movable solar panels/built in system?

Tilting panels does not result in much gain unless you are in Canada and even then it is trivial most of the time. The panels are designed to work with sunlight coming into the cells at an oblique angle.

With them mounted on the roof you get charging 100% of the time, whether driving down the road or parked at a rest stop or when the RV is being stored. The most difficult part of the installation is running the large gauge cables from the solar charge controller to the batteries.

L Widdis,

The solar ready on my unit was #10 wire. I went parallel and series for an input voltage of 33. Less than 1% loss on voltage.

Lwiddis wrote:
One way to use the tiny solar wire installed by the factory which saved then two bucks, is to go 24 volts from the panels. Otherwise replace it.

:DI laff because my toyhauler has this feature.

Bert if you park in the bush or under clouds a bit of portable solar could be handy.

Possibly a DC-DC charger would be more reliable in shaded conditions.

I have 170w of good quality panel on the roof. I like it because I can use cheap FLA batteries.

I have 4 solar panels, one 125 watt on the roof and three panels mounted on the side, one 85 watt and two 100 watt. The side mounted ones can be tilted or removed and set out in the sun. All the panels are 12 volt and connected in parallel. I have three 50 foot #10 cables that I use with the portable panels. When I'm within 50 feet I run a cable to each panel. When I'm further away I parallel the panels and can go as much as 150 feet. This will reduce the current but it's better than nothing. You don't need to constantly chase the sun. I move mine about three times during the day. If this is too much work, set the panels flat on the ground. The system works well.

Roof and portable panels are a great combination. Most lockers have a seal so you can use a connector inside and close the door on the wire. No need for 4/O welding cable.

For parallel panels they should be close to the same voltage. For serial they need to be the same amps and you'll need to insert the portable panels in the circuit unless you set up for serial/parallel. Just be sure not to exceed the controller specs.

for the last 6 years we've had solar. A combo of Three 160W panels on the roof and three 160W portable panels. For our camping much of the time the ideal camping spot puts the trailer in shade much of the day, but there is usually a place with sun much of the day for portable panels. There is also the issue of trailer orientation vs optimal orientation for minimal shading of the panels. Usually site location dictates, and it seems that the majority of the time site orientation isn't the best for minimal panel shading from AC or roof vents.

Advantage of the roof panels is:
1) they don't grow legs
2) trailer charges as we drive down the road
3) no extra time for hookup

The disadvantage is if I have a choice do I park in the sun for solar or shade for comfort and site orientation not optimal for minimal solar panel shading when in the sun.

Portable panel advantage:
1) park where I want and string solar. Now I use sections of 30A RV cord with anderson plugs for connection to solar. parallel the ground wire with one of the other wires and reduce resistive loss. And on long runs of 100ft or so I hook the panels in series to a MPPT controller to limit resistive loss. In series current is about 8A.
2) easier to tilt to get max output. In spring fall camping at northern latitudes that can double the panel output vs. roof flat panels.

Disadvantage:
1) higher cost/panel than roof
2) setup time
3) they can grow legs, although mine have not
4) finding a place to store them when not in use.

In my case I have two 30A MPPT controllers in parallel one for the roof panels, one for the portable panels. Controllers are configured so roof is the master and portable is the slave.

Just chuckling at the irony of all these solar questions. Got second place at the science school science fair for my solar panel project in '81. Granted it was a hot water panel and making hot coffee for the judges probably help.... ;)

red31 wrote:
100 watt 'suitcase' in shaded back yard as maintainer with SAE connector, controller inside trailer.
Stays home when trailer leaves, plug and play, could travel with trailer.
movable to catch a little sun different times of year

Thanks Red.
So your 100w panel, do you just have a pigtail sticking out somewhere that lets you just plug in the panel to your built in solar system? Or, if you plug in an extra panel, do you have to monkey around with settings on your controller for it to play nice with the additional input?
If you don't have to monkey around and indeed can just plug in the additional panel and the controller/chargers just automatically adjust for it, that be a great thing. I guess I just assumed that one couldn't just add panels in that simply.
Thanks!

Thank you to all that have replied. Lots of food for thought. This is why I like forums. You can bounce your good/bad ideas around and find out the flaws.
I guess the biggest factor in my thought of movable panels was so the TC could be parked in the shade and move the panels in the sun.
But good points were made regarding panel and cable size and weight.
In addition, security is an issue as well. They'd have to be taken with or locked up in the TC if away from the site given there are enough people around that just can't keep their hands to themselves. And digging holes in the woods is going to be as hard work as panel moving......
So perhaps better camper placement would be key to having roof top panels. Sun in the am and shade by afternoon, if possible. I've already got a Honda EU2000 anyway. Mrs just doesn't like listening to it running. But if it has to, it has to. Can't have it all.