Solar Panel Battery Connection

[Lindenberg]

I have a 2000 Alpine that has a small solar panel on the roof. How are these usually connected to the batteries? When I look in the battery compartment I don't see any obvious wires that may be coming from the panel.

[Lindenberg]

I have a 2000 Alpine that has a small solar panel on the roof. How are these usually connected to the batteries? When I look in the battery compartment I don't see any obvious wires that may be coming from the panel.

[dgerstel]

Tom,

If I remember correctly, on my 2002 the small solar panel was connected to both battery banks through a small diode type battery charging splitter, there was a large and small one in the battery bay.

Dale

[Lindenberg]

From the charging splitter did the wires go directly to the batteries or to something else first?

[dgerstel]

Tom,

The wires went directly to the batteries. They might have been fused? I had taken the small panel off and installed a larger one along with a controller. When using a small solar panel to power a large battery bank, all that is needed is a diode to keep the panel from draining the batteries at night.

Dale

[BillArf]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Lindenberg:
I have a 2000 Alpine that has a small solar panel on the roof. How are these usually connected to the batteries? When I look in the battery compartment I don't see any obvious wires that may be coming from the panel. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Are you having issues with that small solar panel?

[Lindenberg]

Here is the reason for the questions about the soler panel connection.

I purchased my 2000 Alpine in December 06. We usually go camping every month but a few months ago it was six weeks between trips. when I started up the engine I could tell the engine battery was low. I keep the Alpine on the side of the house so it is easy to keep the batteries charged. I checked the engine batteries and they were both at 11.77 volts. So the solar charger and the built in charger aren't charging the engine batter.

This weekend I read a post about the echo charger being connected backwards on my model year and sure enough, mine was wired backwards. I switched the house and chassis sense leads and now the engine batteries are charging.

The previous owner had mounted some large solar panels on the roof and removed them when he purchased his newer Alpine. It looks like the original solar panel was disconnected and never reconnected. I would like to track down the wires and reconnect it. I'll probably climb onto the roof and see if it is even working first.