Two 100watt panels on truck topper

[Kcdaniels]

I have ground deployed panels for my RV to supplement what is on the roof of the RV. They work well.

Have you been running the RV solar long enough to tell that RV solar isn't enough?

Yes this summer we were on the road for 3 months 8300 miles and 20 states in all kinds of weather... Work good but I want more power ? I picked up another 395 watt panel that I will install before our next trip....another upgrade will be Lithium batteries... As of now the rv has two 6 volt lead acid....

 

[Kcdaniels]

I ordered the Victron 100/20 SCC and the 3 way splitter.... Along with another breaker box and breaker ....
So the plan is to add the Victron scc 100/20 for plugging in to supplement the RV batteries.... The Rover 20 amp scc charges my truck "house" battery.... And on the far right (in the picture) is the solar wires for the solar generator that has its own built in scc...I have a 1000 watt inverter that I have hard wired to run to engine bay....then plugged a trickle charger to my truck starting batteries....


Well that's the plan we will see how it works when I get it all done..??

 

[Kcdaniels]

I finally installed the 100/20 controller and the solar line plug..... It works !!!?
Plugged in my trucks 200w panels and the 395w on the RV and the controllers were both adding a charge to batteries ?

Not very clear instructions in the Victron manual...... Do I need to do anything else as far as "linking" the two controllers ?

Next project will be to install another 395w panel on the RV for a total of 790w plus 200w from truck mounted panels....
.

 

[chrisski]

The way you have it wired is exactly how I have my multiple SCCs wired And I have used mine for 18 months. Circuit breaker before the SCC for each different array. The circuit breaker may not be necessary but certainly makes trouble shooting easy and also before the battery is shut off, the Solar power can be removed just like the SCC instructions say.

We both could use some over current protection between the SCC and the busbar.

Other than that, works fine. I had two different sized Victron Devices, so I had to manually enter the battery settings in SCC #2. I could not load a saved profile from a different type SCC. I have my SCCs in Victron’s virtual network. I don’t really know what that does, there’s not a lot of documentation, but if I change settings in one, I will get a message from the other about mismatched settings. Also, when I still had flooded lead acid, when I put one SCC to equalize, the other three entered equalize.

EDIT: Mentioning this because I saw your sticker. For the couple of times I’ve hooked to shore power, I used the solar power for all the DC needs. I never turned the converter on. I have my inverter AC power hardwired from the inverter. If I hook to shore power, I continue to charge with the solar panels and use DC from there.

 

[Kcdaniels]

The way you have it wired is exactly how I have my multiple SCCs wired And I have used mine for 18 months. Circuit breaker before the SCC for each different array. The circuit breaker may not be necessary but certainly makes trouble shooting easy and also before the battery is shut off, the Solar power can be removed just like the SCC instructions say.

We both could use some over current protection between the SCC and the busbar.

Other than that, works fine. I had two different sized Victron Devices, so I had to manually enter the battery settings in SCC #2. I could not load a saved profile from a different type SCC. I have my SCCs in Victron’s virtual network. I don’t really know what that does, there’s not a lot of documentation, but if I change settings in one, I will get a message from the other about mismatched settings. Also, when I still had flooded lead acid, when I put one SCC to equalize, the other three entered equalize.

EDIT: Mentioning this because I saw your sticker. For the couple of times I’ve hooked to shore power, I used the solar power for all the DC needs. I never turned the converter on. I have my inverter AC power hardwired from the inverter. If I hook to shore power, I continue to charge with the solar panels and use DC from there.

Thanks for the feedback.... I feel better now..? Yes I would like better documentation for the Victrons....so I need to make sure the charging profile is the same on both controllers ?

 

[HRTKD]

Not very clear instructions in the Victron manual...... Do I need to do anything else as far as "linking" the two controllers ?

A Victron BMV-712 or maybe the Victron SmartShunt is needed to network the MPPT. That's what is doing the networking in my system.

 

[chrisski]

A Victron BMV-712 or maybe the Victron SmartShunt is needed to network the MPPT. That's what is doing the networking in my system.

I did not know that. I did have the Victron shunt and Victron SCC whem I created my network.