Reason to install a roof solar panel when you order your FWC or ATC camper

[RC Pilot Jim]

After 3 months of researching this subject , I have re-written this report.

Summary (Deleted everything else as it is repeated in other posts)

Compressor refrigerators run off the battery or 110 volt shore power. Going down the road the truck alternator runs the "Refer" and charges the battery. When stopped to sight-see the "refer" runs off the battery discharging it over time. If the auxiliary battery gets to low(below 12 volts) - the "Sure Power Separator " disconnects the truck alternator to protect the truck battery.

It will not reconnect the alternator to the aux battery until an external solar panel or 110 volt charger - charges the battery back to 12.0 volts.

Solar Panel on your roof runs the "refer" when engine is off. And charges the battery. Alternator and solar "share" running the "refer" and charging the battery going down the road.

The large 65 Liter compressor "Refers" draw 3.5 - 5 amps per hour cycling on 50-70% (depends on how hot outside temp is) of the time. If you have one 80 amp battery you only have about 40 usable amps (roughly 50%).At average of 2.7 amps per hour you have about 15 hours of running time. If your camping without hookups you may not have enough reserve amps to run your lights, refer, water pump and heater overnight.


If you have older batteries you could have a problem if you do a lot of off-grid-camping.

Peace of mind
If your like me -you don't like surprises ...Especially when 50 miles in the back country. Putting a solar panel on the roof could give you peace of mind as it one less thing to worry about.

(2015) Four Wheel now installs one solar connector on the roof as a standard feature. The one on the back wall is still optional. At $50 better to buy it now. If you regularly camp in shaded woods you may need a portable solar panel.

You have a choice to buy the panel from the manufacture at time of purchase or third party company such as www.solarblvd.com or www.amsolar.com or whomever and install it in the future. Most cities have RV company's that install roof mount solar panels.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Jim in my case another good thing about the roof solar is that I have a battery "isolator" and when the truck battery falls below it's 12.8v level the solar starts charging the truck battery. Great during the times the truck/camper sits idle.
I also try to take the camper fridge,I have a 3 way, off 12v about an hour or so before reaching our destination for the night. That way the camper battery gets a full charge.
Go solar. Have solar on my house also. Best thing we did.
Thanks for the info.
Frank

 

[RC Pilot Jim]

I didn't know the "isolater" would reverse charge the truck battery. the "isolater" your referring to is the standard "Sure Power" FWC installs, correct?

Good advice on taking 3-way off line and hour before shut-down to "top off" camper battery.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

I didn't know the "isolater" would reverse charge the truck battery. the "isolater" your referring to is the standard "Sure Power" FWC installs, correct?

Good advice on taking 3-way off line and hour before shut-down to "top off" camper battery.

No what you have is a "separator". A separator is a solenoid type ,an isolator is not.Someone on the site will tell you more about the difference, also not being an electrical engineer.
Back in 2011 there was a recall on the "surepower" separators. When this happened Marty from ATC got in touch with past customers about the need to get a new one or the replacement ATC was using. I went with Marty's advise and replaced mine with the isolator. After a short time I noticed the isolator was "on" while the truck wasn't running. After a call to ATC about this ,is when I learned it works both ways.
Frank

 

[RC Pilot Jim]

Frank, the isolator is "Bi- directional". Could you reply with the brand and model number?

Sure Power offers a "Bi-directional separator. Don,t know if "isolated" and "separator" work the same if they are both "bi-directional".

Anybody out there know? And can explain it to the rest of us?

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Jim this is my isolator.
Frank

 

[RC Pilot Jim]

Frank. picture is fuzzy so guessing at the make. Is the word "AOPEG? or AOPEC?"

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Frank. picture is fuzzy so guessing at the make. Is the word "AOPEG? or AOPEC?"

Sorry for the fuzzy picture.


The name is AOPEC #R12140B

specs

Aopec smart battery isolator

cut in voltage 13.3
cut out voltage 12.8
140A/170A

aopec.com

Hope this helps.
I think if you search there is a pined thread about the "surepower" separators and the recall with #s.
I don't get anywhere searching,but that is just my lack of knowledge on how to search this site. I think the author of the thread is "uglyscout"from back about June/July 2011.
Frank

 

[ntsqd]

Interesting that the aopec unit looks to be exactly the same housing as the BEP Marine "Voltage Sensing Relay" that we use.

Ours is a "single sense" in that it only looks at the starting battery voltage to decide when to turn on and when to turn off.
http://www.delcity.net/store/Voltage-Sensing-Relay-!-Single-Charging-System/p_793852
I plan on replacing it with a 'dual sense" VSR so that our solar will do exactly what frank's does.
http://www.delcity.net/store/Voltage-Sensing-Relay-!-Dual-Charging-System/p_793863

 

[ETAV8R]

Or you could use this and not worry about having roof mounted solar while driving...
http://www.ctek.com/au/en/chargers/D250S%20DUAL

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Interesting that the aopec unit looks to be exactly the same housing as the BEP Marine "Voltage Sensing Relay" that we use.

Ours is a "single sense" in that it only looks at the starting battery voltage to decide when to turn on and when to turn off.
http://www.delcity.net/store/Voltage-Sensing-Relay-!-Single-Charging-System/p_793852
I plan on replacing it with a 'dual sense" VSR so that our solar will do exactly what frank's does.
http://www.delcity.net/store/Voltage-Sensing-Relay-!-Dual-Charging-System/p_793863

That price is $10 more than I got mine for.
Not a bad price.
One other thing about this type of unit it doesn't get hot like the Surepower separators.
Frank

 

[RC Pilot Jim]

Thanks all for your input.

 

[RC Pilot Jim]

I updated the original post after speaking with the Shure Power Tech

How Sure Power tech interpreted brochure statement:

[SIZE=small]1. Modern alternators put out 13.8 - 14.2 volts.[/SIZE]
2. When engine battery reaches 13.2 volts " Battery Separator" joins the two batteries. (start the engine)
3. If drain on the charging system by either the aux or engine battery voltage reduces the system voltage below 12.8 volts.....the Battery Separator disconnects the two batteries from each other thus protecting the engine battery from discharge.
[SIZE=small]4. Disconnected means alternator won't run owners fridge....Fridge then runs off aux battery.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]5. Not a big prob with Engle or Waeco...Could be with 3-way (draws 11.8 amps continuous)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]6. Average owner won't know if disconnect occurs going down the road unless he can monitor aux battery from the cab. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=small]I know there are steps we techies can take to fix our rigs. Hoping this might be helpful information for the average owner who wants to keep the original factory equipment and wants a better understanding of its use and restrictions.[/SIZE]

 

[Oryguntroutbum]

I have the new Zamp system. I have the 100 watt on the roof and am also wired for another panel in the rear. Just FYI, when I first took delivery of my camper I obviously wasn't familiar with the system yet. After my shakedown trip I realized my solar wasn't charging the batteries. After some checking around I discovered that a fuse was blown near the controller panel. Upon inspection I found it to be a 5 amp fuse. The manual calls for a 15 amp. I corresponded with Brenda and she said they are now using 15 amps but did use 5's for a while. Keep this in mind if you have a newer camper and seem to be having problems.

Chris

 

[RC Pilot Jim]

Sorry you had probs with solar charging.
It is a good idea to" learn" your camper so you know how it operates and can test that everything works = no surprises.

 

[RC Pilot Jim]

I have an 80 watt panel that was wide enough (about 45 inches) to span the distance between the yakima tracks on my roof. Rather than hanging the panel from the yakima towers and cross bars, I made some brackets using aluminum angle. I pop-riveted them to the panel frame. Then bolted the brackets to the tracks using the yakima bolts and the metal part that goes into the t track.

Re-wrote the original post summarizing my research.

Added Renology 4 pound flexible 100watt solar panel to my roof.....
So far so good.

 

[RC Pilot Jim]

Some of you have asked me to re-run this Post, especially for those folks ordering a new camper and are on the fence
about whether to order or delay purchasing solar for their new camper.

 

[carld]

Has anyone noticed this. I have the AOPEC #R12140B installed by ATC, with the 3-way Dometic refrigerator. I measured the refrigerator at 12V and it draws about 8 amps. With the truck idling and no solar input there seems to be enough loss to cause the the camper battery/isolator to drop out periodically. I can here it clicking on and off at the period of the isolators 5 sec internal delay time. Not sure that it happens at higher engine RPM. It also goes away when the solar panels kick in an extra 2 or 3 amps.

I think that the problem is loss in the connection from the truck battery to the isolator (connections, fuse, wire). One problem I see is that ATC ran two wires a + and - (ground) from the truck battery to camper 12 V connector. I think shortening the ground wire and connecting it directly to the truck frame close to the 12V connector would almost half the loss and maybe fix the problem.

I'm not having a problem with it after spending over 2 months without solar and now 2 months with solar, but it could be a problem later with older batteries.