GoPower "Solar Ready" Travel Trailer Owner With a Question

[Mike7840]

Hello -

I've posted this same message to the Jayco Owners forums group and haven't gotten any responses. Thought maybe I'd try here.

I have a 2019 Jayco JayFeather 27RL TT that is “Solar Ready”. It is wired with a GoPower “Solar on the Side” charge port mounted on the A-Frame of the trailer. I've learned that this setup is intended to be used with a portable or suitcase type of solar panel/controller. As delivered from the dealer, there is a RED wire coming from the back side of this SAE plug that appears to be included in a bundle of wires that goes into a junction box that is attached to the trailer’s frame. The BLACK wire from the back of the SAE plug is hanging loose. I need to know where to attach this BLACK wire to make this plug setup functional. Can I or should I go directly to the NEGATIVE terminal on the battery? Or should I try to find an appropriate place to attach it in the junction box? Jayco won’t advise but they did provide a schematic. The dealer won’t advise over the phone and I really don’t want to drag the trailer on a 100 mile round trip for a 5 minute fix. Attached is the schematic I got from Jayco. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Mike

 

[HRTKD]

From the schematic, it looks like that black wire on the top of the diagram should go to the negative terminal of the battery. It could also go to a negative busbar just as easily.

I have an aftermarket GoPower setup and it does connect directly to the battery. But that may have simply been the way the installer chose to do it.

 

[Mike7840]

From the schematic, it looks like that black wire on the top of the diagram should go to the negative terminal of the battery. It could also go to a negative busbar just as easily.

I have an aftermarket GoPower setup and it does connect directly to the battery. But that may have simply been the way the installer chose to do it.

Thanks! As soon as I get a chance to connect it up, I'll let you know how it turns out. Mike

 

[Leo3]

As soon as I get a chance to connect it up, I'll let you know how it turns out.

Did you ever do this?

 

[Mike7840]

I did get it taken care of after a fashion.... When the trailer was built at the Jayco factory, they apparently forgot to attach the wire to a negative side of the battery block. Like HRTKD, I connected this lead directly to the negative terminal on the battery since I really could not determine where the battery block is.

On another but related note, the Jayco factory must have been having a bad day in the "Solar Ready" department when my TT was built. When I tried to install a Renogy Rover Li 30 Amp MPPT Solar Charge Controller in the GoPower "Solar Ready" loop - the on roof connector plug down to the battery bank, I found a red and a white wire from the roof to fasten to the controller but only a single red wire that seemed to go to the battery bank. Conventional wisdom suggested that the white wire to the battery bank was missing. I took the wall apart and search for it with no success. I considered that that perhaps there was a vehicle ground. Again, no luck. Checking with GoPower Tech Support, they confirmed that the kit they sell to the RV manufacturers includes two wires from the roof to the controller mount and two wires from the controller mount to the battery box. GoPower also told me that in typical mobile solar installations a vehicle ground is not used. They also said that they did not have any control over how and where the manufacturer installed their "solar ready" kit.

I put the wall back together and started a long and frustrating dialogue with Jayco Tech support and the dealer since the TT was still under warranty. Long, long story short, Jayco finally authorized the dealer to open up the wall and search for the missing wire. Low and behold, there was no wire. The dealer installed the missing wire, tested all the connections and all was good. All covered under warranty. I'm 99% sure that this problem has been solved but won't know for sure until I connect the solar panel on the roof. Tough to do in the Minnesota winter.

Hope this helps.

 

[Leo3]

I did get it taken care of after a fashion.... When the trailer was built at the Jayco factory, they apparently forgot to attach the wire to a negative side of the battery block. Like HRTKD, I connected this lead directly to the negative terminal on the battery since I really could not determine where the battery block is.

On another but related note, the Jayco factory must have been having a bad day in the "Solar Ready" department when my TT was built. When I tried to install a Renogy Rover Li 30 Amp MPPT Solar Charge Controller in the GoPower "Solar Ready" loop - the on roof connector plug down to the battery bank, I found a red and a white wire from the roof to fasten to the controller but only a single red wire that seemed to go to the battery bank. Conventional wisdom suggested that the white wire to the battery bank was missing. I took the wall apart and search for it with no success. I considered that that perhaps there was a vehicle ground. Again, no luck. Checking with GoPower Tech Support, they confirmed that the kit they sell to the RV manufacturers includes two wires from the roof to the controller mount and two wires from the controller mount to the battery box. GoPower also told me that in typical mobile solar installations a vehicle ground is not used. They also said that they did not have any control over how and where the manufacturer installed their "solar ready" kit.

I put the wall back together and started a long and frustrating dialogue with Jayco Tech support and the dealer since the TT was still under warranty. Long, long story short, Jayco finally authorized the dealer to open up the wall and search for the missing wire. Low and behold, there was no wire. The dealer installed the missing wire, tested all the connections and all was good. All covered under warranty. I'm 99% sure that this problem has been solved but won't know for sure until I connect the solar panel on the roof. Tough to do in the Minnesota winter.

Hope this helps.

Wow that’s crazy but I definitely believe that story. These TT mfg are careless. Nice that the dealer took care of it because even for warranty stuff they always seem to busy to really want to help.

Did they end up running the positive solar charge controller wire directly to battery positive or to a bus bar? My negative is connected to battery but pos is on bus bar (I assume so anyway because I can’t find it but it’s working).

if I can figure out how to do it I’d like to do a continuity test or something on every wire and label it. If I have a long piece of wire and connect one end and then go to the other end and start trying to compete the circuit that might work?

 

[HRTKD]

I did get it taken care of after a fashion.... When the trailer was built at the Jayco factory, they apparently forgot to attach the wire to a negative side of the battery block. Like HRTKD, I connected this lead directly to the negative terminal on the battery since I really could not determine where the battery block is.

On another but related note, the Jayco factory must have been having a bad day in the "Solar Ready" department when my TT was built. When I tried to install a Renogy Rover Li 30 Amp MPPT Solar Charge Controller in the GoPower "Solar Ready" loop - the on roof connector plug down to the battery bank, I found a red and a white wire from the roof to fasten to the controller but only a single red wire that seemed to go to the battery bank. Conventional wisdom suggested that the white wire to the battery bank was missing. I took the wall apart and search for it with no success. I considered that that perhaps there was a vehicle ground. Again, no luck. Checking with GoPower Tech Support, they confirmed that the kit they sell to the RV manufacturers includes two wires from the roof to the controller mount and two wires from the controller mount to the battery box. GoPower also told me that in typical mobile solar installations a vehicle ground is not used. They also said that they did not have any control over how and where the manufacturer installed their "solar ready" kit.

I put the wall back together and started a long and frustrating dialogue with Jayco Tech support and the dealer since the TT was still under warranty. Long, long story short, Jayco finally authorized the dealer to open up the wall and search for the missing wire. Low and behold, there was no wire. The dealer installed the missing wire, tested all the connections and all was good. All covered under warranty. I'm 99% sure that this problem has been solved but won't know for sure until I connect the solar panel on the roof. Tough to do in the Minnesota winter.

Hope this helps.

Great to hear that it worked out and the dealer fixed the problem. Good for you for keeping on this and doing your due diligence.

 

[grizzzman]

Mine has a solar ready plug on the side of the trailer. It is wired backwords from SAE spec. Always test ?

 

[HRTKD]

Mine has a solar ready plug on the side of the trailer. It is wired backwords from SAE spec. Always test ?

From what I've read, that's not uncommon.