ZAMP solar - good/bad?

I was shocked (pun intended) last time I was dry camping on the Madison River in MT. The gent next to me had an eighty watt Zamp portable unit that I believe he said he paid $400 + for. There's 120 watt portable units now on Ebay for $250,if you want to wait to have it shipped on a slow boat from China.

All the material and where it's made comes from China, on these portables. Some American Entepreneurs just stick their label on in after importing it and warehousing it. That makes the price pop up keystone.

$700 for 160 watts of solar INSTALLED is a little steep; but not near as bad as some that have been posted here. The equipment appears to be of decent quality, and the design seems solid; if this were a MPPT controller instead of PWM, would be good.

Its not a trivial job, but if you feel very confident of your DIY skills you could do the same for less than half the cost.

As ktmrfs pointed out, fixed mount panels have drawbacks. I have 120 watts fixed and a 100 watt portable panel. Without the portable, I would probably have to run the gen now and then. As is, I only had to use the gen a once this year.

Regards,
Doug

Solar is for sure a good deal. It's the beat battery charger and, done right, can eliminate generator use. The 160W mfg. option is over-priced, IMO. I'd suggest to not include it, use your new rig a few times before changing anything and then you can size and install a solar system. You can DIY solar or have the pieces installed resulting in better installation quality than the mfg will have, in most cases.

Zamp is high quality stuff, but the price is way more than equivalent panels from Solar Blvd etc.
I have one Zamp panel, I got on a good deal when they first came out and there weren't many competitors. Since then added two Solar Blvd panels.
Does it work?? Well I have 240W of portable solar with MPPT controller as did the other party with us. and our last camping trip included 10 days of dry camping in National forest CG. With 100' of cable (#10) myself and the other couple were able to get the panels in the sun for 6-7 hrs/day. After 10 days, my battery bank was down to 90% SOC. Yup, only down 10%. His was down about 15%. That was after using the furnace for about 1hr/each morning, fans when needed, lights when we wanted to and reasonable but not anal power conservasoltion. Then we went to a dry camp with no trees, and 9 hours of sun and in 1 day both of us were up to 100% SOC.

Honda stayed in the truck bed. That said, when we dry camp and need/want AC, solar won't cut it.

For us, hardmount panels are limited value. 90% of the time we are parked under trees and limited/no solar. Portable lets us park where we want and still get solar. downside is you have to store them somewhere, they can develop "legs", and don't charge when your driving down the road.

Pick what works for you.

Hi,

There is nothing wrong with the quality--but the price is a rip off.

You may find the handybob site wordy and it has some information that is dated at best.

Try these sites instead:


http://rvroadtrip.us/library/12v_system.php

http://rvroadtrip.us/library/solar_install.php

Recommend a read through Handy Bob's Solar Blog

HandyBob Blog

$700 for 160w is outrageous ($500 too much) but OTOH it comes all installed which is worth something if you aren't handy with that kind of work and don't want a portable which you can just set out in the sun yourself no installation.

It is not unheard of for Dealers to charge $1000 to install some solar and then they don't always do it right.

IMO if you do get that solar done for you, get two panels at the time and it might not cost that much more than one panel for the installation part of the total cost.

I have the controller you are looking at. It came factory installed with a solar system on my TT. I am far from an expert on solar, but I can give you my experience. I have 2 group 27 batteries and have found that I can make it through a weekend using lights, fridge, 12V TV a little and water pump (quick showers). We can only dry camp in Fla. when it's cool enough--not often, but we had days last weekend. I have a generator, but don't usually use it over a weekend. I never would have purchased solar, but it was on the trailer I wanted so I took it. I am pleased that I have it now.