Hello everyone, my name is Bobby and I'm new to owning a travel trailer. I just picked up a 2007 fleetwood pegasus 180. My 3.4l tacoma pulls it good around town but it bogs down on the freeway, oh well. we are taking it on its maiden voyage next week in central utah at 9000' I need to keep my battery charged, and would rather not use a generator. I have been doing my due diligence and reading up on solar and I think that the renogy 100 watt kit for 187$ is what I need. Basically, I'll be running the LP fridge, the water pump for 30 minutes of showers and 20 minutes of dishes per day, and lights for 30 minutes. I may use the cd player if it won't put me over budget. I am used to camping so having a shower and toilet will be great. The trailer has one deep cycle battery in good condition. Are my plans sound? can anyone recommend a better option for what I will be doing? I have read up on the reviews for the kit and some people are not satisfied with the regulator that it comes with. Perhaps there is a better option that I have not encountered yet?Thanks!Bobby**for some reason it removed the link to the popular internet vendor and 100 watt solar panel and regulator that I have seen on other posts here. id post the name but some forums have rules with commercial links.

No worries, here's a link to a Renogy 100W starter kit.As you've found, the controller with that kit is not the best. It should work out for just a single panel, though. 100W may get you by for a few days of use. Depends on how hard you hit the battery with use. If you don't already have one, get a cheap hand held meter so when you're messing around with solar and batteries, you have a tool that will measure voltage and such. It will also serve to let you know how much charge is left in the battery. Good luck with the solar power, it is the best for charging batteries.

I am doing the SOLAR INSTALL in baby steps with my OFF-ROAD POPUP camper.I upgraded the on-board OCNVERTER/CHARGER unit, added more battery capacity, and changed over the trailer high wattage incandescent automotive lights to LED lights.Been camping off the power grid all over this area on the East side of the US with this setup using 255AH battery setup. We do just fine with all the things we want to run doing this. We planned out our battery consumption to drop down to their 50% charge state hopefully at 8AM each morning when we are usually allowed to run our 2KW generator. We then connect our 30A Shore Power cable directly to the 2KW generator 120VAC RECEPTACLE using a RV30-15A Long Adapter (WALMART). This powers up our smart mode on-board converter/charger unit and will re-charge our 50% charge state batteries to their 90% charge state in just over three hours of generator run time. Then we can do this all over again the next day/night run off the batteries.The batteries here demand over 50A DC CURRENT when first starting their initial charge run when first hit with 14.4VDC from the converter. This is more DC CURRENT than a single solar panel will produce in high sun. The 120WATT SOlar Panels will only produce around 5-6AMPS DC when in high sun.Now that we have pretty much got the system we want to have for camping off the power grid for long extended it is time for us to add solar panels to keep us from running the generator so much.Solar Panels are NOT much good for you unless you can store their energy into the battery banks to use at night.Our game plan is to always use the generator for the first hour of recharging batteries which get past the high current portion of the re-charge. When the batteries start demanding lower DC current as they are being charged up then we can shut down the generator and just let the solar panels finish off the re-charge cycle. May take all day but as long as we can get to the 90% charge state before the high sun goes away then it would work for us. Have learned from day one we have to always start our day/night camping run with our batteries at the 90% charge state or more otherwise it gets dark on us around 10PM at night. Then we would have to wait until 8AM the next morning before we would be allowed to run our generator.This is the way it work for us at least...My game plan is to install enough solar panels to produce around 20AMPS of DC CURRENT during high sun each day. My generator will always be available to run in case there is not enough high sun during the day.These are my SOLAR PANEL goals - I'm sure others have their own game plan haha...Roy Ken

If you plan on boondocking a lot, first get yourself a good 6V or 12V battery, preferably 2 of them. Then start adding the solar to keep them charged off grid. Do your research first so you don't waste your money on something that is not going to do what you want it to. Google "Roads Less Traveled" blog for some good basic information about batteries and solar. You can also google Handy Bob's blog for even more in depth info on solar and batteries. Good luck!

Don't be overwhelmed by some huge complicated posts above.Solar is not nearly as complicated as some make it.Having said that,100 watts is not enuff !!!!Start w/ at least 200 watts.Kits are seldom a good deal, because they come w/ stuff you may not use or need. and a cheap controller.If on budget, start w/ 100 watts, and a good 20-30 amp controller that will handle a couple hundred more watts in the future.

Usually I am pretty good at finding solar on craigslist but there is little in Utah. I did find 185w panels at a $1 a watt that are older but have seen little use. You would still need the wire and inexpensive controller but it would be a better deal than the kit.How much it takes to keep your batteries up is hard to tell with you have a new rig. You can find out by using it and seeing how much power you use or filling out one of the flow charts floating around here. There are also different ways of looking at solar. My system is designed to keep us comfy while it cloudy and when the sun shines...oh baby let the good times roll.Should you get the 100 watt panel and it isn't enough, it might stretch your battery so that you don't have to recharge it until you are home. I have also turned the truck around and used a set of jumper cables while running the truck a hour a day to get us through.

My first trailer and plans for solar | Good Sam Community

13 Replies

adkfreeridex
Explorer
Aug 10, 2015
Good info everyone, I definitely over estimated my water consumption and capacities. Will def. do a Navy showers. Also, my 3.4L tacoma struggles to pull on the freeway, so Im hesitant about sinking a bunch of $$$ into solar until I know that I'll keep this trailer longer term, I honestly did not realize the size of the investment for solar (cash, research, install etc) so a small generator, though not optimal is what I'll use. My boss said I can borrow the 4000W gen, so I might just take that. After this trip I'll know a lot more about the trailer and my preferences as they relate to available options.

If you have any other thoughts, I'd love to hear them. I can tell a lot of you are very knowledgeable and experienced, thanks for sharing with me.
tonymull
Explorer
Aug 10, 2015
A 2000w generator will be fine, especially if you are adding solar later. And yes you are overestimating your pump usage. It does not run constantly when washing dishes.
CJW8
Explorer
Aug 10, 2015
Off original question but you mentioned it. 30 min shower and 20 of dishwater per day and you'll likely be out of water the first day.
Rotzilla
Explorer
Aug 10, 2015
We just installed a kit from the same company, 2 100 watt panels, and a mppt 40 amp controller. (40 amp allows me to expand to 4 panels later if necessary).
TH has 2 24 series batteries wired parallel.
From 1/4 to full charge takes approximately 4 to 5 hours of direct sunlight.
Other items you need to purchase that do not come with these kits are; inline fuses, one from pv panels to controller, and one from battery to controller are advised but not included. I also added a on/off switch to be able to disconnect the panels from the system. I can turn it on only when the system is in use, also to work on the panels without electrocution.
JiminDenver
Explorer II
Aug 09, 2015
I have the champion 3500/4000, it's pretty loud for use around others. Do they have the Champion 2000 inverter generator?
adkfreeridex
Explorer
Aug 09, 2015
thanks you guys, I really want to do the solar right, and I don't have time this week to research, purchase and wire in the panels and controller before saturday (i have to get a roof on my garage...........) I do work at sportsmans warehouse and I can get a really good deal on champion generators, do I need the big 4000W? I don't care about AC, like I said, I just want to make sure I have running water and light from time to time. I think we sell a 1500w that would come in at just over 100$ for me, that could be a good quick option if it would get the job done, and if the zombie apocalypse happens, a generator would be nice to have.
pianotuna
Nomad III
Aug 09, 2015
Hi,

Do a detailed energy audit. My feeling is that 100 watts would be good for storage only and not enough for dry camping.
JiminDenver
Explorer II
Aug 09, 2015
You mentioned 50 minutes a day of pump time, that's a lot of water out of the fresh tank and into the grey. We generally run the pump 1 to 2 minutes while taking a navy shower and a full load of dishes takes less than a gallon.

Dry camping is all about conserving what you have while sacrificing as little comfort as possible. A navy shower gets you clean, you don't need a steaming sink full of hot water to do dishes with a running tap for rinsing. Inexpensive LED lights will save a lot of juice out of that battery and make it last longer.
JiminDenver
Explorer II
Aug 09, 2015
Usually I am pretty good at finding solar on craigslist but there is little in Utah. I did find 185w panels at a $1 a watt that are older but have seen little use. You would still need the wire and inexpensive controller but it would be a better deal than the kit.

How much it takes to keep your batteries up is hard to tell with you have a new rig. You can find out by using it and seeing how much power you use or filling out one of the flow charts floating around here. There are also different ways of looking at solar. My system is designed to keep us comfy while it cloudy and when the sun shines...oh baby let the good times roll.

Should you get the 100 watt panel and it isn't enough, it might stretch your battery so that you don't have to recharge it until you are home. I have also turned the truck around and used a set of jumper cables while running the truck a hour a day to get us through.
RJsfishin
Explorer
Aug 09, 2015
Don't be overwhelmed by some huge complicated posts above.
Solar is not nearly as complicated as some make it.
Having said that,100 watts is not enuff !!!!
Start w/ at least 200 watts.
Kits are seldom a good deal, because they come w/ stuff you may not use or need. and a cheap controller.
If on budget, start w/ 100 watts, and a good 20-30 amp controller that will handle a couple hundred more watts in the future.