If you have solar. I could use some help.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by RogerDat

I really like you wall bungee set up for storing your solar panel and thought the others here might find it of use to consider as a storage option.About half way down first page Carol posted a picture of a her way to store a solar panel. Going to measure trailer wall now.

http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/f...ler-52496.html

thanks. I saved the styrofoam that the solar panel came in and slipped covered them in nylon and sewed some large velcro straps to the outside - one side for closing and one side acts as a hinge. Sewed a pocket onto the outside for holding the PCV holder for the panel. Simple but works at keeping the panel safe while traveling.

[Thomas G.]

Originally Posted by Carol H

thanks. I saved the styrofoam that the solar panel came in and slipped covered them in nylon and sewed some large velcro straps to the outside - one side for closing and one side acts as a hinge. Sewed a pocket onto the outside for holding the PCV holder for the panel. Simple but works at keeping the panel safe while traveling.

Very clever reuse of materials!

[Kevin K]

Carol H
Have any photos?

[Carol H]

Kevin here you go.

Photo of the case & stand - just two pieces of foam the panel came in covered in nylon and large Velcro tabs on both sides to keep it closed & a pouch on the outside to hold the wire and the portable stand made of PVC. I only glued certain parts of the stand together as it was made to be able to put the panel sitting straight up or horizontally - needed to keep a few pieces of PVC removable in order to do that - also wanted to be able to adjust the angle it sits at. All the PVC pieces fit into the pouch at the front of the case when not in use.

I also put 4 bungee cords with clips through holes on the 4 sides of the panel frame that stay on it and I use those to secure the panel to the frame.

Also photo of the hardware used & photo of the panel in its home in the trailer when traveling - two bungee cords with a clip on one end. I put small ss acorn nuts on the end of the screw were it went through the wall into the bathroom. The front bunks can be put up & used with the panel sitting in its storage spot.

[Kevin K]

Nice work, I will have to keep this in mind.

[Carol H]

Kevin you can make your solar install easy or as complicated as you want it to be. I went with simple. I installed my solar controller inside a water tight box attached to the battery box & it's always connected to the battery - just have to plug the panel into the controller. Use a simple cheap $15 12V plug in for my battery monitor - tells me everything I need to know which is: do I need to plug the solar in and when it is plugged in is it replenishing the battery. :-)

[RogerDat]

Originally Posted by Carol H

Kevin you can make your solar install easy or as complicated as you want it to be. I went with simple. I installed my solar controller inside a water tight box attached to the battery box & it's always connected to the battery - just have to plug the panel into the controller. Use a simple cheap $15 12V plug in for my battery monitor - tells me everything I need to know which is: do I need to plug the solar in and when it is plugged in is it replenishing the battery. :-)

KISS at work. Keep It Simple Silly! It works better that way.

What do you use for wire between panel and controller? And what type of connectors MC4's or....

[Kevin K]

What type of plug from solar to controller?

[Carol H]

Kevin my set up is that simple I have no idea. The panel came with the wire attached to it & a number of connections for the plug in depending on the controller you purchased separate needed. I bought a Sunforce controller & it took the plug that was on the panel already. Type of plug good question will have to Google to see the different plugs to figure it out. As I said its simple never had to know any details only that it works :-)

[Kevin K]

Think of using a 10-2 wire extension cord. Cut in half with 2 of the bare wires going to solar panel and the other 2 bare wires hooked to controller.

[GeorgeR]

100W for $149
100 Watt 12 Volt Panels Are Back!

George.

[RogerDat]

Those panels have a 3' lead ending in an MC4 connector. You probably void the panel warranty if you cut the connectors off it comes with.

Big box store sells 10-2 underground cable at approx 90 cents/ foot. So $25 for 25ft long lead. Extension cord in 10 ga I expect will have an extra ground wire. underground wire is pretty nice stuff, tough but flexible. My favorite extension cord is 10-3 underground cable left over from a pool wiring job.

You might look at these connectors as part of your solution.
http://www.amazon.com/GAUGE-PIN-QUICK-DISCONNECT-HARNESS/dp/B0057ZQJ12/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

In the reviews second or third down solar user.

You might want to have these to connect your wires to theirs. Protect that warranty.
http://www.amazon.com/HQRP-Connector-female-Photovoltaic-Coaster/dp/B004N70DKI

Panel MC4 -> MC4 on pigtail of quick connect -> other side of quick connect on long wire -> other end of long wire bare wire to controller.

Your essentially making an adapter that goes MC4 to quick connect. For $3 more you could put a quick connect on the other end of long extension wire with the other side connected to controller.

Quick disconnect panel, quick disconnect controller and coil the wire in between for storage.

Some of the controllers wire is inserted into hole and a flat bottom screw is tightened down on it, like a circut breaker in the home wiring. Or they have regular screws that you can wrap wire around and tighten screw. (you should put a terminal lug on wire to put the screw through but....)

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Kevin K

What type of plug from solar to controller?

Just took a look and its an MC4 - The wires from the MC4 connection go into holes at the bottom of the controller are screw mounted to the controller.

[Kevin K]

I plan on mounting my solar panel, inside, at a slant, in the back window, collecting the sun's rays. When I pull into a camping spot, I will set it up out side if the sun is shining.

[Thomas G.]

Originally Posted by Kevin K

I plan on mounting my solar panel, inside, at a slant, in the back window, collecting the sun's rays. When I pull into a camping spot, I will set it up out side if the sun is shining.

Clever idea. Someone else mentioned using one (with a cover) as a gravel guard / awning.

[cpaharley2008]

Originally Posted by Kevin K

I plan on mounting my solar panel, inside, at a slant, in the back window, collecting the sun's rays. When I pull into a camping spot, I will set it up out side if the sun is shining.

why not on front gravel guard??

[Kevin K]

Don't want it outside when I travel. Front,top or back of camper.

[Paul Chet]

Sorry for getting back so late Kevin. I forgot you need a week to return to life after vacation! So I got my temp rig all secured for our week in Yosemite and it worked wonderfully. The monocrystalline 50w panel I got on eBay for about $115 had lots of hot sun to soak up. We don't have a lot of big appliances or use much more than our lights but I have yet to replace the original incandescents in the Play Pac ... and there are 7 of them. I remember how quickly they ran down our battery last time and my UHAUL at the time only had the 5w panel which really couldn't keep up with the incandescent lights.

Anyway, the rig I have worked perfectly and was at max. charge even after one night I experimented and turned on all of the lights for a few hours. Neighbors must have thought we were nuts with all the lights on and us sitting out by the fire! The battery held perfectly and never got below 13v, so I will now transition over to a more permanent set up using what I have.

When they wired my truck with a new 7pin connector, they also did my trailer and the mechanic has is it so the truck battery can power everything in the egg. So all I had to do to keep things simple for my fast approaching vacation, was buy the same 7pin reciever that I got for the truck ($15), about 20' of 10-2 landscaping wire (stuff is great - really nice thick insulation and the 10 gauge wire matches the 3' lead that comes out of the solar panel), my deep cycle costco battery, and my Morningstar 10amp charge controller. The set up on my first play pac is different but to get through the trip this is what i did:

I wired the loose panel to the controller which I mounted inside the battery box, then to the battery. Then I used a couple of feet of the wire to hook up the 7pin receiver to the battery as well. I held it in place on top of the battery box with a bungee cord that I use to keep the battery cover on tight. I put the battery on the tongue/ battery tray, when we parked, and would simply unplug the male/trailer connector from the truck receiver and into the 'battery receiver.' I would then put the panel on the roof - and there we were. It was a little bit of work with everything loose, but I wanted proof of concept first. What I learned was my panel fits exactly under the truck bed tool box (I kept the cardboard box it shipped in for our trip) which kept it safe in transit. While some leave everything out at campgrounds, I still have a hard time leaving everything out. With all of the slack wire, I could leave the panel on the roof, (which had zero profile when i put it on a towel and was almost invisible), run the wire over the roof to the door and along the black door trim (blended in quite well) and put the battery just inside the door (thanks to roof sag there is a big enough gap for the wire and I could still lock the door). Kinda goofy but it got us through. Think I will mount the battery to the tongue permanently, add some pole mounts to the tongue as well and a telescoping pole to mount the panel to. I also thought the discussion about mounting the panel to the roof using 3m VHB heavy bonding tape was interesting. No holes to drill (except the one for the wire) and the person who already did it mentioned his AC unit would fall off his roof before his panel did.

Anyway, that's my report on the 50w panel. For a week, using the old incandescents it was more than enough. At some point I would imagine charging laptops and even adding a 12v crock pot or toaster oven to really put it to work. While the 50w mono panels in that price range are a lot alike, if you want a link to the one I got please do tell and let us know what you end up going with and how you decide to do it!

Sorry I didn't take any photos of my set up - I was too distracted by Half Dome and Mono Lake! I think I might have a bad photo from my phone when I did a test in my driveway before I bought the 12v wiring etc. if I can dig that up i'll post it.

[Paul Chet]

A couple of poorly taken pix from my phone ... the panel itself right out of the box and the subsequent test set up.

Second photo shows panel in background (with plenty of 10-2 landscaping wire. I think it was around $.70/ft at Home Depot - and the guy tossed in at least 3-4' extra!) wired to charge controller on ground next to battery. Charge controller runs to battery as does 7-pin receiver (seen for now sitting on top of tongue). When I plugged in the trailer/male 7-pin connector to the receiver, it actually worked and began charging right away and the 12v service inside the trailer went right to work lighting up my lights.

Side note ... I bought this Costco battery a year and a half ago and never used it a single time. When i went to charge it the day before doing this - it was still at 100% ... quite a pleasant surprise.