What size solar charger to maintain batteries

Depends somewhat on the type of coach you have. I have 260 watts on top of mine and when I turn everything off including inverters that works for our coach. We have an all electric coach. If you forget and leave the two inverters on it will drain the batteries.

You did not post your coach. Basically you need to figure out what draw you have and then put up something a bit more. Our coach has all kinds of stuff that just won't turn off. Smaller more basic coaches do not.

If you already have solar powering your coach batteries then there are ways to maintain the chassis batteries from that source. Some charge controllers have a second output for a trickle charge to a second battery; the Morningstar Duo is one. You could use a voltage controlled relay like the Blue Sea ACR to connect the banks when under charge conditions. Or the two devices pianotuna mentioned.

If you are going to install SOLAR, Get as much as you can support/carry/afford, I mean, you might as well ENJOY it when you are out and about. Saves wear and tear on the generator (Though you still need to do the monthly maintenance run) and on your fuel budget.

I do not really know the correct answer, but I will say this don't buy the 5 or 30 watt ones from harbor freight as they will NOT do the job

Hi,

Since you have solar already just add a Trik-l-Start or its big brother the Amp-l-Start

As long as you are putting a panel up I would go about 100 watts.
If you ever camp off grid I would suggest about 250+ watts.

100w panel $125

6 amp controller $40

How big in the panel for the house battery?
+1 for Trik-L-Start if you already have enough solar.

I meant to state chassis batteries looking for something to maintain charge. I do not have elec. where it is stored. My coach batteries have solar panel on roof.

Hi wbrowning,

60 to 150 watts per 100 amp-hours will allow equalization, automatically, which is best for a battery bank. 30 watts per 100 will do maintenance charging between trips. If you do not wish to use a controller 10 watts per 100 sorta kinda works.

What is the size of the battery bank? Do you wish to maintain the chassis battery too?

wbrowning wrote:
What size solar charger should I get to maintain coach batteries. How many watts do I need.

I use a 96watt flex panel, always charged.

Roundtwo-40 wrote:
Not to hijack but an option, mine spend the winter in the garage plugged into battery maintainers. Just a suggestion.

Do you have room for mine, too?