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dmacd · 11-23-2020, 04:19 PM

Hello everyone, I'm a couple months out from buying a travel trailer and am just in the starting stages of planning out a solar / generator setup for it. I work remotely and have been wanting to have a travel setup I can work out of. I've been spending a couple months buying overpriced things for my truck to make it livable, and then realized that not having a bathroom reduces you to the whole...bucket situation, and I just dont think I love freedom that much to want to use that. Decided to switch gears and get a small travel trailer that has a decent bathroom/shower. I'm very new to the travel trailer work so leaning towards name brand I know that has good owner reviews.

Right now I'm eyeing the Winnebago Micro Minnie 2100BH, with thoughts of removing the bottom bunk and installing anywhere from 12v 200ah-400ah of lifepo4 to keep it inside the insulated trailer, and having the whole 12V and 110ac systems of the trailer run off of that (with an inverter somewhere in there I believe). I'm buying it with the sole idea to be 90% away from shore power, but I still need enough power to run things like the fridge, and keep my macbook charged every day while I work remotely, and plenty of buffer space in between. Also planning on buying a gas generator as a backup plan if its cloudy for long stretches. I dont really plan on needing the AC or the heater, i'd rather just drive somewhere where the temperature is nice, but it would be nice to be able to run it for an hour or so every once in a while.

I'm a complete beginner at this sort of stuff, and would prefer not to burn down anything, so I'm trying to get an idea of what a DIY setup would entail, or if it would be worth the money to just buy the batteries and solar panels and pay someone who knows what they are doing to install everything. The solar panel and battery bank looks within my ability, but I have no idea about the safety of things.

I guess my main question would be, once I have a solar battery bank setup with, how do I go from the inverter feeding off that battery into the trailer systems? It doesnt seem as simple as somehow plugging the trailer directly into the inverter with a common power plug.

Anyway, sorry for the huge wall of text, appreciate any help or experience in the matter.

Also, if you now anyone in the treasure valley area in idaho that does this sort of installation, let me know

tuffr2 · 11-23-2020, 04:54 PM

I think a gasoline powered generator is a must. Sorry can not help with solar other than the more the better.

I want to interject some reality. Like where do you plan to spend December, January, February? Night time temps will require heat. That is what I can add. A travel trailer is not insulated like a house. They get cold fast and easy and will require some sort of heat.

Winter time night temps get cold in Florida, South Texas and South Arizona I know.

You would need to get into Mexico to stay warm with no heat in the winter months.

I was a snowbird for 6 years looking to stay warm in winter which is easy during the day but nights not so easy.

Nwcid · 11-23-2020, 04:54 PM

This is a huge question with a wide variety of answers.

The big thing you have to answer is what your ability is vs how much you want to spend. Right now you are talking $2000-$4000 in batteries, $1500-$2500 for inverter and charge controller and you will still need to buy solar panels. On top of that I have at least $500 just in wiring and connecting parts in my system.

In my case when teleworking with computers, lights, TV's general daily life stuff on I pull about 20 amps on average. For every 100 watts of solar you get about 5 amps at peak performance. At minimum you would need about 400 watts, at peak power just to maintain and then even more to make up for what what used over night.

Depend on how your RV is wired, typically you will wire your inverter one of two ways. If you have a 30 amp system and a large enough inverter you can put it inline with your shore power. If you have 50 amp service you can do an inline system but it will only power stuff on that side of the circuit (this is how I wired mine). The other option is to create a sub panel and just put the circuit you want on that system. Look up common brands on inverter and all of them will show these 3 systems in their manuals.

I would expect the cost to have some else install this would be roughly 25-50% of the cost of components.

Tomahawk · 11-23-2020, 07:17 PM

You are going to get a lot opinions on this topic.
It helps if you understand a few things.
1. Power over time is the most useful calculation you can make. For example, a 100 watt item ran for 5 hours is 500 Watt Hours (WHr). If you bought 400AH of 12V Lithium batteries you can draw down to 80% state of charge you end up with 320 usable Amp hours, which really means you have 320Ah x 12V = 3840 WHr of power.
2. Power is voltage times current. So, for a 1200 watt inverter running at max power, the input side is 12V at 100 Amps and the output side has 120V at 10 Amps. Before anyone corrects this, it isn't exactly right because the inverter has an efficiency and more relevant the output is a sine wave and has to be integrated over time but it is close enough for talking purposes.
3. Your trailer will have two electrical systems, a 120 system that powers all the 120 circuits and a 12V system that runs the 12V circuits. They are coupled with a converter that is powered off the 120 side and charges the 12V battery and supplies power to the 12V side when plugged into shore power. When not on shore power the 120V system doesn't work. Shore power can be in the form of an inverter, generator, or utility company.
4. You will be better off with an MPPT charge controller because they are more efficient and you can have the circuit between the charge controller and solar panels at a higher voltage. High voltage panels are cheaper and you can use smaller gauge wires.
5. You can setup your solar a few basic ways and each has advantages and disadvantages. One way is to connector you solar to you existing 12V side. Disadvantage is no 120V. Another is create a completely new system with the solar panels and solar batteries connected to an inverter, and the shore power plugged into the inverter. Upside is everything works, downside is there are a lot of parasitic draws. Another variation is setup like the first option but add an inverter and only provide 120 to few outlets strategically located (this is what I did).
Good luck.

lanztek · 11-23-2020, 11:18 PM

Check out Will Prowse at https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/

Also check out his YouTube channel. A ton of great info and answer to every one of your questions

Mark_K5LXP · 11-24-2020, 06:43 AM

All the above, and I would add two things.

Know where you're going before you start buying stuff. All the anecdotal information of what works for someone else is curious, interesting and sometimes useful, but don't treat that as a road map for you. I build battery and solar systems with a spreadsheet. Makes creating scenarios of insolation, storage, efficiencies and loads easy to create and modify.

A watt saved is two watts you don't have to make and store. So anything you can economize on will give your system more operating overhead and possibly smaller and less expensive. Folks start out with the idea they need to run all the same stuff they have at home with limitless power from a socket and create (or give up on) an onerous, complicated and expensive setup that they really don't actually need.

The good news is solar scales fairly easily. If you put X watts on your roof and have Y Ah of storage, after a period of time and actual use you can adjust one or both to get where you need to be without having to start over. But you need to be in the ballpark, so do the planning stage first.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

Old Scout · 11-24-2020, 07:13 AM

….lot of good info here, and I am sure you will get a lot more on this forum....as a recent solar "newbie," you need to estimate how much power your "life-style" will demand and design a system that meets that estimate....400-600 watts of solar, 400-600 amp/hrs of bats, and 2000 watt inverter is a good target. If you start smaller and "upgrade" later--the learning curve is steep and costs will go up. Since your into sustainment-- ability to tilt the panels for max efficient during winter months and a back up genset are good features.

Combining solar and RVing is very popular, but equipment is expensive. You can buy a lot of electricity for the price. Staying warm in winter and cool in summer is also complicated, eg park in sun for power/park in shade to stay cool. Its all doable but I tend to think solar tends to be more "romantic" than practical, except on fairly large scale....good luck....

Persistent · 11-24-2020, 08:36 AM

I just did a search for “Winnebago Micro Minnie 2100BH Winter”. Is the 2100BH rigged for winter use of the plumbing? I got back no sites using the word “winter”. Small travel trailers often are not well designed for “full time living”. That is salesmen’s talk for it doesn’t work in winter. Maybe iRV2 members with the same model may relate freezing weather experiences.

I have a 21 foot Kodiak Cub. It was advertised as “All Season” and having an “enclosed and heated underbelly”. The kitchen sink water pipe froze in 4 hours when temperature dropped from 34 deg to 28 degrees. The fresh water tank temperature dropped from 50 deg to 33 deg after 3 days of freezing night time temperatures. The water pump froze and burst. Freeze damage is not covered by warranty. I had to use a hair dryer to melt the ice in the drain valve to drain the tank.

A Winnebago is a much better brand than Dutchmen Kodiak. There are others. Some new Airstream's are rated for 17 deg F. Arctic Fox is often cited as winter hardy as are a few other brands. I recommend you do your homework. Dealers will rarely talk openly about short comings of their products. Deflection and innuendo are normal tactics. Look for double pane windows and enclosed dump valves.

Going south for warmer weather is a time tested good strategy. The Brownsville area in South Texas is about as far as you can get without crossing the border. Even there you may have 2 or 3 nights a year with freezing nights. South Florida is also good. However, there are ways to deal with a few days of freezing weather.

You can probably heat it just fine in freezing weather. There will probably be moisture accumulation issues. It will use a lot of propane for furnace heating. The furnace fan will consume a substantial amount of 12 volt power in extremely cold weather.

All of these things can be overcome. Many people do it. It will require a lot of learning, some of it via the “hard way”.

I wish you good luck and happy trails ahead!

BobinICT · 11-24-2020, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lanztek

Check out Will Prowse at https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/

Also check out his YouTube channel. A ton of great info and answer to every one of your questions

Yes, he is one smart chap. I just bought his book, delivered yesterday. I'm a hard, or soft back book kind of guy. Just have flipped through it a little. Tons of good information. I would recommend OP obtain a copy. Going to be a great Thanksgiving read.

Also, OP might want to check out The Solar Electricity Handbook | Solar Photovoltaic Book

Very informative all the way to powering buildings. May be a little overkill but also worth the read.

Bigfin · 11-24-2020, 09:26 AM

FWIW,,,One of my basic tenets is that "things break"...If one does the study necessary to do an install such as solar/batteries etc., when the system breaks down you will most probably be able to do the repair yourself, as opposed to the frustration of finding a "good" repair shop somewhere. As others have noted this is not rocket science and there is a ton of online help!...Good luck!...

dmacd · 12-04-2020, 03:18 PM

Whoops, posted a thread here and totally forgot

Thaks for all the info/replies, I put a deposit down for a 2100BH yesterday, supposed to show up in Feb, very stoked. It has the adventure and comfort packages, as well as something Winnebago called the "open house package", which was basically the solar and motorized jacks.

Before dropping a bunch of money on a solar setup, I'm going to swap out the battery for a 100ah lifepo4 I already have and set up a 2000W inverter with a couple easily accessible plugs and just kind of forget the 110ac side altogether for now, if I really find myself wanting to use the factory outlets I'll get a better inverter for that and wire it into the 110 side.

TT comes with a 100W solar panel on top and a plug on the side. I believe it only for Zamp solar panels, and the plug on the side looks like a standard SAE connector. Been reading online that its as simple as making a small cable to reverse to polarity and I can use my portable 300w panel, anyone tried this?

Also to top it all off, keeping a 2000w generator on hand. Going to be traveling with my cat and if I'm not able to escape the weather, need a fallback to run ac/furnace fan without worrying about running out of power.

About $300 bucks in extra parts for this way, can always upgrade later is my thinking.

Anyway, I have now updating you all on my life, I hope all of you who were anxiously awaiting my reply have been calmed.

Tomahawk · 12-04-2020, 08:53 PM

When I looked at the "Solar Ready" trailers a few years ago that just meant that the plug on the outside was wired to the battery. You had to connect the Solar Charge Controller to the plug and then the panel to charge controller. When I setup my system bought a plug off Amazon and put the Charge Controller inside the pass through. Then on the outside I just plug in my 270 Watt Panel. I have a but 200 AH of flooded lead acid so my usable capacity is only slightly higher than your one Lipo. My only real point is make sure you are plugging your 300W panel into a charge controller and not directly into the battery.
If your 100W panel and 300W panel are the same voltage, I think you can parallel connect them to get 400W. I don't think it works if one panel is 12V and the other is 24V. I used a 24V panel and a MPPT Charge controller so I could run smaller gauge wire between the charge controller and panel.

dmacd · 12-04-2020, 11:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tomahawk

When I looked at the "Solar Ready" trailers a few years ago that just meant that the plug on the outside was wired to the battery. You had to connect the Solar Charge Controller to the plug and then the panel to charge controller. When I setup my system bought a plug off Amazon and put the Charge Controller inside the pass through. Then on the outside I just plug in my 270 Watt Panel. I have a but 200 AH of flooded lead acid so my usable capacity is only slightly higher than your one Lipo. My only real point is make sure you are plugging your 300W panel into a charge controller and not directly into the battery.
If your 100W panel and 300W panel are the same voltage, I think you can parallel connect them to get 400W. I don't think it works if one panel is 12V and the other is 24V. I used a 24V panel and a MPPT Charge controller so I could run smaller gauge wire between the charge controller and panel.

I have a Renogy dc -> dc/solar charging controller set up in my truck that I'm gonna move over to the TT and at some point run some cable back to the trailer so I can charge while driving. Looks like the included solar charger is also in the pass through, hoping its not going to be too annoying either rerouting the cables near to the battery or just mount the renogy unit in its place

Phaselag · 12-10-2020, 09:25 AM

Make sure you check the specs/capabilities of the renogy combo charger's solar side and your panel. Typically the combo's are weaker on solar than the stand-alone solar chargers. You may be end up happier leaving the combo in the truck and adding a dedicated solar charge controller for your portable panel. Renogy makes several that are not expensive.