OldMan

Someone said something, but it went in one ear and out the other.

Indeed. Glad I could help. Let me know how your project goes, OK?

Not a helluva lot. This will explain more and in truth, I'm reading it myself. What I know is the cell chemistry has somehow been re-formulated with the idea of making it more stable and not prone to catching fire, like lithium ION batteries have been prone to do (iPhones, laptop computers). That page I linked to will help you a great deal. It should be known, the lithium batteries made for RV solar systems now, are almost all lithium-iron. Same great price, lower liability exposure!!!

I'm not looking for them, the OP was. I'm not even doing a roof mount. I'm getting three 250s but it will be for a class A. OP will do fine with a 360, I believe. But to take advantage of it, he has to use lithium-iron batteries. Lead-acid batteries cannot provide the amp hours he seeks, and that type of battery cannot become a thing of the past, fast enough. You can even get lithium-iron starter batteries, as in starting your car.

Oops. My bad. And of course, you like that.

I've looked around and there are very few 400-watt panels around. Can you possibly get by with 375?? Edit: If you're willing to go direct, here is a good buy.

Look for the ones that say "Free Shipping." Hold 'em to that. In addition, there is the tariff, which you and I will pay at the seaport. If you're not near a seaport, especially the West Coast, your shipping costs will rise. Often when they free shipping, they also mean "sea shipping." IOW, on a ship. To a port. Lowest cost to them.

Oh please. American solar companies source ALL their crap in China (try to find an American-made photovoltaic cell, lithium iron battery cell, charge controller OR inverter, INCLUDING Magnum and Victron, not made in China...I'll wait) and gouge Americans. I no longer think that way. They want to gouge, I don't have to buy. Some s-head American the other day was trying to convince me of my wrongness. I laughed. By the way, Doordash will now deliver Burger King to your door.

We'll have that Coleman drip pot that sits on the stove. Looking into 12vdc boob toobs, only need/want one. We watch, but not every night. I'm a big radio guy. Ball games. Weather. Sports talk. Shortwave. CB. Ham. I'm still doing the energy assessment. Part of it is difficult. For example, as you mentioned, TV. At least it's not the electron sucker of yesteryear, with a big honkin' cathode ray tube. Not sure it'll be that big, though I have a 37" right next to me and that's how I watch it. We'll see. I watch a lot of TV on my computer. Ball games in particular. But there are things not yet possessed. My energy assessment, FTM, will have to be theoretical. Of course, lots of music. LOUD music. If only in my ears. I AM a musician, after all. Ifn you don't believe me, check out the music if you dare. I produced, wrote the instrumental, sang the backing on "Mumbo Jumbo,: and played all the guitar. And engineered the original recordings. Enjoy. This is a book. I'm sorry. I've proofed it 15 times (yes, I am anal about language, sue me). I hope it's good enough.

Self-censor. Woulda liked to have said it but so many are so VERY thin-skinned. I really miss usenet. You didn't read that, but you can read this, if you're not bored, or even if you are. For me, Victron, Magnum and the like, actually discourage the use of an entry-level approach to quality solar installations. My controller and inverter together are a bit more than $500. After seeing the $1.5K price tag for the Victron unit, I gasped and closed the window. It scared me. The implication appears to be (among the wealthier, here) if you're not using all this cool, highly UN-affordable stuff, you might as well stay home. Hear me out, all you rich people. I'm a poor mofo. Yes I am. I found myself having to come up with all manner of ways to afford the fairly honkin' solar system I would like to have (though compared to some here, it's miniscule). That's why I've gone to Chinese companies, looking for discounts. I do my best to use the current political situation in the US to my advantage (sometimes I get the sympathy vote from the Chinese), especially since solar panels have become such a pain point for RV owners, who are not usually wealthy. Yes, I'm a commie. Devious...ultimately cheap, but not wanting to sacrifice...for what I want for my family. Sue me. With regard to solar and the required system components, it has turned out, to my own level of personal chagrin, I can get all but the panels, with relative price equality (when you disregard the panels), right here in the States. *DOH* In fact, most of it will come from Amazon. I can get 3.2vdc, 50ah LiFePo4 cells with which to build the bank. $155 ea, shipped. I need eight, but hey, cost of doing business. A pair of plain, ol' trolling motor battery boxes for the banks. I can saw off most of the lids and install BMS in opposite ends of the boxes, which will be held together with fasteners and some black JB Weld, but use part of each one to house the BMS. BMS is must have for LiFePo4 battery banks. Solar charge controller, EPPT Tracer with coach-mounted charge indicator. $180 shipped, including a battery monitor to put in the coach. 3000/6000 watt inverter for the AC stuff. 3000/6000 pure sine wave inverter. Roughly $400 shipped. Hence my buying here. But I still would not have known, had I not taken the side trip to alibaba.com. Learning there enables me to look for things (and their prices), here. But now, now we get to the panels. Oh, the beautiful, lovely panels. Only the panels, themselves, are a deal from China, and here is why: I can find panels with free shipping. That's right, you read right, the Chinese have taken the tariff and flipped ol' so and so the big, Asian bird. I LOVE IT!!! Read it and weep. I say again, I am totally willing to help anyone who asks, even you rich guys, but you don't need my help. You can afford the high-priced spread. Hell, I'm so ignorant, myself, sometimes I scare myself. But I want to help if you'll ask. I won't even bitch if you don't take my sage, professional and gold-plated, advice. After all, we all still stink. ;-)

If you don't have it, solar, solar, solar. If you can afford it, overbuild your system. Just means you can run more stuff, longer.

I just use Super Bright LEDs

Way too rich for my blood. I'm building a scalable system with room for more power, but inverters like that are overkill for my system. Oh, and I'll never afford any inverter mentioned in this thread. I'm also sourcing the panels and controller from China. Bang for your buck, man. Where do you think Renogy and SunPower get their panels? Heck, Sunpower is a Chinese company with sales offices in the states.So I cut out the middleman and get better prices. I have a longer blog post I've written and saved as a text file if anyone wants to read my whole rationale.

It's not written they must be mounted on the coach. Some folk use solar panels on frames so they can move the panel back toward the sun.