Solar Juice pack upgrade

[tina2]

Hi,
We just got our new 2022 Arctic Wolf 287BH three weeks ago. It came with a 150W (100W+50W) on the roof. We're thinking to add another 4x100W solar and replace the battery with 2 Battleborn lithium batteries.

I'd like to reuse the existing cables if possible, but the wiring is so weird. I googled, the solar charging controller wiring is like this.

From the roof, I can see Forest River uses regular MC4 solar panel cables.

But from the battery compartment, it becomes the yellow&white wires. (please see the picture.)

Probably they tried to bring down the cost? The wires didn't show the AWG size. Does anyone know that? I'm thinking to go (100W+100W serial) + (100W + 100W serial) + (100W factory) parallel. If the AWG couldn't hold it, I may need to re-do the whole wiring myself. Any thoughts?

PS. I posted my question on the "ForestRiver" forum, but no response. So I re-post it here.

[nvs4602]

You should count on starting over. To add lithium and more solar you'll need a new mppt charge controller capable of charging lithium batteries. The one you have now will not. Nor will it have the capacity to handle any more solar panels. The easiest for you maybe buying a 400W solar kit, renogy, grape solar, rich solar are a few to look at. You can call them to help you design your setup.

[DaddyRV779]

I agree...start over. Even if you had #10 wire (good for up to 30 A) you would need wire sized to handle 400W = 12 VDC @ 33.3 A, or at least #8.

ALSO...those nylon covered crimp splices are only good for about 15 A.

Good luck.