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Having drawn some inspiration from many other truck camper enthusiasts I see online, I have ordered the necessary parts to get my own solar setup mounted and operating. Just waiting on the order to show up. I am pumped. I went with a flexible 100 watt panel that I will secure to my fiberglass roof of my Northern Lite. I know the flexible panels aren’t as much of a proven type of panel but I thought I would give it a shot. Worst case scenario is I change it out later for a standard glass panel.
Ultimate plan is to have the 100 watt panel on the roof and potentially add a portable panel later if needed. I am sure to have some questions regarding this system when I am in the install stage.2008 2500hd Silverado Duramax
2011 Northern Lite 8.5 lite
2006 Wildcat 27bhwb fifth wheel
2009 Lance 830 (sold)I ordered my panel and controller through Windy Nation. Its their PWM 30amp model. This controller will handle any amount of panels I ever add. I went the PWM route to keep the costs lower as this is my first jump into solar. Down the road as I change rigs I may adjust the type of solar I use as I figure out my needs.
2008 2500hd Silverado Duramax
2011 Northern Lite 8.5 lite
2006 Wildcat 27bhwb fifth wheel
2009 Lance 830 (sold)The supplies for my solar install arrived a short while ago and today I had the chance to do most of the install. I used the vent from the grey tank (wires running right beside the pipe) to run the wires from the panel on the roof to the cabinet where the sink is. The battery compartment is in this cabinet so the wire lengths were quite short. For now I mounted the controller out of sight in this cabinet until I decide if I need it visible. I have a trimetric battery monitor so I can see whats happening with the batteries already.
I got a high of 5.2 amps at one point but settled in around 3 to 4 amps as there was some haze high up in the sky. I really think I’m going to love this setup as I am kind of OCD about power conservation and always aware of what kind of amps I’m drawing form the batteries. It will be so nice to have the battery mostly full or full right up until late in the day when the sun goes down.2008 2500hd Silverado Duramax
2011 Northern Lite 8.5 lite
2006 Wildcat 27bhwb fifth wheel
2009 Lance 830 (sold)Here is the panel just sitting out for testing while I was wiring everything up. I was pleased to be getting 5.2 amps with this setup with an old cheap extension cord that I adapted to use for an extension to test it.
<img src=”http://
”What I am most surprised about is that after I moved the panel to my camper roof I was still getting .6 amps while parked under by RV storage roof. I figured that would be closer to 0.
2008 2500hd Silverado Duramax
2011 Northern Lite 8.5 lite
2006 Wildcat 27bhwb fifth wheel
2009 Lance 830 (sold)OK. I have a question. I was playing with the camper today and the new solar system and discovered a possible issue. No matter where I move the panel or what I cover the panel with the controller never reads below .4 amps. Is this normal? I would figure that if I covered the panel it should read 0 amps on the controller. With the sun on the panel it seems to operate normally. Amps are jumping around a little (between 3 to 5+) which I think is normal but when its covered, it goes down to .4 amps and doesn’t move.
Yesterday I was surprised that under my Rv storage roof it was still reading positive amps but now I’m wondering if that was part of this issue.2008 2500hd Silverado Duramax
2011 Northern Lite 8.5 lite
2006 Wildcat 27bhwb fifth wheel
2009 Lance 830 (sold)Ok. So I re-did the solar today with good results. When I disconnected everything to mount the panel and wiring on the roof in its final resting place the controller reset itself and it seems to be operating normally now. No more .4 amps under the roof. Its bouncing between .1 and .2 which seems to make sense. Yesterday in the dark it was still reading .4 so obviously something wasn’t right.
Here is a picture of the flexible panel bonded to the roof.
I mounted the panel just off center so the junction box on the panel wasn’t sitting on the ridge of the camper roof. Yes, it bothers me that it’s not centered but I felt that was better than putting stress on the junction box as the panel needed to be folded over the ridge. It’s bonded to the roof using some double sided tape and then dicor lap sealant around the edges. The wiring has some dabs of dicor to hold them in place. Some painters tape is still up there on the wiring until the dicor sets fully.
I can already see that the best setup would be this roof panel and a portable to chase the sun. I am fairly sure I will be adding a portable panel to the mix but I will give this setup a good run before jumping on that.
Tomorrow morning my son and I are going to give this system a test drive as we are heading up to a lake fairly close to home to do some fly fishing for a couple days. Of course its supposed to be cloudy and rainy so this test won’t be perfect but it’s still better than nothing.2008 2500hd Silverado Duramax
2011 Northern Lite 8.5 lite
2006 Wildcat 27bhwb fifth wheel
2009 Lance 830 (sold)Alright. I just returned from a trip from Vancouver B.C. to the Sequoias National park in California and up the West coast. The solar system did an awesome job of keeping up with all of our power needs. I did end up adding the portable panel to the mix and one day in particular it came into use quite well. With the daytime temps over 100 degrees we were able to park in the shade and have the panel in the sun. With the ability to charge easily we were using using fans at night quite a bit to stay cooler and other power options that we would have not used before solar. All with no fear of recharging the next day. It was so much easier than always being on edge every time something is switched on.
Parked in the shade:
Portable flexible panel in the sun:
All I used to run to the portable panel was a 50’electrical extension cord tied into the controller in the camper. I have a pigtail with a plug hard wired into the controller that I simply plug the cord into. I figured this extension cord serves two purposes this way. When at an electrical site (rare) it can be used if the panel is far away but when at a non hook up location used for my portable solar needs. Just as this above picture was taken I was getting 5.2 amps of charging. Gotta love that with an old extension cord.2008 2500hd Silverado Duramax
2011 Northern Lite 8.5 lite
2006 Wildcat 27bhwb fifth wheel
2009 Lance 830 (sold)
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