diy solar

diy solar

Installed into my Westy!

Draconius

New Member
Joined
Mar 23, 2021
Messages
94
Finally got my battery, renogy and fuse panel all setup. HUGE thanks to Gazoo, Just John, smoothjoey and others for shepherding me along and answering my dumb questions! 120ah wedged under my driver's seat. Had one spark when attaching my ground but that's because I forgot to turn off my BMS. Luckily everything was fine.

Quick question. My terminal bolts are too long and hit my battery lid that has a closed cell foam for short protection. I wanna add one more layer of protection. Should i use electrical tape across the cells and bus bars or put a thin plastic cutting board over the whole battery unit?

Also, now that it's in, what flags am I to look out for? Hot bus bars? Hot batteries? Or everything looks good?
 

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Nice install! And indeed, thanks to Gazoo, Just John, smoothjoey and others. Big props for all their input in the other thread.


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Definitely some "nope... never doing it that way again" moments. Haha! I had to build the battery in the tight space, and should have mounted the BMS upside down so I can connect the balance leads easier. Gotta get attention to the lid asap
 
You didn’t mention what year your weary was. Sorta cool post!

I had a 1969 poptop westy with extra batteries, home-brewed starter solenoid isolator, electric fridge and color tv from an inverter. No solar because they only were making gold-plated panels at the time. Pics?
 
You didn’t mention what year your weary was. Sorta cool post!

I had a 1969 poptop westy with extra batteries, home-brewed starter solenoid isolator, electric fridge and color tv from an inverter. No solar because they only were making gold-plated panels at the time. Pics?
1990 full camper! :)

Converted to a truckfridge which caused the "redo battery system".
 
My readings as of Sunday 3pm til Tuesday 10pm with about 1 hour of solar that gave me about 3ah. Running great so far!

Truckfridge 65L at about 36°F
Charging cell phones
Running led lights
 

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Very nice install in a very tiny space. I love these sorts of installs where the system doesn't take over the small van.
 
Quick question. My terminal bolts are too long and hit my battery lid that has a closed cell foam for short protection. I wanna add one more layer of protection. Should i use electrical tape across the cells and bus bars or put a thin plastic cutting board over the whole battery unit?

I would want more than tape in a mobile application. Wouldn’t take much vibration to erode through that.

Whatever you do be absolutely certain that you don’t end up with weight bearing on the terminals. Consider extending the sideboards to support the thickest wood or cutting board you can squeeze in.
 
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