Chad Heiser

I’m looking at putting 3390 watts on the roof. I don’t remember how much GeorgiaHybrid has, but hopefully I’ve got him now. 😎

I don’t know of any specific rigs that will be for sale, but you are welcome to come buy regardless. We will be happy to have you and who knows what might come of it.

I do have everything mapped out. I will be putting a couple different sized panels on the roof. I have a bunch of 365 watt REC panels and a bunch of Newpowa compact 100 watt panels, so I will be using both of them. It will be very similar to my last set up, just with more total wattage (since I will have more roof space).

No, I do all my own solar stuff. I actually traded my panels to another HDTer who was at Rolling Rereats for stuff for the new rig. I will put new panels on when I get it home.

Yes, I am using a Phoenix 1200KVA for the refrigerator. I am not running a sub panel though. I am using small Magnum energy transfer switches in the individual circuits (refrigerator and bedroom bedside outlets).

I run a separate small inverter for my fridge when traveling. It is a PSW 1200 KVA unit. It also powers the two outlets on either side of the bed. I have point of use small transfer switches in those two circuits to manage switching between the small inverter and other power sources automatically. My big dual inverter system has a fairly high idle draw, so when we are boondocking, I will turn the big inverters off when we go to sleep and let the little inverter keep the fridge going. I waist less power overnight this way. When we travel, the big inverters get turned off as well. I don’t like having all my electronics powered up when I go down the road.

I left for home Saturday morning (finally). Nothing in tow yet though. The new rig has to go through PDI and get some things built and added before it is ready. I will be making another trip back to Oklahoma in a couple weeks to get it. Then I need to get it home and try to get all my stuff in it before leaving for the WCR.

Thanks for the well wishes. I have no idea where the tire came from and I don’t think there is anyway to determine that. No one stopped on either side of the interstate and that section had a large median and a slight incline up to the opposing lanes. I assume it came from the opposing lanes, but I cannot say for sure. I also don’t know if it came off an axle or if it was cargo that came loose. As for the trailer, it was a real bummer after I just built it up with a lot of stuff intending to keep it for at least another five years (especially the two week old RV Flex Armor roof). I was able to salvage all my solar system components and a lot of other stuff from the 5er. The only stuff that got destroyed was a coffee maker & pot and a few glasses and mugs. A lot of stuff came out the upper cupboards but not much of it was damaged. Most of the stuff we kept up high was soft or non breakable items. We were lucky as far as Rolling Retreats had a brand new toy hauler sitting on their lot that just arrived. It is almost identical to the rig I was trying to convince my wife to switch to (but I lost that battle which is why I started upgrading the old 5er). Things will work out in the end, but it definitely isn’t the path I thought I would be on when I left the ECR.

Very nice.

With an MPPT controller, a series/parallel installation will give better results than a straight parallel configuration. The MPPT controller can convert the excess voltage into current for the batteries.

As some of you may know, I had a bit of an issue on my trip home from the ECR. I left the ECR on Monday May 2. I was trying to work my way to Colorado on my way home to California so I could stop in and see my mom before Mother’s Day. I was heading west on I25 about sixty miles into Kentucky from Tennessee when a random tire came rolling across the interstate from the center median. It literally came out of nowhere after I passed under an overpass. Of course the tire was rolling right for the front of my rig and there wasn’t much I could do to avoid colliding with it. I was traveling in the slow lane with my cruise set to 65 mph. I was towing my 21000 pound DRV with my Kenworth T2000. Luckily I was alone in the truck as my DW didn’t attend the rally with me because of her work schedule. I’m glad she didn’t have to experience the situation first hand. My only thought once I saw the rolling tire was to try to avoid taking it head on and putting it through the radiator and into the engine, or worse, bouncing it up and into the cab. I had two choices, swerve left or swerve right. Well I guess I had three choices, as taking it head on was also a choice. I immediately negated that choice though because I knew that was going to cause severe damage and I hoped my other options might give me a chance of avoiding damage (to bad hopes aren’t reality). My decision making process next negated swerving left into the fast lane because I didn’t know if there was another vehicle along side me or coming upon me in that lane. My rig is nearly sixty five feet long so there was a lot of potential space for another vehicle to be occupying alongside me. The situation happened so fast that there wasn’t time to check my mirror for another vehicle or vehicles in the fast lane and also asses and then react before the collision with the tire. This all lead me to the decision to swerve right to try to take the collision with the tire to the side of the truck rather than the front. This whole process was within a second or two. Once I swerved, unfortunately I ran out of pavement quickly and got the right steer tire in the dirt. I knew trying to correct back to the left in that situation would be bad and I also knew the trailer momentum was trying to catch up to the truck’s change in direction and another quick change in direction would have been bad. Once the truck touched dirt at an angle, I really didn’t have a choice other than to ride it into the ditch and do what I could to keep things in line. There was a bit of a downslope going into the ditch and then another pretty good up slope on the other side of the ditch. I did my best to get the truck into the bottom of the ditch and keep the trailer in line behind me. Once I knew the truck was doing what I wanted it to, I checked my driver mirror for the trailer. All I saw was the trailer leaning at an extreme angle to the driver side. It was at such an extreme angle that I thought for sure it was going over. Rather than slamming on the brakes, I kept the truck moving forward in the hopes it would pull the trailer back into line. Thankfully it did. Once I came to a stop, I took a second to asses myself and then the truck interior and then I got out to checkout the trailer and truck exterior. The truck didn’t look bad at all to my surprise. Unfortunately the trailer didn’t fair so well. I walked around the whole rig and the trailer had significant damage on all four sides. I could see from damage to the front cap and damage to the truck bed rails that the trailer had articulated enough in both directions to slam the front cap into the rails. I was pretty dismayed at the damage, but was happy I was ok and no one else was hurt. Unbelievably, no one else stopped to check on me though. i did have a dash cam running at the time of the incident and it caught everything. Unfortunately it doesn’t show what the trailer was doing behind the truck. I called the state troopers and eventually got a tow there to get me out of the ditch. Then I got roadside assistance to bring me two new tires as both passenger side tires and one rim were destroyed when the trailer ran over another bare wheel that happened to be laying in the ditch. Once the trailer had the ability to roll again, I drug it to the next exit to see how it would do. I assessed it at the scene first and it looked towable. Most of the damage appeared to be to the structure above the frame but I was trying to be as cautious as possible. After another inspection, everything appeared to be roadworthy so I decided to turn around and head to a truck stop I had passed a ways back. I got there and had a mechanic assess things as well. The mechanic also agreed things were roadworthy so I made the decision to head to my DRV dealer (Rolling Retreats) in Elk City, Oklahoma. I got through Nashville late and found another truck stop where I could get some sleep. The next morning I got on the road again after another assessment and started making miles. The trailer was crabbing slightly to the passenger side, but otherwise was serviceable. I made it to Rolling Retreats Tuesday evening and had some friends there who helped me out. I’ve been sitting here ever since. I finally got the word from my insurance company this afternoon (Wednesday a week and a day after I arrived) that the trailer was a total loss. Now I am moving forward dealing with that. Jim and Kellie Stockman (fellow HDTers, full timers and friends of mine) have been here since before I arrived and have shown me great hospitality (along with others). They have a YouTube channel (as some of you may know) called Suite Travels. Jim asked me about participating in a video about HDTs and safety and I agreed. The video posted today and it includes my dash cam footage, footage from the tow company who got me out of the ditch (who also have a YouTube channel) and an interview with me about the incident. I thought it might interest some of you. Here is the video.

I’m using both series and parallel in my setup and do so often in other setups. I also do series only setups and parallel only setups. It really depends on what your needs are. If you have small wire already in place coming down from the roof then a series set up can take advantage of that small wire by upping the voltage and keeping the amperage low. If you are running your own new wire then you can use larger wire to handle higher amperage and keep your panels in parallel or some combination of series parallel. In the past, parallel had a big advantage over series in the RV world because PWM solar controllers were limited on the voltage they could handle and older panels without bypass diodes could be severely negatively affected by shading a single panel (or part of one) in a series string. In today’s world of MPPT solar controllers, the higher voltage a series string of panels can provide can be advantageous. Also with bypass diodes common in most modern solar panels, shading is no longer the killer it used to be in a series string of panels. i do a lot of series pairs pairs of panels and then run those series pairs in parallel (like six volt batteries run in series parallel to make 12 volt). This gives me higher voltage to the MPPT controller that can be converter to amperage to the batteries and also reduces potential shading issues for panels in close proximity to one another. It also builds some redundancy into the solar array in case a panel or connection fails. If there is a failure, then only that series pair will be affected and the other series pairs will continue producing. Of course this configuration requires an even number of panels.

I got the RV bug from my parents when I was a kid. We just did weekend a few week long trips a year, but it was great. The first RV I bought for myself as an adult was an Article Fox truck camper. It was an 8’ camper, but had a slide and was actually quite roomy. I kept that for several years, it eventually outgrew it after I got married. I traded that camper and a ski boat in on my first 5er, a 35’ Montana Big Sky. It was a great trailer and we had it for 7 years. It got me hooked on 5th wheels and the comfort and homey feel they provide. We traded that rig in unexpectedly on our way home from a cross country trip when we stopped at a Montana dealer in Reno, NV just to look. We fell in love with another Montana Big Sky that was a couple feet longer and had the perfect floor plan and amenities for us. We kept that rig for another seven year stint. We sold it after I was finally able to convince my DW to factory order a 42’ DRV Mobile Suite. We have loved that trailer for the last 5 years and made many great memories in it.

We are full steam ahead with plans throughout most of the year. We have a bit of a snag right now, but are working to get it corrected. I have a couple more rallies to attend, a family reunion, a coast trip and some other local stuff. We are doing everything possible to make all that work. I know fuel prices will be high and I will be putting a lot of miles on the rig this year (I will have already done 5000 miles by the end of next week), but that isn’t stopping us.

No the colors were assigned randomly by the website I used to generate the map. They do have options to do the colors differently though. This was the site I used. I have used the site Bill Joyce posted in the past as well. I only add states I have actually stayed in (with the RV) rather than states I have just driven through.

Painted Canyon is an awesome rest stop along the interstate.

This is incorrect information. See my post earlier in this thread where I posted the actual Oregon code that prohibits recreational doubles.

Great job a the presentation today. You both should be proud of what you did.

Very good.

Arrived today (Friday) early evening. Got set up and had a nice time hanging out with everyone. Looking forward to the start of the actual rally.

See you tomorrow.

I plan to be there Friday.

I do not have any with me, but I have ways of getting one. I don't want to break any rules here, so I will just leave it at that for now. Yes the panels act like batteries in that voltage adds in series and current adds in parallel. John posted a good link describing this and how putting panels of different ratings together affects those connections. I have similar information on my website. It is not a good idea to mix panels of vastly dissimilar ratings because of the way they interact. If the panel groups total voltage is under 24 volts and the battery bank is 12 volt nominal, then a PWM controller will handle dissimilar panel ratings better than an MPPT controller, but that is a fairly rare set of circumstances. That is a good link. I have similar information on my website as well.

There have been several solar topics on the forum lately. We have discussed batteries, inverters, and solar panels, but solar charge controllers haven't really been discussed in detail. This topic is intended to discuss solar charge controllers and how they work. I cover this topic and other solar, battery and inverter related topics on my website for those who are interested. Here are the basics: Solar charging is no different than any other charging source Solar panels convert sunlight into usable power through a solar charge controller to charge your batteries This is no different than a charger converting shore or generator power to charge your batteries Make sure your solar charge controller is a "smart" controller with temperature compensation (for lead acid or AGM charging) Three stage charging is best for Lead Acid or AGM batteries Lithium battery charge characteristics are different than Lead Acid or AGM, so if you have lithium batteries make sure the charge controller is capable of charging them properly The primary types of controllers used in the RV world are PWM and MPPT Pulse Width Modulation or PWM are the simplest and usually the lowest priced PWM controllers operate by regulating a pulsed, direct connection from the solar array to the battery bank As the battery bank approaches a full charge, the length of the connection pulses decrease to gradually taper off the charging current from the solar array On a 12V battery bank, PWM charge controllers can only be used with a solar array that has an open circuit voltage of 24.0 Volts or less This excludes large 60 cell or 72 cell residential panels from use with a PWM controller In systems with multiple solar panels of different voltages (e.g. 32 cell panels mixed with 36 cell or 40 cell panels), PWM charge controllers are preferable to MPPT controllers because their operation algorithms are less finicky Maximum Power Point Tracking or MPPT type charge controllers use a much more efficient method of feeding power from the solar array to the battery bank Instead of a regulated direct connection, MPPT type controllers transform the optimum balance of current and voltage from the solar array into something that can safely be fed into a battery bank This means that excess voltage from the solar array is transformed into more charging current (amperage) For example, with a PWM charge controller you may have a solar panel operating at 19.0 volts and 6.0 amps, feeding 6.0 amps into your battery bank (ideal conditions) If your battery bank is at 13.0 volts you are only getting 78 watts (13.0V x 6.0A = 78W) from the panel With an MPPT charge controller on that same panel you will be able to use the extra 6 volts (19.0V – 13.0V = 6.0V) and turn it into more current (amperage) 6 volts is approximately 46.2% of 13 volts (6 / 13 = .462) That remaining percentage of power is converted to amps by the MPPT controller 6 amps plus another 46.2% is approximately 8.8 amps (6 x 1.462 = 8.772) Your charging current will be about 8.8 amps and you will be getting about 114 watts (13V x 8.772A = 114.036 watts) from the same panel with an MPPT controller vs. a PWM controller Selecting a solar charge controller Performance vs. Price MPPT charge controllers cost more but can harvest more power out of an array If roof space is at a premium, use higher voltage panels and an MPPT charge controller to harvest more power If you are on a limited budget or have modest power needs, a PWM controller can work well for you Array Voltage vs. Battery Voltage The solar array needs to have a higher voltage than your battery bank in order to push a charge into the bank Some charge controllers require X number of volts above the battery bank voltage before they will even begin trying to charge the battery bank Voltage Limits Don’t let your array voltage exceed your controllers capabilities PWM controllers are limited to 24 volts on a 12 volt system MPPT controllers can be rated for as much as 250 volts or more depending on the model selected To avoid damaging your charge controller, make sure the Voc (Voltage open circuit) for each panel or series of panels does not exceed your charge controller’s limit The Voc is usually printed on the label on the back of the solar panel Current Limits Charge controllers are rated on their output current (from the controller to the battery) As long as your panels are connected in parallel you can determine the maximum output current by summing the operating current, or Imp (Current maximum power point) for each panel The Imp is usually printed on the panel label If the panels are in series, then the output current remains the same Series/parallel configurations add both the voltage and the current. The voltage adds for the panels in series and the amperage adds for the series strings wired in parallel Multiple Charge Controllers If your desired solar array has a charging current that exceeds the current rating of your preferred charge controller, you can use multiple charge controllers These charge controllers would be connected in parallel to each other across the battery bank Not all charge controllers have this capability Charge Controller Setup It is very important to set up your charge controller properly Set the correct system parameters within the controller such as maximum charge current, charge voltage, total battery bank capacity, etc. Some controllers allow for a myriad of customized settings (often through remote controls) while others have only simple options available to them (often through dip switches) Battery Temperature Compensation It is important to incorporate battery temperature compensation on any charging system for Lead Acid or AGM batteries Avoid charge controllers that do not allow for battery temperature compensation if you have a Lead Acid or AGM battery bank Temperature compensation is not needed for Lithium battery banks Monitoring It is very important to incorporate some type of monitoring system Whether this is through an integrated monitor or a stand alone system, you need to know what is going into and coming out of your batteries to properly maintain their life and longevity

My preference for batteries is Battle Born (they are what I stock and install). They have the best customer service of any company I have dealt with, which is important to me and what I do. They should have a major announcement coming later this year, which I am not at liberty to share at this time that may make them more desirable to some. There are other batteries that are good as well. Lyon Energy and ReLion are very good in the first tier group of manufacturers. I don't have any direct experience with the lower tier manufacturers like SOK or Chins and the like, but many on the DIY solar forums seem to like them. The solar panels I like the best are REC. I also use Hightec and Newpowa on a regular basis. They all work well. I personally have REC 365 watt and Newpowa compact 100 watt panels on my rig along with four Battle Born 8D lithium batteries.