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solar on 2009 thor four-winds chateau


gypsydan

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I have a 2009 Thor Four-Winds Chateau and am wanting to put solar on it. I need to know if anyone has done this install on a Four-Winds in this age range:

  1. How you connected the new inverter/charger to the existing converter to take advantage of the internal 117v plugs.
  2. Where did you put the inverter/charger and other instruments?
  3. If extra batteries were instlled, where?

Thanks for any input.

Dan

 

2009 Four Winds Chateau - 25' class C          2002 Chevy Tracker

1458033694__statesVisitedas-ofMarch-2012.jpg.b173645da4a43150ba2820dc7a6bdfc5.jpg

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi I cant help with your specific project,but when I did my solar install I found a web site called handy bobs blog to be very informative. I hope thats the name if you dont have any luck i will try to find it in my papers.

Things to keep in mind. Keep your charge controller as close to the batterys as posable, like a couple of feet, thats where you lose most of your power. make your battery cables the same length, us large cables #6 is not a large cable #10 is small. Welding cable is your freind. 

Back woods solar is a good site.

O ya Bob is gruf but he knows his stuff.

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It is highly unlikely that you will find someone who has added solar panels, a solar controller, extra batteries and an inverter in your exact model of RV.

Most of us who have self installed these items did so by doing a lot of reading and figuring out how to do the install.

In addition to Handy Bob's website given above here are some more:

The 12volt Side of Life (Part 1) Batteries

The 12volt Side of Life Part Solar & Inverters

Jack Mayer RV Electrical

Jack Mayer Battery & Charging

Jack Mayer-Solar Controller Disconnect

RV Dreams Electrical Information site

RV Dreams Electrical System

Excellent Review of Solar & Charging RV-Dreams

Al & Sharon
2006 Winnebago Journey 36G 
2020 Chevy Colorado Toad
San Antonio, TX

http://downtheroadaroundthebend.blogspot.com/

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On 3/20/2018 at 10:03 AM, gypsydan said:

I have a 2009 Thor Four-Winds Chateau and am wanting to put solar on it. I need to know if anyone has done this install on a Four-Winds in this age range:

  1. How you connected the new inverter/charger to the existing converter to take advantage of the internal 117v plugs.
  2. Where did you put the inverter/charger and other instruments?
  3. If extra batteries were instlled, where?

Thanks for any input.

Dan

 

For the 120V AC plugs you probably want to disconnect the CB's from the wires from shore power and wire the inverter to the CB's input. 

If the inverter 120V output is wired to the converter you get into a loop.  The inverter takes power from the battery, inverts it to 120V AC which powers the converter, which charges the battery, which goes to the inverter.  After a while this loop completely discharges your batteries.

Al & Sharon
2006 Winnebago Journey 36G 
2020 Chevy Colorado Toad
San Antonio, TX

http://downtheroadaroundthebend.blogspot.com/

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Thanks for the input. I've been able to look at all the links shown, and found all of them to be exceptional. 

I was hoping someone out there might have wired a Four Winds, as I wanted to see where they put the inverter and charge controller, and how they connected to the existing parallax converter.  I will get it done, and have fun doing it. :D

I will be going through Solar-Electric in Flagstaff for the parts, in case anyone has had expereince with them.

Thanks for the input.

2009 Four Winds Chateau - 25' class C          2002 Chevy Tracker

1458033694__statesVisitedas-ofMarch-2012.jpg.b173645da4a43150ba2820dc7a6bdfc5.jpg

 

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I’m not sure what you mean by connecting to the converter.  You have mentioned that a couple of times.  Solar is 100% separate from the converter.  They do not connect.  You do not connect solar to a converter.  The components of a solar system are:

1.  Solar panels

2.  Mounts to mount the panels or set them on the ground.

3.  Panel wiring - typically 10 gauge from each panel

4.  Combiner box - where all the panel wires go

5.  Wiring from combiner box to solar controller - larger gauge than panel wiring, size determined by length of run and how much amperage is traversing the run

6.  Solar charge controller - either PWM or MPPT depending on needs and budget.  Sized properly for the number of panels feeding it

7.  Wiring from solar controller to batteries - sized appropriately for the length of run and amperage going to batteries

8.  Batteries

 

There are a few other small pieces like circuit breakers and disconnect switches and temperature sensors, but the above list is how the power will flow to the batteries from the sun.  The converter is not in that system.  The converter is in the 120 volt system and converts 120 volt from either shore power or generator power to 12 volt to charge the batteries and run other 12 volt appliances in the RV like lights.

2000 Kenworth T2000 w/ Cummins N14 and autoshift
2017 DRV Mobile Suite 40KSSB4 with factory mods, dealer mods and personal mods - now in the RV graveyard
2022 DRV Full House MX450 with customized floor plan
2018 Polaris RZR Turbo S (fits in the garage)
2016 Smart Car (fits in the garage or gets flat towed behind the DRV when the RZR is in the garage)
My First Solar Install Thread
My Second Solar Install Thread & Photos and Documents Related to the build
My MX450's solar, battery and inverter system - my biggest system yet!

chadheiser.com      West Coast HDT Rally Website

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Your converter should already be hitched to your batterys. You will hitch your solar to your batteries by the charge controler, and it will control the energy coming from the panels even when you are plugged into shore power. Your solar should charge to a higher voltage than the stock, and almost useless, battery charger/converter. As Chad stated they don't actually hitch together except at the battery. I used a bus bar for those connections as it makes installation much easier. I bought everything on eBay for 1/2  the usual cost. There are charts online for cable size. Welding cable works very well as it is flexible. I bought a hammer cable crimper as well. Larger cable will not hurt your installation and if you decide to add more panels at some point they will be able to handle the extra power. 

Dont get caught in the too many batterys trap. If your panels can't charge the batterys you have too full adding more batterys will only spread the power around. I set mine up with a bank switch so on a cloudy day I can charge some of the batterys to a higher voltage and not charge the others at all. One bank at 90% will have a lot more usable power than both banks at 75%. The difference at 13volts and 14volts is huge when applied to usable energy from a battery.

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1 hour ago, Lance A Lott said:

Dont get caught in the too many batterys trap. If your panels can't charge the batterys you have too full adding more batterys will only spread the power around.

I set mine up with a bank switch...

A bank at 90% will have a lot more usable power than both banks at 75%.

....usable energy from a battery.

Um... I would, respectfully, but adamantly disagree. Your battery bank is the heart of your energy systems "unplugged" and should be sized to supply your daily power usage requirements... without consideration to solar capacity (unless you are 100% solar. Ie., sans shore power of any kind). ANY amount of solar is "good" solar and there is no requirement that solar meet 100% of your battery banks capacity or daily usage requirements.

Splitting your battery bank into sub-banks... resulting in unequal charges across the entire bank is, quite simply put, a "very" bad idea on multiple levels.

Add to the fact that, in a wet cell, solar is capable of pushing more current at a faster rate into your battery bank at a lower SOC (state of charge) than a higher one. AKA, maximizing limited hours of solar production.

Voltage has nothing to do with available current capacity... or "usable energy". Ie., a 440ah bank @ 50%SOC will have 110ah's of current available for use. A 220ah bank @ 100%SOC would have 110ah's of current available for use. It doesn't matter "where" you put it... available capacity is available capacity.

Likewise... combining the example battery bank size and numbers from above:

A 220ah bank (sub-bank of a 440ah battery bank) @ 90%SOC would have 88ah's of available capacity.
A 440ah bank @ 75%SOC would have 110ah's of available capacity.

When you tie your 2 sub-banks back into one another is where you really start to shoot yourself in the foot... but I'll leave that for another thread. ;)

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Yarome, I let my fingers go faster than my thoughts. You wernt really disagreeing with me. I forgot to say that the batterys are not the same age, by years, nor the same size. This way i can rotate and not have to replace all of them at once. I know its not the best but it works for now.  

 Please feel free to disagree with me. It gives me the opportunity to learn or at leat clarify my self.

My other point was that there is usaly not room for more battery capasiity than you can charge with your avalable solar.. Also where we camp there is no shore power, i have a good generator but I only use it for the microwave. We also currently only get 2 weeks a year so its hard to justify good batterys. I would like 6 volt ones not the marine 12 volt ones. The boys are almost out of school so the hope is 6 to 8 weeks travelling, I will want new batterys of the same size then.

I have seen folks put in solar and when it didn't charge there batterys enough for there needs they just put in more batterys, instead of making sure there system is sized properly.

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