Solar Panel

[USMCRET]

How much of an impact does the small solar panel on my KSDP have on maintaining battery strength?

["007"]

In this OWNERS MANUAL there is not much mentioned about it, in fact there is nothing.
Have been through other manuals with same result.
The small panel on roof about 12" square is connected to your engine chassis batteries through the small red led circuit on your dash panel.
Its to take care of any parasites loads that could discharge the batteries, like radio, ecm,tcm that hold their memory.

[Conquest102]

At 12 inches it not going to put out much more than a couple hundrend milliamps at best. The kit harbor freight has does 3 amps so 1 amp per panel and they are 12 by 36 to give some idea of size. You could get the same amount from one of the panels you sit on the dash and plug into lighter. They are usaully around 20 bucks not sure what the cost of the panel you are looking at is.

["007"]

The Newmars all have this Solar panel to do same job. Fleetwood does the same.
Larger panels would be needed for large battery bank systems.

[DutchStar38]

My little lite indicator on the dash doesn't light up anymore. Anyone know how to troubleshoot if the Solar panel is still working even though light may not be. I removed the light from the dash and it is sealed with some kind of goo in its casing.

["007"]

You may need a new unit if this link can not help you.

[pkmesser]

Originally Posted by USMCRET

How much of an impact does the small solar panel on my KSDP have on maintaining battery strength?

Mine sits in at least 50% shade, it still maintains the chassis battery at full charge for extended periods. (single 12 volt chassis battery)