Solar Panel Replacement

[JESTIMATOR2]

I have a 1997 Fleetwood Southwind that has (had) a solar panel mounted on top of my front AC that was used to charge the batteries. On a trip last summer the solar panel flew off the roof never to be found again. The mounting bracket is still up there as are the wires.

My question is does anyone know what size panel Fleetwood used up there? I would like to replace it with a 100 watt panel from Amazon

RENOGY 100 Watt 100w Monocrystalline Photovoltaic PV Solar Panel Module 12V Battery Charging
http://amzn.com/B009Z6CW7O.

but not sure if I need to install a charge controller or if my Southwind has one? Inside the RV there is a red LED on the front AC filter grill that has a plate that says "Solar Monitor" , "light on when batteries accepting a charge".



Do the wires from this go straight to the house batteries? Do the wires go to a charge controller that charges all the batteries?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[stink]

The solar panel that blew off was very small. It may keep one 12v battery up but will not recharge. When it blew off you are not missing much. The panel you want will not fit on your ac shroud as it looks about 16x32 inches. You could get brackets to install on roof behind front ac. Yes you will need a charge controller for the wanted panel. I do not know how the old panel is wired but you can call fw for a wiring diagram.

[H-Rambler25]

Originally Posted by JESTIMATOR2

I have a 1997 Fleetwood Southwind that has (had) a solar panel mounted on top of my front AC that was used to charge the batteries. On a trip last summer the solar panel flew off the roof never to be found again. The mounting bracket is still up there as are the wires.

My question is does anyone know what size panel Fleetwood used up there? I would like to replace it with a 100 watt panel from Amazon

RENOGY 100 Watt 100w Monocrystalline Photovoltaic PV Solar Panel Module 12V Battery Charging
Amazon.com: RENOGY 100 Watt 100w Monocrystalline Photovoltaic PV Solar Panel Module 12V Battery Charging: Patio, Lawn & Garden.

but not sure if I need to install a charge controller or if my Southwind has one? Inside the RV there is a red LED on the front AC filter grill that has a plate that says "Solar Monitor" , "light on when batteries accepting a charge".

Attachment 48328

Do the wires from this go straight to the house batteries? Do the wires go to a charge controller that charges all the batteries?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Your wires from the roof panel should go to the charge controller then to the inverter. Battery wires go to the inverter.
That is how my solar charging system is wired.
Chuck

[Shadowcatche]

If you plan on graduating to a more active solar gathering set up a number of changes will have to be made. Unless you're going to go with a high-voltage panel you'll probably need to upgrade the wiring to a heavier gauge or you'll end up with too much line loss. If you go with a high-voltage panel then that means the necessity of an MPPT solar controller.

[michelb]

If it's like our 98 Pace Arrow (and I believe it is), the panel was only 5W and I believe it's wired directly to the battery with no charge controller (I think there's just a diode or something somewhere so that it doesn't drain the battery when there's no sun). I believe the solar connection is also somehow connected with the chassis battery disconnect (I think the solar panel only charges the chassis battery when the disconnect is 'disconnected'.

You can probably go up to 20W with that setup (which should fit on the A/C unit) but anything more and you'll likely have to start from scratch (new wiring, charge controller, etc).

As far as the panel being useless, we've had ours for 5 years and in that time, I've NEVER had drained batteries when we took it out of storage (and last winter the mh was stored in Ontario, Canada from Oct to May (short winter days and snow)). It will help you for dry camping but from my experience, it works great to keep the batteries toped up in storage AS LONG AS THE DISCONNECTS ARE DISCONNECTED. (If I do not flip the disconnect, it doesn't appear to be enough even for the phantom loads).

[Mike H 2002 Revolution]

I recently purchased the 5w replacement panel from fleetwood but haven't installed it yet

[JESTIMATOR2]

Thanks for the responses everyone...if it's only 5 watts I'm going to have to do something different! I'm going to install a 1000watt inverter and I want a panel big enough to re-charge my two 6 volt Interstate batteries within a fairly reasonable time when we are boondocking in Wal-Marts etc.

Has anyone wired a bigger panel with the two 6 volt battery set up? Just curious what has worked well for others.

Thanks again!

[michelb]

If you are installing a much larger panel, I believe you are basically starting from scratch. You can probably find better answers by searching the forum but I think many people run the wires down the fridge vent, in behind the fridge and out the bottom to get to the batteries. I believe a typical install will put the charge controller in the compartement next to the batteries and then run the wires from the controller to the batteries.

Depending on how what you are looking for and how your rig is setup, you might need to take some extra steps if you want to charge both the chassis and house battery banks with the panel.

[Steve1313]

We lost our battery charging solar panel in some high winds in Montana. I purchased a new panel from Camping World, 6 amp I think, for $49. Ran wire inside to the led on charge light below the front AC filter. Tried to connect to the old connector but no continuity. Cut off about 6" of old wire, spliced and charging just fine.

[Stan.Birch]

Winnebago uses a 15 watt solar panel, which does a great job of keeping the batteries up; and doesn't need charge controller. Our first set of batteries lasted 10 years

[terry735001]

i am 100% the charge controller installed in your Rv well not run what you want to install and could start a fire

if you want to install a new solar system get a new charge controller for the load you want to install make sure you look at the max amps in and dont go over that

[camaraderie]

Originally Posted by JESTIMATOR2

Thanks for the responses everyone...if it's only 5 watts I'm going to have to do something different! I'm going to install a 1000watt inverter and I want a panel big enough to re-charge my two 6 volt Interstate batteries within a fairly reasonable time when we are boondocking in Wal-Marts etc.

Has anyone wired a bigger panel with the two 6 volt battery set up? Just curious what has worked well for others.

Thanks again!

There is no difference in setup with 2 6V vs. 1 12V in hooking up a panel. You have 225 amp hours of capacity of which you can use about 115 before you should re-charge. The real question you must first answer is HOW MANY AMP HOURS do I use daily...and what % of that replacement should be provided by my solar panels.
Make the $150 buck or so investment in a TRUE battery monitor to answer this question before you invest thousands.
Then multiply those amp hours desired by 4 to get a good idea of how many watts of solar panels you'll need. (Example 115amphours = 460 watts of panels)
Note that if you are boondocking in Walmart and use 115 amp hours...you'll probably replace them with the ALTERNATOR driving to tomorrow's destination. So you won't need panels. Think this through before making an expensive investment. You need panels for extended boondocking in ONE place OR for simple battery topping while in storage.

[spritz]

Check out Manards, we just looked at them Tuesday. I was surprised by the cost I though cheap, I think around 50 bucks. It was about the size of the AC unit cover on the roof on our 82 Pace Arrow. Battery maintainer.
Plus they have another 11% off that. I think it endst the end of October.

[Doggy Daddy]

One key requirement with solar to remember is to have a quality charge controller to keep from over charging and boiling the batteries.
http://www.amsolar.com/home/amr/cpag...education.html