Rear solar SAE port

[renodurango@gmail.com]

I have a 2020 FWC Granby with factory solar setup as follows: 160W Overland solar roof panel, Overland (rebranded Victron) MPPT 100/15 controller, and rear exterior SAE port. I have 2 questions regarding the rear Zamp SAE port. 1) Does this port, wired by FWC at the factory, go directly to the battery or does it go through the controller? I am trying to figure out if a bugout portable panel needs a built in controller or if I can plug in a panel (without it's own controller) directly into this rear port. 2) Regarding the polarity of the Zamp rear SAE port, when I use my voltmeter, I am not getting the battery voltage (ie. 12.7) on this port. I am getting a minus sign when I have the positive probe on the female prong of the SAE, but it does not read the battery voltage as I would expect. Can someone help me understand this? Thank you!

 

[DesertDave]

On my 2014 Grandby the rear port was wired to the factory-installed controller. I traced the wires to confirm that and to determine the polarity of the plug needed on my portable.

 

[Jon R]

Determine polarity of the solar SAE plugs by measurement with a voltmeter as you are doing. Mine were both “backwards” on my 2021, which seems to be intentional as lots of others have said the same thing.

On mine, the rear solar connector is paralleled with the roof solar connector. If you put a voltmeter on it the rear connector reads the roof panel voltage.

 

[pnwlife]

My understanding is that Zamp does the "backwards" thing on purpose:

https://teardrop-trailers.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/128/zamp-solar-connections-explained

 

[Jon R]

My camper just had the FWC factory wiring provisions for solar, with the wire from the paralleled exterior connectors taped and coiled in the battery compartment, so the FWC provisions seem to be done the same way.

 

[Deancamp]

When reading the polarity of the sae plugs, which side is normally positive. Male or female?