Recent content by Geokilroy

You may also want to consider vibration. If you travel dirt roads there is a lot of vibration on the "wash-board" areas. My one panel on my class c vibrated the screws so much they pulled out of the wood trusses. I happened to look up at the edge of my panel and something didn't look quite...

Just a question. Is the neg wire from the panels also connected to ground? Shouldn't it go directly to charge controller input like the pos wire and then controller neg output to ground? Isolating the solar panel with the controller only and not grounding the panels to his rig.

I had a 160w panel professonaly mounted to my class c rig. It was mounted by an RV dealer and used 6 Z brackets. Everything was good for over 2 years. One day I looked up at the edge of my panel and it was not level (front of panel was raised a bit). We inspected it and found some of the lag...

In a smaller (28ft class C 12v system) motorhome noise is a factor to me. I have heard the AIO unit fans are very loud. I do not know anyone personally who has one to ask about them. As it would be mounted inside my rig, this is a big concern for me. Thanks in advance.

Please correct me. Housing "codes" are for "AC" voltages and RV's are "DC"? Thus the requirement for double pole disconnects on the "AC" but single pole disconnects for "DC".

My scooter(s) have different battery box configs. My smaller Scout has a removable battery inside a specific sealed box. It clips into place and I cannot change it out for LiFePo4. My larger Pride Pursuit had 2 12v 55ah SLA batteries (can also use 12v 75ah). I changed out to 2 12v 55ah LiFePo4...

Welcome. Best of luck with your motorhome. Being an RVer myself, solar is great for boondocking. I have just one question. How loud are the AIO units? I have heard they are quite loud. Going to your 50 amp service means you need two of them. Twice the volume. Can someone familiar with them...

A mix of half a box of table salt to 1 gallon of water and one gallon of vinegar in my yard sprayer keeps the weeds from coming back in my desert landscape here in Las Vegas. Couldn't keep them out with commercial products. I spray once every 2 years. Have to clean sprayer well to eliminate...

The refrigerator vent is to vent the heat from the refrigerator. Covering this vent keeps this heat under your panel. Mine puts out a lot of heat. No problem running cables down it, but covering it up no way.

The thing one of my friends found hardest to understand was how little he was putting back into his battery with his 2 x 200 watt panels. He thought they would re-charge his battery in a couple of hours. I had it figured at about 300 watts total input in a good sun hour. Count watts coming in...

Vibration is more concern for me. I travel quite a few dirt roads. If your stove grates inside the rig vibrate when on the washboard road, imagine that vibration on your panel mounts. I got lucky when I accidentally saw that my panel screws pulled out of the truss on the roof. Vibration caused...

Is this for an RV? Unless you are going to mount the bi-facial well off the roof don't you defeat the advantages of the second surface? Just asking.

How big is your rig? Mine is 26ft. I put mine behind the drivers seat. Very convenient spot. It's carpeted. I disconnected the existing house battery from the coach and use it only as a backup for the starter battery. I'm going to move it back to the rear of the coach next to the power panel...

I built a 280ah and put it in a group 27 battery box. I used some of the foam from the shipping package to fill the void areas and keep the cells from moving around. I added external terminals to the box cover to make it "Quick Disconnect" with Anderson connectors. This allows me to disconnect...

Remember: Going from AGM to LiFePo4 gives greater depth of discharge. My 2 100ah SLA batteries gave me only about 100ah useable (50% discharge) where 2 100ah LiFePo4 allow about 160ah useable (80% discharge). 400ah LiFePo4 allows about 320ah useable. Much less battery needed for LiFePo4.