Just bought our first new trailer!

Slimline wrote:
The trailer comes with a solar panel prep, what are the benefits of the portable solar vs hard mounting it on the roof? Just angling it for best sun coverage? I kind of like the idea of set it and forget it. I am eyeing up a 100watt panel. This should be sufficient to keep the batteries charged when not in use, and offset a bit of power drain when in use right?

A "bit" of power drain is about right for a 100 watt panel ... just not worth it IMO unless you permanently mount the panel on the roof and rely on it primarily for the purpose of maintaining a charge on the battery when you're not camping. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me though because dry camping here in Ontario suggests you'll be making use of the Ontario provincial park system where well shaded campsites are more often the norm than not, meaning your panel won't be putting out much anyway. You can solve that by instead setting up a portable panel and following the sun throughout the day but of course that means attending to it, not to mention the potential for theft when you're not on-site. It also won't be of much use while the trailer is in storage as you likely won't want to leave the panel out unattended. Either choice is way too much aggravation for me ... since you already have a genset I'd instead put the $$$ into more battery reserve and it use it as needed to recharge those batteries.