Chad Heiser

I’m traveling home from Oklahoma for the next couple of days, but after that will be available. My contact information is on my website (in my signature).

You are much braver than me. I wouldn’t even consider towing my MX450 with a single rear wheel pick up. Ours weighed 21500 lbs the day I drove it off the dealer lot before I put a single thing in it (I know because I took it straight to a CAT scale from the dealer). When it is loaded, it is quite a bit heavier.

Obviously everyone’s experience will be different, but I was very happy with Progressive when I had my accident leaving the ECR in April 2022. I contacted them about the accident and told them I was taking the rig to Rolling Retreats in Oklahoma (my preferred DRV dealer about 600 miles from where the accident occurred). Progressive transferred my claim to a local office and they sent adjusters out to inspect everything within a few days of my arrival. The truck had minor cosmetic damage and the trailer was a total loss. Progressive worked with me on the claim and I had checks for both claims (separate policies for the HDT and 5er) within a couple weeks. They then wrote me a new policy for the new toy hauler I bought while at Rolling Retreats. I was pleasantly surprised with how easy and quick the process was.

With a Multiplus inverter charger installed in a “whole house” setup it is simple. By whole house set up, I mean the inverter powers all circuits in the RV. Simply set the Multiplus to Charger Only instead of On when you are plugged into shore power (30 amp or 50 amp pedestals) where power assist isn’t needed. Charger Only will pass the shore power through and keep the batteries charged, but it won’t invert if the shore power goes away. This way, you will know the power at the pedestal was lost and you can take the appropriate action. In other words turn the inverter on and manage loads accordingly until shore power is restored.

Check out this topic here on the forum. It covers the issue in great detail and should answer all your questions.

For those of you attending the rally, check your email. I have sent out a couple of rally updates that talk about services available at the rallies and also included a link to pay your rally fees. If you have any questions, or didn't receive the emails, let me know.

Always pull from opposite sides of the battery bank. If you pull from the same battery in the bank, that battery gets used more than the other batteries.

We have Cellular internet in both the house and the RV. I have two old Miblies with the original AT&T connected car plan. One is always on in the house and one is always on in the RV. I don’t always bring the Starlink along in the RV, but if I do the house still has Internet.

I have Starlink (gen 2). It is on a residential plan with mobility (I’m not sure if they still offer this option). I use it at my home and when I travel in the RV. I have a second data cable and power plug that are permanently installed in my RV in my router cabinet. The data cable (the cable that connects the dish to the router) is run from the cabinet out to my RV’s wet bay. I leave the cable coiled up until I deploy the dish. I then pull out enough cable to reach the dish. I run the cable out the bottom of the wet bay where the water hose exits. I usually install the dish on a Flagpole Buddy pole mount on the ladder of my RV. The only pieces that move between the house and RV are the router and the dish. I am considering buying a second router so that I will only have to move the dish itself between the house and RV. The service is great and has worked everywhere I have tried it so far. It is especially nice when we get to an area that doesn’t have cell coverage or has weak cell coverage. As mentioned above, we can use WiFi calling on our cell phones when they are connected to the network. I have cellular networks at both my house and in my RV that are always on and act as backups to the Starlink. I feed the Starlink data into my cellular router’s WAN port and pass it through when it is active so I don’t have to manually switch my devices between the two networks. Everything connects to the cellular based network and then uses the data from either source (Starlink or Cellular) based on settings in my router. I am very pleased with this set up.

I’ll be very curious what your results are.

Sounds like we both need to add some Dynamat or something similar to our cabs to keep our wives happy. 😃

Putting a 30 amp fuse on each series string will not hurt anything (assuming you have at least 10 AWG wire). The fuses are there to protect the wire, not the equipment. You do not want a fuse rated for more ampacity than the wire is rated for because then the wire itself becomes the fuse (the wire will fail before the fuse).

I know what you mean. My wife road in a Volvo recently (similar vintage to the one being discussed here) and was amazed how much quieter the cab was than our 2000 model year T2000. The newer trucks have definitely made improvements over the older trucks in that area (as well as others).

Those in line fuses are best installed with each solar panel at the positive pigtail coming off the solar panel. This way the fuse is protecting the single panel it is connected to rather than a line of solar panels (that they often aren’t sized properly for). This means using one fuse for each panel. A lot of budget kits try to get away with one fuse for the entire array, but then don’t specify how the array is to be wired (to keep the amperage within spec for the fuse) or simply supply the incorrect sized fuse for the application.

For the two panels in series, the voltage doubles and the amperage stays the same. For example two 25 volt panels at 4 amps in series would produce a 50 volt at 4 amp output. When two additional series connected panels are added in parallel, the voltage will remain the same and the amperage will double. With the four panels in this example in series parallel (2S2P), the end voltage will be 50 volts and the end amperage will be 8 amps. I am not a fan of the in line fuses like you found on your set up for the reasons your system is having issues. They tend to blow at very inconvenient times. Most that I have found are typically installed incorrectly as well. They tend to be installed in the wrong place in the string and end up getting more amperage than they are rated for as a result and blow. I had to remove one from someone’s system the other day for this exact reason. It was installed in the wrong place in the array and was getting more amps than it was rated for. I prefer a DC rated breaker down by the solar controller. Not so much for the circuit protection ( for the reasons Lou Schneider explained), but to be used as a shut off when I want to isolate the panels from the system for testing or service or whatever. Plus a circuit breaker is resettable rather than having to replace a fuse.