Solar panel controller

[bsimonds]

My '99 Ultimate Freedom has a solar panel on the roof and a "Solar Charge Indicator" light on the wall beside the refrigerator that never lights. Typically these factory supplied solar chargers are sales gimmicks without enough power to make any difference, but I would like to check the controller to see if it is working. Does anyone know where the controller is located?

[lonestarace]

If your coach has a controller or not depends on the size of the solar panel.

If it has a controller it should be close to the batteries.

Small 15watt or less panels do not require a controller. They provide 1 amp or less. They only have an LED, fuse, and a one way diode between the house battery and the panel. These small panels are known as solar battery maintainers.

When we bought our 98 DSDP the 5 w panels LED indicator never lit up, so I got up on the roof with my digital multimeter and checked the panels output at the wires. Zero! So I installed a new 15w panel in its place. It's been working great at maintaining the house batteries while in storage ever sense.

Now on our Signature we have 3 large panels providing about 300w/20+ amps of power. So a good controller is a must.

We hope this helps

Don

[bsimonds]

Thanks, Don. Good information.
Bill

[AFChap]

Bill ...the indicator light should be lit anytime the rig is in sunlight, and even on most cloudy days. I would guess the light or something between there and the panel is out. It really is a pretty worthless panel ...won't keep the batteries up against the normal parasitic drains but maybe it does help a little...

[Big Oil Guy]

Any solar panel should have a controller of some sort. Without it, they can actually drain the batteries at night. The little red light Winnebago uses is part of the "controller" for the little 10w panel used. It's easy to determine if the panel is working by using a voltmeter on wires going into the red light mechanism, or on the roof at the connection for the panel. Sometimes you can also tell by just checking the voltage of your house battery bank. That little solar panel will actually give a pretty high voltage reading on your meter if batteries are fully charged.

[Beast1989]

By the way if you need to replace the solar panel go to Homedepot they have a panel that works great with the house batterys and its is portable and can charge the engine battery through the cigerette lighter. It only cost 19.99 too