I left Massachusetts on Feb 10, 2017....Right after a 12" snow fall and before the next storm was to arrive, dumping another 6-8". Heading to Phoenix for the "Winter Range" SASS Cowboy Action Shoot.
I made it to Knoxville, TN and stopped at a rest area for the night. It was cold and I ran the heater for about 7 hours. Turning on every 20 minutes or so. In the morning I made coffee two time with the 750w Kurig machine, turned a few lights on, watched the news on DirecTV NOW with my Ipad Mini hooked up to my 32" TV and charged devices....all off my two AGM Group 31 batteries. As I left the rest stop my Bogart TriMetric said I was at 12.7V and my battery bank was at 89%.
Driving all day I made it to the border of Texas / Arkansas, Texarkana and pulled into a truck stop for the night. Checking battery levels I was back at 100% and showing 13.7v. Same scenerio as the previous night.....same useage.
Next day I drove to Abilene TX and treated my self to a KOA park. Simply because it was convenient and I needed propane and to dump my tanks. Again, batteries were back to 100% and voltage at 13.8V. I did use shore power as it was available so no battery use this night.
Next day it was a haul with amazing headwinds to Las Cruces, NM. Lots of stops during the day to conduct business using my HotSpot and WeBoost cell booster. A few hours total of this use. Being much further south, and with much better sun, the solar system was dumping 15-18Amps into the battery bank. I've never seen this type of performance up in New England. During the day, I was producing much more energy than I was using with computer and various electronic devices. In Las Cruces I once again parked at an RV park and used their electricity and their WiFi which was fantastic.
From here is was off to Deming NM to stay a few days with my friends at Hidden Valley RV park (BTW, an amazing RV park. Best RV park I've ever stayed in...Period! more on this in a future post) At Hidden Valley I used shore power and had very poor data connection with Verizon, T-Mobile or Sprint. Cell phone on Verizon worked, but being in quite a deep valley, other connections were very spotty. But the RV park WiFi was simply amazing. Absolute state of the art system and all for $200 a day!.
From here is was off to the Ben Avery Shooting Facility, north of Phoenix. I arrived on Saturday afternoon, Feb 18 in a driving rain storm. You want to talk about MUD!!! Rained all day Saturday and Sunday. Using lots of battery power for heat, lights, TV, computer for two days, I finally had to break out the Honda generator and run it for a few hours. On Monday the sun shined brightly and the batteries were 100% charged by noon! And this is from a 70% level! Very impressed with this SW sun!
Today is February 24, My wife flew in on the 21st to join me, and she uses lots of electricity. We are in a dry camping space with no hookups. I have not run the generator since the 19th. Totally running on Solar with furnace every night, coffee machine running off my inverter at leasdt 6-8 times a day, electric tooth brushes being charged, lights, DirecTV NOW, watching DVD movies, WEBoost, fan over the stove, even an electric stem iron off the inverter.....You name it, we ran it.......Five days so far without hook up and no generator use, and the solar system has kept up in perfect form.
To say I'm pleased with how this solar system has worked out would be a huge understatement. Easily the best thing I've done for my camping experience!
System
(3) 140W / 12V AltE Panels flat mounted, no tilt
Bogart 2030 Charge Controller
Bogart TriMetric
Xantrex Inverter
(2) Sam's Club Duracell Group 31 AGM 12V batteries
You can find an article on my entire installation here:
www.rvbprecision.com
I hope this helps others thinking about taking the plunge into RV solar.
Thanks
RoyB
Dartmouth, MA
2021 RAM 2500 4X4 6.4L
2011 Forest River Grey Wolf Cherokee 19RR
520 w solar-200ah Renogy Li-Epever MPPT
