Chad Heiser

The way they typically do it is dry fit the panels and then install studs in the roof to mount the panels mounts to. Once the studs are in place, the panels are removed and the roof material is applied over the roof and around the studs. With this method the entire panel and mount can be removed if necessary without affecting the roof (the studs would remain in place as a permanent part of the roof). In my case, because Rolling Retreats is a new franchise for RV Flex Armor, they did not have enough studs for my 68 solar panel mounts. Luckily my mounts are two piece mounts so the lower half of the mounts were prepped and installed prior to the roof application. They are now a permanent part of the roof and take the place of their “stud mount” method. I can still remove my panels by unbolting the upper half of the mounts from the lower half of the mounts. If you are going to add solar, you want to have it done before the roof is applied so it can be sealed in place with the new roofing material. It can be done after the fact, but you will have to go back to the company who applied the roof (or another affiliate franchise) and they will have to cut out the locations where the panel mounts and wire penetrations will be and re-apply the roof coating in those areas to keep the no leak guarantee. This will of course have a cost associated with it. It is better and less expensive to have the solar in place first.

As I mentioned in my solar thread, I am having RR install an RV Flex Armor roof on my 5th wheel. It was prepped over the last two days and primed this evening (Thursday). The actual roofing material will be applied first thing in the morning and once that has dried, all the stuff on the roof will get reassembled. I hope to have it back tomorrow evening. I am really pleased with the work so far and am looking forward to never having to deal with my roof again. With all the various solar configurations and component movement I have done to my RV roof over the last five years, I figure I have added over 200 additional penetrations above and beyond what the factory did. So far I have had no issues with it, but now it will be guaranteed for life. I will show it off at the ECR starting the end of next week.

Maybe if the money is right you can get it done. 😜

I really wanted to make the National Rally this year, but unfortunately it conflicts with another trip we already have planned. Bummer.

I’d be happy to talk to you.

I made the switch last year. I will never go back to lead acid or AGM. The benefits far outweigh the initial sticker shock, in my opinion. Weight savings, linear power output, available power, speed of charging, etc. are all great benefits. I can and do charge my lithium batteries at 300+ amps. I can gain 30%+ in state of charge an hour for my 1080 amp hour lithium battery bank when plugged into a 50 amp power source. I can charge at up to 200 amps when I am using my solar array to charge them. When you actually amortize the cost out over the lifespan of the battery they come in at the same or lower cost than lead acid. This assumes you will keep them for long enough to realize this though.

I have not seen anyone post about hail damage to solar panels either, but I know it can happen. All regular solar panels are built to withstand basic hail storms, but they do have their limits. They are designed to be in static positions in a residential or commercial setting and survive all the seasons. The advantage RV'ers have is they can move their solar panels by moving the RV out of the path of a hail storm, which residential/industrial customers can't do. I think this is why I really haven't heard of anyone in the RV world discussing hail damage on a regular basis. As for lithium batteries, the industry leading manufacturers offer up to a 10 year warranty on their batteries. None of them have been around for 10 years yet though, so it remains to be seen how well they will hold up. The technology and research says they should have no problem meeting that goal. We love our system in our RV. I have had some type of "off grid" system in my RV's for the past 10+ years and the conveniences and opportunities they provide are well worth the expense in my book.

The panels are at least 4 inches off the roof in the center of the roof and at the outsides of the roof where it curves slightly, they are even higher off the roof. They work very well like this. It is more space than they need to function and not have any heat related issues. This is more solar than I need for our day to day use, but I am an installer and this is my demonstration system as well as my personal use system. This system was designed and built to show what is possible. It is overkill for the vast majority of RVer's. It will allow me to run AC all day long (assuming the sun is shining) from battery and inverter power if I want to though. It isn't as evident due to perspective in the picture, but I can completely walk the entire roof and get to all the components on the roof without issue. The panel mounts are two piece Z-brackets and are easily unbolted if I need to get access under the panel. As I stated above, I can walk the entire roof and get to all the components. If an AC needs to be serviced, or some other major component up there needs to be worked on, the panel closest to that component can be unbolted and removed to allow for a workspace. As for maintenance on the roof, the trailer is sitting in the shop at Rolling Retreats in Elk City, OK getting an RV Flex Armor spray on roof installed, so no more maintenance and it will have a lifetime guarantee. RR just added this service to their service center and I am their first outside customer (they did install the roof on one of their stock units before my rig). It will be done tomorrow and then make its debut at the East Coast HDT Rally (without the eight new panels, as I left those at home to make the roof installation a little easier - the mounts are there though and will become part of the new roofing material).

I have a Let’s Go Aero covered rack that is fully enclosed with a hard sided clamshell like cover and it holds quite a bit of stuff. I have had it for at least eight years now and it has held up very well with no issues over that time. I will say it was not inexpensive, but the quality is very good.

Another update to my system that I completed last week. I decided I wanted a bit more solar and I had a few small “squarish” openings on the roof around the three air conditioners and a couple other spots. They were relatively small open spaces and I wondered what I could fit in them. I found the Newpow compact 100 watt solar panels were an almost perfect fit for the openings. I decided to order eight of them and got them mounted up last week. I now have 2990 watts of solar on the roof of my rig with six 365 watt panels and eight 100 watt panels. The six 365 watt panels are split between the two solar controllers I described above. The eight new 100 watt panels are run in two series strings of four panels each and are going to a second MPPT 100/50 Victron solar controller. I am now done with solar on my rig. I literally can’t fit any more on the roof.

Sitting at Rolling Retreats getting some maintenance done and some other work I will reveal later. Once I’m done here, I’m heading to the ECR (with a quick stopover to install some batteries and an inverter for a forum member on the way).

MC4 connectors are universal in the solar world. Most panels come with MC4 connectors on them (but obviously not all do). I have mixed and matched multiple different brand MC4 connectors over the years. I have yet to find a combination that would not go together.

Typical OEM installation of a battery disconnect switch isolates the batteries from the 12 volt power panel and the converter. The jacks and slides are typically wired directly to the batteries and do not pass through the shutoff switch. With the shutoff switch off, you can still use the jacks and slides, but interior lights or other 12 volt items in the 12 volt power panel won’t work because the batteries are isolated from them. If shore power is active, the converter will energize the 12 volt power panel even if the batteries are disconnected from the system (so interior lights will work without the batteries). If you are not sure which way the shutoff switch works (which way is on and which way is off), disconnect from shore power and try an interior light. If the light works the disconnect switch is active and passing battery power through. If the light doesn’t work, then the disconnect switch is off and not allowing battery power to pass through. The circumstances you describe are probably caused by low batteries. With the disconnect switch turned off, the jacks are relying on the batteries alone to power them. With the jacks barely running or running slowly when activated, it indicates the batteries are low. When you turn the disconnect switch on, now the converter is also in the circuit with the batteries and it is supplying additional 12 volt power to the batteries (via shore power being converted to 12 volt). The combination of the converter power and the low battery power is now enough to properly power the jacks and they function properly.

Good luck with the retrofit. I hope it all goes well.

Yes, if you are running split phase dual multiplus inverters, you need to uncheck the switch as group checkbox in the configuration. If you leave that box checked and plug into anything that does not provide split phase power (basically anything less than a 50 amp pedestal) the system won’t pass power through. With the switch as group unchecked, then power will pass through the inverter on L1 and the inverter on L2 will invert at 180 degrees out of phase to L1 to provide 120/240 volt power to the rig. If you only had 6 AWG wire running through the blue sea switch, that is the reason it melted. I’m surprised it didn’t start a fire in your rig. As I explained above, your L2 inverter was inverting to provide power to all loads on the L2 side of the panel box because the rig was plugged into a 30 amp (single phase) pedestal. That could have been up to 3000 watts of power coming from the inverter on L2. In a 12 volt system, that is upwards of 230 amps of DC power going over those cables. That is way too much for 6 AWG wire. When you are on 50 amp shore power, both inverters pass through 120 volt power and the only power to/from the batteries to the inverter is whatever charge current the inverters are supplying. Those inverters can charge at up to 120 amps each. Hopefully you have turned the chargers to a lower amperage setting than that until you upgrade the wiring. That much current could also cause a fire if going through 6 AWG wire. If the batteries are always at or near full, then the inverters won’t send that much charge current to them, but if they are low the inverters will send as much charge current as they can to recharge them. You should not be using your system at all if it is wired with 6 AWG wire on the 12 volt side. It needs to be rewired as soon as possible before you have a catastrophic failure.

Without knowing how your system is wired, I can only speculate as to why the switch overheated. Generally though, it is caused by resistance (which generates heat). In a 12 volt dual inverter system, all your battery and inverter cables should be 4/0 cable. That switch appears to be a Blue Sea 3000 HD switch. It is rated for 600 amps. It wasn’t the amps that killed that switch, it was resistance/heat.

I finally got around to separating my solar panels into two separate arrays. I now have four of the 365 watt panels on my original MPPT 150/100 charge controller. I moved the front two panels on the trailer to a new MPPT 100/50 charge controller. The 150/100 charge controller is rated for 1450 watts of solar on a 12 volt system. It now has 1460 watts of solar connected to it (instead of the full 2190 watts I had connected to it before). The 100/50 charge controller is rated for 700 watts of solar. It has 730 watts connected to it. Between the two charge controllers, my system is now only “over-paneled” by 40 watts. I shouldn’t be leaving any unused solar power on the roof with the new configuration. This should get me some additional charging amps for our upcoming summer trips.

As others have already stated, minimal differences in panel specifications won’t make a significant difference in output. If the panels have major differences, then the output will be negatively affected.

Did it work at all when plugged into this 30 amp pedestal prior to the failure?

This is not an entirely correct statement. It depends on the charger. Some chargers send out constant voltage and constant amperage. If your charger is an 80 amp charger (at the proper voltage) for example and it sends a constant 80 amp stream of power to your battery that is only rated to take a 50 amp charge, then you will eventually damage the battery. Victron programmable chargers will send out a constant amperage based on how they are programmed. If I had a 100 amp Victron charger charging a battery that could only accept a 50 amp charge rate, I would program the charger to only charge at 50 amps. If I programmed the charger to charge at its max 100 amp rate, it would damage the battery in this example.

It is usually campground specific. Some don’t have any issues with them and some do. It will be a case by case basis. There are some campgrounds that will not let you unload the SXS on their property. You will have to ask each campground when you reserve your site.

If your RV is 50 amp, you can install a standard residential washer/dryer with a 240 volt dryer. We have a 240 volt dryer in our rig. It would take some wiring changes to add a 240 volt plug at the dryer location though. Also, you would only be able to use the dryer with a 240 volt source, so that means when plugged into a 50 amp power pedestal. There are other ways to get 240 volt into the RV with the proper generator or inverter, but those are not typical. A 240 volt dryer dryer much better/quicker than a typical 120 volt dryer for RV use.

I sent out the link to pay rally fees and order shirts, etc. to all registered rally attendees today. If you did not receive the email, check your junk email folder. If you can't find it there, contact me and I will send it to you again. I am also looking for additional presenters at the rally. If you are attending and have a topic you think might be of interest to the rest of the group and want to present it, let me know. See you in June.

Anderson Connectors are meant for DC loads. The simplest way to accomplish what you want is similar to what RandyRetired described. Wire a 50 amp pigtail with a mail 50 amp plug to the AC In on the inverter and wire a 50 amp pigtail with a female 50 amp receptacle to the AC Out of the inverter (about 1 foot of wire coming out of the inverter for each pigtail). Then wire a 50 amp female receptacle to the wire providing AC In to the inverter and wire a 50 amp male plug to the wire going to the RV main power panel (Leave enough slack in these wires so they can move around a bit). If the inverter ever fails, simply unplug the wires from the inverter pigtails and plug them together so shore/generator power can energize the main RV power panel. In effect you have manually bypassed the inverter on the AC side. This would only cost about $60 in parts (2 50 amp female cord ends and 2 50 amp male cord ends) and some time on your part to splice the cord ends into the system. Make sure the female ends are on the sides that can be energized (Inverter output and shore power) and the male ends are on the non-energized ends (inverter input and power panel input) so you don't have the prongs on the male cord ends energized and laying out.

Both of mine are still up and running, although one of the SIM’s is in a different device.