Adding more panels to RV?

[Sunking]

I read plenty. And as I said my current 24' Class C"

You cannot read chit or know wtf you are talking about. Try reading what you wrote.

You said:

Because in my experience a class a has plenty of room for 4 T105s..

. Now you change your story to Class C. You don't know the difference between Class A and C

[Wrybread]

I said Clacc C has limited space for batteries. Try reading some time.

I read plenty. And as I said my current 24' Class C (which is probably smaller than the Class C RV you helped with) easily fits my 4 Trojan T105s with room for 4 more if I needed them, which I don't. And it makes no difference which class of RV you were talking about, you're officially outed as having no meaningful experience with RV solar.

That's no big deal on it's own, lots of people have minimal experience with RV solar. But they don't say things like "Going off in a RV is all about unplugging and getting away from TV, phones, and internet. If you want all the comforts, use an RV park with electric hook ups and pull a car."

[Sunking]

Because in my experience a class a has plenty of room for 4 T105s..

Again you cannot read or comprehend worth a darn. You don't even know the difference between a Class A and Class C RV. I said:

The two I have designed and built are Class A Rv's, and any of those from the manufacture have large generators, Isolators, and a large battery box to work with with.

I said Clacc C has limited space for batteries. Try reading some time.

[Wrybread]

Debating you is like debating a kid. It's all ad hominem insults, confirmation bias, and what *must* be willful misinterpretation. Sure I need an alternative power source other than solar in my life. My house is powered by grid power for example, and so is my "drive in movie". But that has nothing to do with an RV.

An RV unless Class A is pretty much limited to a Toy 12 volt system that can only hold a pair of Golf Cart Batteries or L-16's unless modified. Compounding the issues of limited space and battery size limits you to 200 to 400 watts of panels. Let's not talk about Class B vans, as their is almost nothing you can do with them.

Are you basing that on your experience with your Air Stream when you were a kid in the 50s, or from renting crappy RVs more recently?

Because in my experience a class A has plenty of room for 4 T105s. Hell, so do most class B vans. I used to have a Class B with two T105s, since that's all I needed, but I could have easily fit 4 if I needed to. And my current class C fits 4 with room for more.

And incidentally, those 4 T105s take less space and weigh less than most generators.

And remember, I'm not saying no one needs a generator. I'm saying not everyone does. The fact that you still argue that everyone needs a gennie even as multiple people give evidence to the contrary is downright amazing. Especially given that a good chunk of your cited experience with RV solar is driving rental RVs!

And please do call me out if I give any bad or dangerous advice! And I'll continue do the same when you give dangerous, uninformed and outdated advice.

[Sunking]

And by the way [USER="2334"] I just bring a Honda eu2000.

You fool, you just admitted I am right, you need alternate power source.

[Sunking]

Whyebread your head is thick as mud and not much more useful. An RV unless Class A is pretty much limited to a Toy 12 volt system that can only hold a pair of Golf Cart Batteries or L-16's unless modified. Compounding the issues of limited space and battery size limits you to 200 to 400 watts of panels. Let's not talk about Class B vans, as their is almost nothing you can do with them. Any manufactured RV with or without Soar are equipped with Isolators and most come equipped with Genny's for a damn good reason. Any laymen can understand why, solar is to limited in power and will leave you with dead abused batteries. Your advice of not having redundant power source is as foolish as going out in a boat without ores or life jackets. Only a damn fool would do that, and sooner or later your luck is going to run out.

The two I have designed and built are Class A Rv's, and any of those from the manufacture have large generators, Isolators, and a large battery box to work with with. Adding solar is pretty simple, and you had better have alternate power source for any serious long term outings or else you wil trash a thousand dollars worth of batteries. All it takes is a $60 Isolator to get you out of trouble and save your batteries. A $60 Isolator can do more in one hours than 500 watt panel system in a day. Not hard to wrap your head around unless it is full of mud.

I only bust people who give bad or dangerous advice, and you give both.

[Wrybread]

And by the way Sunking, your experience with powering all the lights on a runway *still* doesn't mean you need to have an onboard generator, since that's a sometimes use and has nothing to do with typical rv use. A few times a year I run a "drive in movie" where I use a strong projector to shoot a movie onto a large screen or wall, and for that I use a generator. I just bring a Honda eu2000 for the day, works awesome. And that saves me from lugging the thing for the rest of the year, is quieter than any rv generator, cheaper, better, and easier to maintain. And the fact that it's portable means I don't need to put my rv right next to the thing, I can put it a good distance away from anyone so the noise doesn't bother people. But again, that has nothing to do with an rv.

[Wrybread]

But I will put money on it by saying that there are millions of people that want and use AC systems if they live in a 5000 sq ft home or a 200 sq ft trailer. People just don't like to be hot.

maybe, but certainly not in my experience, and it sounds like you're talking about people living full time in their RVs. But those people would still benefit greatly from solar for reasons other than their ac.

[SunEagle]

That hasn't been my experience at all. I guess it's true for the average person with no experience with solar, but anyone can learn to maintain their batteries. Takes about 30 seconds to get the super important basics (don't over discharge them), and another few minutes to get the rest.



Florida is a pretty extreme case, as are the mountains. I'm a happy medium here in California, and solar easily meets 100% of my needs. I wonder what the actual proportion of RVs is where people need air conditioning all the time, but I have a feeling it's pretty low.

Hard to know. But based on the number of people that live in a Southern climate and those I have talked to that live in RV's most if not all want and use and AC system to cool off.

Now I would imagine that there are many people that live in less hot or humid climates that don't care about AC so no big deal if they can't power a system.

But I will put money on it by saying that there are millions of people that want and use AC systems if they live in a 5000 sq ft home or a 200 sq ft trailer. People just don't like to be hot.

[Wrybread]

I still say you are in the minority of RV people that understand and know how to not abuse their solar / battery system.

That hasn't been my experience at all. I guess it's true for the average person with no experience with solar, but anyone can learn to maintain their batteries. Takes about 30 seconds to get the super important basics (don't over discharge them), and another few minutes to get the rest.

I will tell you that the vast majority of RV campers that I have met do not want to live off grid and wouldn't think about not using their AC system when it is hot. I guess living in Florida it is a little different then RVing up in the mountains.

Florida is a pretty extreme case, as are the mountains. I'm a happy medium here in California, and solar easily meets 100% of my needs. I wonder what the actual proportion of RVs is where people need air conditioning all the time, but I have a feeling it's pretty low.

[Wrybread]

Custom built two solar systems on rv's. Modeled my designs on the best practices used by commercial; builders, and spent my childhood in an Airstream with my dad and brothers as a kid on hunting trips. Not to mention rented a many of them with solar and guess what? Every one of them had a meager 250 watt panel. generator, and battery isolator because the pros know solar cannot keep up. Just came back from Myrtle Beach and spent 4 nights with Moron in his large RV we built his Solar System. Had dozen of other pilots comd look and ask for tips because he can do things not many other RVer's can do like park in deep shade, light up a campsite, light up a run way, charge up dozens of fairly large lithium batteries for planes and party all night long with music. I am a professional ,not a shade tree mechanic. We designed Moron's RV to do that. With the right planning, solar is not needed for 2 and 3 day excursions, just a show and tell or supplemental power to extens your batteries for a day before you have to run a genny or start the engine. Without a genny or Isolator, you have built yourself a trap with no way out. Sooner or later you wil have cloudy days and exhaust your batteries. Without a genny or Isolator you are SOL. Anyone with common sense can understand that.

Translation: you've never owned an RV with solar.

You had an Airstream when you were a kid, but it didn't have solar.

You've rented a couple of RVs (ha!) with crappy solar systems. I think your 250 watts of solar estimate on those is nonsense, they had 70 watt panels like every other rental. But who knows, maybe you found the one RV with decent solar. They still had abused batteries though.

Just came back from Myrtle Beach and spent 4 nights with Moron in his large RV we built his Solar System. Had dozen of other pilots comd look and ask for tips because he can do things not many other RVer's can do like park in deep shade, light up a campsite, light up a run way, charge up dozens of fairly large lithium batteries for planes and party all night long with music.

I'm confused. So you're saying that solar worked really well? Or are you saying that you had enough batteries to last without it? Or you used a generator?

Either way, your description of lighting up the campsite, people coming by to charge their gear, music all night, sounds like my RV too. All powered by solar.

With the right planning, solar is not needed for 2 and 3 day excursions

You make it sound like solar is super expensive or difficult to operate, and must be avoided at all costs. You clearly hate solar for some reason, but for the rest of us its an inexpensive, easy, set-it-and-forget-it way to have all the power we need. It's far easier, cheaper and more reliable than whatever you're calling "the right planning". There's simply no downside to it, despite all your gloom and doom ranting.

just a show and tell or supplemental power to extens your batteries for a day before you have to run a genny or start the engine

You think solar only extends batteries for a day or so??? Well I'm glad we fully established that you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about when it comes to the practical application of RV solar.

Because the pros know solar can't keep up

The "pros" are wrong. And you don't speak for them. And your opinions are uninformed and outdated.

ewarnerusa:

I'm of the same opinion as Wrybread, off grid campers exploring solar are often already well versed in power management and don't need an over the top, good enough for residential system to meet all of their power needs. That's why those of us successfully doing for a while have an eye rolling response with some of the advice offered in this sub forum. Solar most certainly does work terrific for the long weekend warrior off grid camper. I haven't needed a generator in years either. Hydrometer shows that my batteries are happy and healthy, they are kept at bursting full charge as the camper sits at home which is where it spends most of its time.

Well put ewarnerusa. There's a bizarre phenomenon on this forum of people without any real world RV solar experience, or without decent RV solar systems thinking that when people's real world experience contradicts their theory, it's real world experience that's got it wrong. Now at least I've got Sunking's experience with the practical application of RV solar well documented, so it's easier to put his "advice" into perspective for people who want to install solar.

[SunEagle]

RV park/full hook-up site campers are not typically interested in solar, they don't have power concerns because it comes from the grid. So trying to offer advice on how to put a solar system on a camper that provides the same utility as the full hook-up site is not helpful. You will come to the conclusion that it won't work, no big surprise and no meaningful knowledge is provided. Yes, there is the occasional full timer that is interested in this type of system. But their needs are not the same as a camper's.
I'm of the same opinion as Wrybread, off grid campers exploring solar are often already well versed in power management and don't need an over the top, good enough for residential system to meet all of their power needs. That's why those of us successfully doing for a while have an eye rolling response with some of the advice offered in this sub forum. Solar most certainly does work terrific for the long weekend warrior off grid camper. I haven't needed a generator in years either. Hydrometer shows that my batteries are happy and healthy, they are kept at bursting full charge as the camper sits at home which is where it spends most of its time.

I am glad it is working for you.

I still say you are in the minority of RV people that understand and know how to not abuse their solar / battery system.

I will tell you that the vast majority of RV campers that I have met do not want to live off grid and wouldn't think about not using their AC system when it is hot. I guess living in Florida it is a little different then RVing up in the mountains. So while solar may interest them they will not spend the money to install the panels because they are happy just connecting to the grid or using their alternator to recharge the coach batteries.

[ewarnerusa]

RV park/full hook-up site campers are not typically interested in solar, they don't have power concerns because it comes from the grid. So trying to offer advice on how to put a solar system on a camper that provides the same utility as the full hook-up site is not helpful. You will come to the conclusion that it won't work, no big surprise and no meaningful knowledge is provided. Yes, there is the occasional full timer that is interested in this type of system. But their needs are not the same as a camper's.
I'm of the same opinion as Wrybread, off grid campers exploring solar are often already well versed in power management and don't need an over the top, good enough for residential system to meet all of their power needs. That's why those of us successfully doing for a while have an eye rolling response with some of the advice offered in this sub forum. Solar most certainly does work terrific for the long weekend warrior off grid camper. I haven't needed a generator in years either. Hydrometer shows that my batteries are happy and healthy, they are kept at bursting full charge as the camper sits at home which is where it spends most of its time.

[Sunking]

Custom built two solar systems on rv's. Modeled my designs on the best practices used by commercial; builders, and spent my childhood in an Airstream with my dad and brothers as a kid on hunting trips. Not to mention rented a many of them with solar and guess what? Every one of them had a meager 250 watt panel. generator, and battery isolator because the pros know solar cannot keep up. Just came back from Myrtle Beach and spent 4 nights with Moron in his large RV we built his Solar System. Had dozen of other pilots comd look and ask for tips because he can do things not many other RVer's can do like park in deep shade, light up a campsite, light up a run way, charge up dozens of fairly large lithium batteries for planes and party all night long with music. I am a professional ,not a shade tree mechanic. We designed Moron's RV to do that. With the right planning, solar is not needed for 2 and 3 day excursions, just a show and tell or supplemental power to extens your batteries for a day before you have to run a genny or start the engine. Without a genny or Isolator, you have built yourself a trap with no way out. Sooner or later you wil have cloudy days and exhaust your batteries. Without a genny or Isolator you are SOL. Anyone with common sense can understand that.

[Wrybread]

Sorry, but drawing up charts and posting on an Internet forum doesn't count as hands on experience.

Have you owned an rv with solar?