Help! My solar panels aren't working!

Naturist, you will love solar and wonder why you didn’t do it earlier. What did your survey show was your amp need? I’m continually surprised how early in the morning it starts to charge...and how late it keeps working.

I’m just in the process of going solar on the RV, so have no answer to grounding question. In principle, grounding everything is a good idea. I put in an extra ground rod next to where the generator goes for emergency use at the sticks ‘n’ bricks, but never bothered grounding the generator used when camping. A good ground is often easy at a campground where a clamp on the water hydrant is an easy fix. But that’s not usually when you need either solar or generator.

Mine are bonded to the vehicle chassis via the mounting. Bonding anything with significant electrical potential is just a good practice.

Brush the snow off. No grounding for RV solar panels is needed. :)

I do not ground the panels for the Rv whether attached on the roof or whether they are on a contraption on the ground away from the RV on longer wires.

The solar controller is not grounded to the RV frame either. Some are plastic so can't be chassis grounded, others are metal and can be. But some are "positive grounded " controllers, which confuses things.

Doesn't matter if they are "positive grounded" controllers or not, just don't ground them to the RV frame, and everything works great.

beemerphile1 wrote:


On a serious note - do you ground your solar panels? I noticed they have an attachment for a ground wire on the frame but I didn't see the point.

Ground mounted, yes. RV, no.