I have a FR Sunseeker 2450. I'm trying to get it together to have a small solar set up. From what I'm reading I need: Solar Panels, Charge controller and an Inverter. Does my MH have a Charge controller already?

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Is the rig udes? anythimg is possible. New and you would have had them put it there.You don't want to just use any old controller you find, you need to get one that matches up to the panels you get and the conditions you are in. New controllers for small systems can be very inexpensive.What kind of small system are you thinking of? One member here just installed one of the 200w kits you can get for $300 or less.

Hi,No, RV's don't often come with solar charge controllers.How many amp-hours is your battery bank?

Solar panels by them self would not be much benefit for me. A typical 120WATT SOLAR PANEL will only produce around 5-6AMPS of DC CURRENT and only in the high sun period of the day for an estimated 6 hours or so. If it is rainy or cloudy then you will not get much DC CURRENT at all. Adding more panels would be crucial for me My trailer setup is currently using a 255AH BATTERY BANK which does us pretty well camping off the power grid but has to be re-charged each day which we usually do at 8AMP each morning as this is when we can start running our 2KW Generator at the camp sites here on the East Side of the US. There is not many public places around us here where you can run the generator anytime you want to due to the Generator run time restriction in place.We usually start using our batteries starting around 6PM each day getting back from our daytime activities making supper and getting ready for some sitting around the camp fire and enjoying the night noises.We start showing around 20AMP plus being drawn from the battery bank when we go inside and start running the home entertainment items and running more lights both inside and outside. This continues up to around 11PM at night and when we goto bed it finally drops back to the normal 1-2AMPS parasitic battery drain that is present 24/7... All of this will drop our 255AH Battery bank down to around 12.0VDC by 8AM each morning when we then can start re-charging the batteries back up to their 90% charge state so we can do all of this all over again for the next day/night run off the batteries.For us adding SOLAR PANELS will just reduce the time we have run our 2KW Generator. I will have to add at least three 120WATT size panels to be able to produce enough DC CURRENT during the high sun time to charge my batteries. This would be the only reason for us to have the solar panels. Battery Science tells me a battery will need to have 14.4VDC@ 17-20AMPS DC Current capacity charge source to be able to re-charge in a three hour time frome using smart mode charging methods.When I first hit my battery bank with 14.4VDC Boost Charger from my on-board converter/charger unit being run by my 2KW Generator at the site I see around 52-53AMPS being drawn by the 255AH battery bank. This continues to draw high current for 30 minutes or so and then starts dropping back and eventually gets down to around 8AMP or so as the batteries start taking on their charge. After one hour of charging I could actually switch over to the solar panels and turn off the generator. Then the batteries should charge up just fine in the remaining 5-6 hours of high sun time frame.In my case I am not able to run my trailer off my batteries over night unless they are re-charged to at least the 90% charge state. Otherwise they will drop down to 12.0VDC quickly and I am forced to shut down the batteries or internal harm will occur. If the batteries start out at the 90% charge state then they run almost full performance until 8AM the next morning before dropping down to their 50% charge state.I think this is something you need to determine in your solar panel upgrade on what you really want to do and what you want to run off the inverter. My converter is a small 600WATT capacity and with my stated ops during the one day/night only pulls around 300WATTs from it to run our home entertainment and other small wattage items. What benefit would a single solar panel be for you just running 5-6 hours during the day producing 5 amps of DC current. Maybe listen to a radio or whatever?? When the sun goes down you are done... You need to store the solar power in batteries to be able to use for long periods of time after the sun goes down.If you are going to install a large wattage INVERTER to run the whole trailer you will need many many batteries to do this. Check the battery specs to see how long it will run pulling certain DC AMPS LEVELS. You will find one 12VDC battery being drawn down by just 20AMP of DC Current will only hold up around 150 or more MINUTES before the battery is depleted. Just imagine how long a small group batteries will last being pulled down by 200-250AMPS of DC Current. You will find only a very short amount of runtime. You have to decide what you want to do. Once you can run all the things you want to run off your batteries over night then you have to decide how to re-charge them so you can do it all over again for the next day/night run.A Generator is a must have item unless you go very big with your SOLAR PANELs and have enough battery capacity to not get behind the charge curve if possible. SOLAR PANELS only work when you have high sun - Generators work anything you are allowed to run them... Just passing along to get your thinking going in the right direction. SOLAR PANELS are not the whole picture to be successful... We watch our battery bank DC VOLTAGE like a hawk when camping off the power grid. Getting dark on us is NOT an option...Just my thoughts on the subj...Roy Ken

You need to read this for more info and how to install your solar system. This Guy has been off grid for 6 yrs no Generator!https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/

Charge Controller | Good Sam Community

22 Replies

Harvey51
Explorer
Oct 07, 2014
Your kit looks very good to me, and a good price.

We are light users of electricity while camping. We make tea with a kettle on the propane stove, have no TV along. Our two batteries are enough to dry camp for four days. No generator.

I recently bought a 100 watt solar kit for $250. I expect it will provide about 25 amp hours of battery charging per day, which may well be enough to keep us going indefinitely.

Basically, you hook the two wires from the solar panel into the appropriate terminals on the charge controller. Then run a pair of wires from the controller to the battery. You really need to have a multimeter and know how to use it to make the connections correctly. I was kind of stumped on how to get the wires from the panel down to the battery cupboard - until I took the cap off the fridge vent and realized how easy it would be to go that route. Alas, I am a bit late for a tryout this summer as it is getting dark very early now and cold weather threatens. And we have company coming to visit.

Good luck with your solar adventure! Thank you for choosing the quiet route.
littlemo
Explorer
Oct 02, 2014
RJsfishin wrote:
You should have come here first. You could have done much much better price wise.

Probably so. But that just had everything together as a kit and since my husband and I don't know what we're doing and I'll have to take it to my son and let him help....(do it). If I had tried to order it all separate I wouldn't have half what I need.
littlemo
Explorer
Oct 02, 2014
mena661 wrote:
Keurig isn't happening without a large, PSW inverter. Mine takes ~1500W for the initial heating and 800W to keep the water up to temp. And you're not doing that with one battery.

I'll just start the generator for a few minutes while I make my coffee or use the percolator....sigh.
littlemo
Explorer
Oct 02, 2014
westend wrote:
littlemo wrote:
westend wrote:
What do you have for batteries?

Deep cycle coach battery 30 amp, 12 volt distribution panel
I would suggest to upgrade the battery in order to capture the solar output. Least inexpensive method is two GC2 6V's wired in series.

Thanks, I will probably do that!
pianotuna
Nomad III
Oct 02, 2014
Hi,

The Keurig may consume 670 watt/hours per day. That translates to pretty much the entire output of the solar system for a day.
westend
Explorer
Oct 01, 2014
littlemo wrote:
westend wrote:
What do you have for batteries?

Deep cycle coach battery 30 amp, 12 volt distribution panel
I would suggest to upgrade the battery in order to capture the solar output. Least inexpensive method is two GC2 6V's wired in series.
mena661
Explorer
Oct 01, 2014
Keurig isn't happening without a large, PSW inverter. Mine takes ~1500W for the initial heating and 800W to keep the water up to temp. And you're not doing that with one battery.
RJsfishin
Explorer
Oct 01, 2014
You should have come here first. You could have done much much better price wise.
littlemo
Explorer
Oct 01, 2014
westend wrote:
What do you have for batteries?

Deep cycle coach battery 30 amp, 12 volt distribution panel
SkiSmuggs
Explorer
Oct 01, 2014
littlemo wrote:
I don't need AC or microwave when dry camping.

Need to keep computers, phones, Kindle, etc. charged. Maybe use fan, I have a Keurig coffee maker but if can't run have a boiler pot. Possibly TV or DVD.

Melitta and Coleman both have coffee makers that use the propane stove.