profdant139 wrote:
Fred, you are right that a permanent panel is less work than a portable. The problem is that we always park the trailer in the deepest possible shade that we can find -- DW will reject a boondocking site that is too exposed, except in really cold weather. She grew up in the San Fernando Valley and thus has a deep-seated dislike of baking in the sun.
So that is why we absolutely have to have portable panels with the longest possible cable -- I have to search out a nearby patch of partial sunlight.
I will investigate the issue of voltage drop with clad aluminum cable to see if it acceptable. There is no way I can use ordinary copper ten gauge, unless it is very flexible. If I have to wrestle with balky cables, the "hassle factor" will kick in and we will use the portable panels less frequently. There is an old saying that "the best is the enemy of the good." Sometimes, second-best (like aluminum cable) is better than the gold standard of all-copper, because the gold standard might be more trouble than it's worth.
Go bum an old electric extension cord off of a contractor that the ends are about to fall off. 14 gauge, 12 gauge, it won't matter, because it's all BEFORE the charge controller, which is going to be mounted somewhere waterproof very close to the battery. In your situation, a little bit of voltage loss before the charge controller is OK, but fat pure copper wire between the charge controller and battery terminals is mandatory, that is where voltage loss should not occur, due to your charge controller putting out 14.4V and you want all 14.4V at the battery terminals, every time.
Cut the ends off of each side and use the black and the white wires, don't worry about the green wire.
Or use the one in your garage you never use any more since you got a gardener for the yard, and the electricity for christmas lights is too expensive.
I see cords like thes littering the freeways here in L.A. all the time, and I almost always stop and pick them up, if on the side of the road.
Or come see me again, I have a spool of that speaker wire in 10 gauge, I think it was 100 feet worth. I've used 10 feet of it, at most. $20 and it's yours. RJfishing suggested to me.
