought to be able to bring the battery bank up to a full charge and give at least a few miles of travel for free. Every little bit helps some, though not always a lot. (You aren't using the full 300 HP most of the time, too—but your point is still entirely valid.)

Regenerative braking also has some distinct advantages—perhaps most importantly the reduced wear and use of the main service brakes, and increased safety (due to decreased brake fade) on long descents.

More generally, it just kind of bugs me how un-integrated practically all motorhomes are. There are usually three separate electrical systems (the chassis 12V, the house 12V, and the 120V systems), two completely separate engines (generator and main engine), typically separate heating for the interior and hot water, often completely separate duct systems for the heat and the air conditioning, and the list goes on. The whole hodge-podge design is pretty much the same as it was, say, 40 years ago, with very few basic improvements (but a good bit of advancement in some of the components)—perhaps the most notable being solar power to charge batteries and relatively affordable inverters. (Maybe one should also add the multiplication of flat screen TVs to the list, if one thinks of that as progress.)