Another Solar Project

I've joined the solar generation. I've been watching all the solar projects and decided to join in- taking advantage of others' reports and experience. Our upcoming trip to Utah and the Grand Canyon was the excuse. We hope to do some extended boondocking.

I bought one of the 160 watt panels on sale at Solar Boulevard and a Morningstar 10 amp PMW controller. I shopped around the internet to assemble the various parts necessary for the installation. The solar will charge a Trojan sealed true deep-cycle battery with 110 amp-hour capacity. We expect to run the fridge and a CPAP machine off this battery. Our setup also includes an auxiliary battery in the truck engine bay which is charged by the truck and is wired to the camper. After the solar addition, I think we will use that battery only for lights, charging electronics and to occasionally run the furnace. It will be a nice backup.

Since the two batteries are different, I didn't try to hook both of them up to the solar panel. It is a long wire run and I don't know if I will get sufficient voltage to the battery. The wire from the roof into the camper is only 14 AWG and about 15 feet long- not the best. At the time I ordered the camper, I didn't know enough to ask for larger wire. Even so, I might try to connect the truck battery in the future with larger wire and an additional controller. For now, I think we have enough capacity as it sits.

When all the pieces finally arrived, I set to work. The day was threatening rain but I decided to blast ahead anyway. I finished just as the rain came. I was rushing to finish so I didn't take pictures along the way- my bad.

I mounted the battery in the only space I had- under the bench by the door. It's a good out-of the-way place but we will have to find a new spot for the potti-bucket which used to store there. I mounted the controller directly above the battery.

Here are a few photos of how it turned out. It was fun to see the controller charging the battery even in a rain storm.

Here's the panel- it's big.


A view underneath- I use a cable gland from LinkSolar to cover the roof penetration.


A view of the controller and the battery box. I shielded it with a piece of plexiglass. I will put a shelf over the battery for shoes and didn't want to have the controller exposed.


I used z-clips to attach the panel to the Yakima tracks.

Very nice. I might have gone a bit larger on the controller to allow for future expansion. I don't think you need the plastic cover, those things are sealed up pretty well.

Welcome to the solar club. So far I have really enjoyed mine and one of the best upgrades I've done. Your install came out looking very clean. Mine was a 20 year old grandby so mine didn't have anything prewired. Look forward to hearing your reports on how it works when you are out camping


1990 Ford F-250
1997 fwc grandby

Thanks for the comments. I'll post up how it works after our trip to Utah.

craig333- I considered going larger and also going MPPT. I may be sorry but I decided I didn't need more. We really don't use a lot of electricity. I'm kind of out of roof real estate and don't think I'd go the portable route. I may need to add another controller if I want to charge the battery in the engine bay so I may have another shot at it. The only reason I wanted to protect the controller was the temperature sensor- it looked vulnerable to me. Probably overkill as usual.

takeiteasy - can you tell me about the z clips and hardware to attach to the Yakima tracks. Any links to the parts are appreciated!

DonC said:

takeiteasy - can you tell me about the z clips and hardware to attach to the Yakima tracks. Any links to the parts are appreciated!

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I bought the z clips from Windy Nation on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Solar-Panel-Mount-Mounting-Bracket/dp/B00NEZ8CJO/ref=lp_3050520011_1_15?srs=3050520011&ie=UTF8&qid=1476935162&sr=8-15

I had to drill holes for the clip bolts in the panel at the right spacing for the Yakima tracks.

I used the Yakima mounting nuts that slide in the tracks. I had some extra laying around but you can buy them online if you need them. I bought some stainless hex head screws and lock washers at the local hardware. I used nylon bushings to give some extra height for the screws.

takesiteasy said:

I bought the z clips from Windy Nation on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Solar-Panel-Mount-Mounting-Bracket/dp/B00NEZ8CJO/ref=lp_3050520011_1_15?srs=3050520011&ie=UTF8&qid=1476935162&sr=8-15

I had to drill holes for the clip bolts in the panel at the right spacing for the Yakima tracks.

I used the Yakima mounting nuts that slide in the tracks. I had some extra laying around but you can buy them online if you need them. I bought some stainless hex head screws and lock washers at the local hardware. I used nylon bushings to give some extra height for the screws.

Click to expand...

takesiteasy,
came across the solar blvd 160 watt for $115, and then found your thread, thank you for the inspiration! this is exactly what we would like to do. How has it been working the past couple of months?

Two questions:

1: We have the Yakima tracks on our 2010 Eagle, just not very familiar with their function and hardware. Would you please send a link for the Yakima mounting nuts that slide into the track?

2: We are thinking about installing 2 of these panels, at 30 lbs each, would that be too much weight on the roof? We do have lift assist struts over the cab side that would help with lifting. any other reason not to do this?

thanks for your help!

TwoPlusLu said:

takesiteasy,
came across the solar blvd 160 watt for $115, and then found your thread, thank you for the inspiration! this is exactly what we would like to do. How has it been working the past couple of months?

Two questions:

1: We have the Yakima tracks on our 2010 Eagle, just not very familiar with their function and hardware. Would you please send a link for the Yakima mounting nuts that slide into the track?

2: We are thinking about installing 2 of these panels, at 30 lbs each, would that be too much weight on the roof? We do have lift assist struts over the cab side that would help with lifting. any other reason not to do this?

thanks for your help!

Click to expand...

Here's a link to the Yakima anchor plate "A": https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/Yakima/Y8890028.html
You should be able to get them at any place that sells Yakima stuff. You should first check to see if there are already some loaded in your tracks.

As to mounting 2 panels on the roof- I'm sure others have done it. You might have to get stronger struts to assist with the lift. You should verify that you have room to clear any roof vents that you have. 320 watts is a lot of power- have you done an analysis of your power needs to be sure you need that much? The panels, batteries and controller ideally are designed as an integrated system- each matched to the others. There are a lot of threads about solar on WTW to help you out. Maybe you are way ahead of me. Good luck and happy camping.

TwoPlus, if you don't have the anchor plates in your tracks, another option is the Thule TK 1 plate. The pro for Thule is you don't have to break the seal and remove the end caps to install them.

With two panels and 40# struts my roof takes a bit of effort at the start to raise. Once it begins to go up the rest is pretty easy.

takesiteasy said:

Here's a link to the Yakima anchor plate "A": https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/Yakima/Y8890028.html
You should be able to get them at any place that sells Yakima stuff. You should first check to see if there are already some loaded in your tracks.

As to mounting 2 panels on the roof- I'm sure others have done it. You might have to get stronger struts to assist with the lift. You should verify that you have room to clear any roof vents that you have. 320 watts is a lot of power- have you done an analysis of your power needs to be sure you need that much? The panels, batteries and controller ideally are designed as an integrated system- each matched to the others. There are a lot of threads about solar on WTW to help you out. Maybe you are way ahead of me. Good luck and happy camping.

Click to expand...

thanks very much for the link, it makes more sense now seeing the part.

we are going to be living in our four wheel camper full time over the next year and travelling the US and Canada. I agree 320 watts is a lot of power. We have had to slowly build the set up over the past months, so many components are already in place. Solar is the last step for us power wise. We have a 200amp battery by vmaxtanks and pwm controller by windy nation. I designed in my head to only use about half the battery capacity per day, I estimated at about 100 amps per day usage.

At $230 for 320 watts, although a lot of power, wanted to have more than we need than not enough, especially in the winter months and shady conditions. Want to be good to go while we are on the road without power worries.

thanks again!

Wandering Sagebrush said:

TwoPlus, if you don't have the anchor plates in your tracks, another option is the Thule TK 1 plate. The pro for Thule is you don't have to break the seal and remove the end caps to install them.

Click to expand...

thanks for the tip!

craig333 said:

With two panels and 40# struts my roof takes a bit of effort at the start to raise. Once it begins to go up the rest is pretty easy.

Click to expand...

good to know, thank you

Wandering Sagebrush said:

TwoPlus, if you don't have the anchor plates in your tracks, another option is the Thule TK 1 plate. The pro for Thule is you don't have to break the seal and remove the end caps to install them.

Click to expand...

wandering sagebrush,
we have the Yakima tracks on our eagle fwc. thinking we will take your suggestion for using the thule tk1 plate so that we do not have to break the end caps off the tracks to install. would you be able to provide a link to the necessary part?

Furthermore, we are mounting two 100 watt solar panels to these tracks. The tracks are about 48 inches apart. The solar panels are 47 inches long. We are purchasing z brackets (4 in total for each panel, is that enough?), which should provide the extra length needed to mount directly to the Yakima tracks. Any advice that you may have for the correct parts of screws for the install would be much appreciated.

Here are the links to the items we are ordering.

z brackets
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0183DUYE2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2D22KZJD14Y8Y

panels
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018BN5P66/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2D22KZJD14Y8Y

thanks so much for your help!

Two Plus

It has dawned on me that you will obtain 200 watts with virtually the same weight as the 160 watt unit sold by Solar Blvd.

Have you hooked up the panels and gotten any idea how well they will charge your battery ?

I am tempted by them as on of them could be used as a portable and taken or tilted to better face the sun.

Did your purchase of the panels include a wire harness to connect them?

What controller did you choose?

David Graves

Here's the link you requested...

https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/Thule/853-2106.html

The screws are lower in the reference.

Wandering Sagebrush said:

Here's the link you requested...

https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/Thule/853-2106.html

The screws are lower in the reference.

Click to expand...

Thank you very much for sending the link!

DavidGraves said:

Two Plus

It has dawned on me that you will obtain 200 watts with virtually the same weight as the 160 watt unit sold by Solar Blvd.

Have you hooked up the panels and gotten any idea how well they will charge your battery ?

I am tempted by them as on of them could be used as a portable and taken or tilted to better face the sun.

Did your purchase of the panels include a wire harness to connect them?

What controller did you choose?

David Graves

Click to expand...

David,

Yeah, the solar blvd 160s were attractive, but after doing some measurements on our eagle roof, it seems the space towards the front of the truck will accommodate 2 100 watt panels just about perfectly, and the weight @ ~33 lbs is not bad.

We do not have everything set up yet, but the items are in the amazon cart and about to hit click. So, all goes well, will have the panels installed later this week. We are nearby the FWC factory now (and decided to let them drill a hole in the roof for a relatively small fee and install sae plug), and have an appointment for them to install the plug end of next week (first couple days of February). From there we will go out for at least a week trial run with the rig in full boondock mode. Once back, I will fill you in on how we did will a full detailed description of the system, our electric usage, etc. I am pretty positive this system will work even in the winter time for our needs, but if it does not, will probably add some auxiliary deployable watts.

So, if you can wait that long to pull the trigger on your panel purchases, we can update you on how everything worked out

In the meantime, here is the PWM solar charge controller we purchased some time ago. Had to do all these purchases in steps. Decided against a MPPT controller due to cost and a lower wattage system. In retrospect, could have gone with the 20A version, but I wanted the ability to expand later with future projects/rigs.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JMLPP12/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Purchasing this to connect the panels in parallel.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FWO3RAE/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3H7GPL9U124TQ

Then this adapter for MC4 connection to SAE (plug to be installed)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N1TALFY/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A05654602L3XUQ70M87BV

And plus or minus this extension (if needed) to get to the plug near our aft fantastic fan (we only have 1 fan) which is near where the plug will be installed by FWC.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IFWKBIG/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Also, if anyone is aware of a good method to prep and tape down the solar wiring to the aluminum roof of the FWC, any advice is appreciated. thanks!

TwoPlusLu said:

Also, if anyone is aware of a good method to prep and tape down the solar wiring to the aluminum roof of the FWC, any advice is appreciated. thanks!

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Check the AM solar site for some of tutorials they offer on YouTube. It seems like they had something on how to do that.