I am new to RV.net, but participate in several other forums regularly. In another thread here, I was asked about my solar set up on my rig so I said I would start a new thread to give the details. Here goes.
I picked up my new DRV Mobile Suite 40KSSB4 from Rolling Retreats in Oklahoma at the end of February. While I was at Rolling Retreats, I installed a large battery bank and some other miscellaneous pieces. Once I returned home with the trailer, I finished the rest of the install. The following weekend, I did a similar install for a friend of mine.
My system with component links:Batteries - Four
Fullriver DC260 AGM 12 volt batteries for a total of 1040 amp hours of storage capacity
These are big (8D size) and heavy (170 lbs per) batteries. I went with these because I wanted AGM's this time around and I came across a really good deal on them on e-bay. They normally cost anywhere from $650 - $1000 per battery (depending on where you by them) plus shipping (if applicable) and I found them for $259 plus $10 shipping (per battery on e-bay). The price was so good because they were new old stock. They had been sitting in a warehouse for about two years and the company that had them finally decided to unload them. So far I am very happy with them, but I have previous experience with Fullriver and like the brand as a whole. The batteries are individually connected to positive and negative bus bars with equal length custom built 4/0 battery cables I made. This allows for each battery to have equal resistance in the bank. There is a very good explanation of battery wiring
here. I wired my batteries like method three at the link. I used
BEP Pro three stud 650 amp bus bars for the battery connections. I also installed a high capacity battery switch to completely isolate the batteries if necessary. I used a
Blue Sea 3000 HD-Series switch for this. All other coach 12 volt connections are run to
BEP Pro four stud 500 amp bus bars. The two positive bus bars are connected in line with a 4/0 cable. The two negative bus bars are connected through a shunt to allow for proper battery monitoring of all 12 volt loads in the 5er.
Inverters - two of themI ordered my 5er with a
Magnum 3012 hybrid inverter from the factory. It also came installed from the factory with a
Magnum ME-ARC remote control,
ME-BMK battery monitor and
ME-AGS-N auto generator start module. I do not like the way DRV wires the battery monitor when they install it at the factory, so I knew I would be changing this. DRV only has the shunt for the battery monitor monitoring the power the inverter/charger uses, it does not monitor any of the general coach 12 volt usage. This is because DRV splits their batteries into two connected, but separate battery banks when you option the large whole house inverter. I corrected this issue with my battery install. (By the way, I had DRV deliver my 5er with only one 12 volt battery installed rather than the four six volts that would have come with the inverter package because I knew I would be immediately installing my own batteries.)
I also added a
Magnum CSW 1012 inverter. This is a 1000 watt pure sine wave inverter and was installed solely to run the residential refrigerator when traveling or off grid. This way I do not have to run the big inverter and power many other items in the coach when they are not needed. I added a
Magnum CSW-RS remote switch to turn this small inverter on and off when needed. I installed a
Magnum CSW-TS15 transfer switch in the refrigerator line to allow the automatic transfer of power to the applicable power source. As a result the refrigerator can be run from shore power, generator power, large inverter or small inverter with no intervention from me. Both inverters have Class T fuses on fuse blocks between the inverters and the battery bank. The large inverter has a 400 amp fuse and the small inverter has a 150 amp fuse.
Generator - Dealer InstalledI had Rolling Retreats add an
Onan 6500 watt commercial generator. This generator is the same as the regular 6500 watt Onan, but the commercial version of it supplies 2 phase 240 volt power. I did this because I opted for the Splendide 240 volt clothes dryer and I wanted to be able to run it when we didn't have 50 amp shore power.
Solar Controller and Solar PanelsI installed a
Magnum PT-100 solar charge controller. This is a beast of a controller and probably more than needed for an RV install, but it integrates with all the other Magnum products I had and runs from the same ME-ARC remote control, so I decided to go with it. It is an MPPT charge controller and is programmable through the ME-ARC remote. I installed six
Canadian Solar CS6P 235 watt solar panels on the roof. These are large (in physical size) panels, but I chose them because I got them at an excellent price by buying a pallet of 20 panels from a solar liquidator in my area. I then split the pallet with several friends at a price we could not pass up. They are very good panels, but take up a lot of roof space. They are connected to the roof with
RVsolarconnection.com Smart Feet (six per panel). The adjustable smart feet allowed for me to compensate for the curvature of my roof. The panels are run in three strings of two panels each in series/parallel. I did this to allow for smaller wire runs to the solar controller (because the largest wire DRV would install from the roof to my battery compartment was 4 AWG at the factory and I did not want to fish larger wire later). This configuration also was the best set up for the solar controller, based on input from Magnums tech support and the panels I had chosen. I used an
AM Solar combiner box on the roof to combine the panels. I also used AM Solar
strain reliefs in the combiner box and AM Solar
10 gauge wire to connect all the panels. In my battery compartment, the solar positive wire goes through a
Blue Sea 6006 mini switch before going to the PT-100. This way I can isolate the solar panels from the controller if necessary. Between the solar controller and the battery bank, I installed a
Blue Sea 7144 187 - Series Thermal 100 amp DC breaker in the positive line.
This is an overview of my system. The system I installed in my buddies trailer is very similar, but he has a slightly smaller battery bank of 6 volt AGM batteries connected in a typical series/parallel configuration.
Here is a wiring diagram I drew of my system.
Here (in several folders) are pictures of my install of the various components. I used the 5ers original battery compartment as my new electrical connection center. All 12 volt connections are now in this compartment, along with the small inverter. Due to the size of my new batteries, I installed them and the battery bus bars in the basement compartment of the 5er and built boxes to put around them. My charge controller also went in the basement next to the large inverter.
This system is large enough that I can Boondock indefinitely using pretty much as much electrical stuff as I want. My whole house inverter runs everything in my trailer except my air conditioners, the 220 volt dryer and the electric fireplace. I have spent time using the system and intentionally used heavy power consumption items all day over multiple days. This included running the microwave, coffee pot, hair dryer, dishwasher, TV's, Blu Ray/DVD players, surround sound systems, furnace, etc. etc. Each day my battery bank was back to full charge by mid afternoon. with this heavy usage.
I'm sorry for the long post, but I wanted to consolidate all of this information for those of you who have asked about it. I will be giving detailed presentations on Inverter systems and Solar systems at the West Coast HDT Rally in Caldwell Idaho in June and will use this system and others I have installed as examples.
I hope this information is useful to the group. If you have any questions, let me know.
