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Post by mtcowgirl on Aug 8, 2017 15:04:11 GMT -5
Another question for Durango Gold owners. Have any of you installed solar panels on your unit or use portable solar panels?
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Post by Chuck on Aug 8, 2017 19:44:57 GMT -5
mtcowgirl Of the newer owners I do not believe none have, but that dozen't mean someone has not  Chuck & Hildi in Ohio |
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Post by ronc on Sept 13, 2017 8:46:58 GMT -5
Solar panels are normally used along with a very big battery bank and solar controllers for those who like to boondock. This isn't me, as I am a full hook up, two air conditioners and microwave kind of guy.
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Post by mtcowgirl on Sept 13, 2017 13:29:08 GMT -5
Thanks. We boondock and I was hoping to add solar to help keep batteries charged, mostly for lights, monitors, etc. We have a generator for powering microwave, a/c and such when needed which will also charge batteries. Still waiting on trailer so have some time to do more research.
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Post by ronc on Sept 14, 2017 11:37:43 GMT -5
Several big batteries are heavy so take that into consideration when ordering your rig as they reduce the CCC.
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Post by joecamper on Sept 14, 2017 15:53:40 GMT -5
You can find a lot of information regarding solar panels at RV.Net. It's a heavily used forum and they cover a lot of different types of campers.
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Post by nvguy on Sept 15, 2017 23:01:27 GMT -5
You can go to the solar panel sites, like gpelectric.com/applications/rv-marine-power, they have a calculator page where you can do all the calculations to properly size the panels and batteries according to what you want to run. |
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Post by Chuck on Sept 17, 2017 13:51:50 GMT -5
The two Interstate deep cycle batteries that will come with your 5th wheel are pretty good, they lasted over five hours with main living area an bedroom on by mistake in our driveway Ugh ! Didn't test to see how low the batteries got since I pulled in the trailer right away when I found out I had not pulled it in to my shop  We are like ronc, DW wants full hookups, both air conditioner's running full blast, TV on etc LOL Chuck |
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Post by tom1500 on Sept 20, 2017 9:12:46 GMT -5
WOW you got two good batteries! My dealer tried to give me one no name battery. had to pay extra to get an Interstate battery
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Post by vicseek on Sept 22, 2017 13:14:01 GMT -5
I ordered my new 2018 with the weekender kit and it came with one 160w solar panel and PWM charge controller from Gopower. Since this summer I added two more 160w solar panels from Gopower and they're easy to install and hook into the existing panel. Search youtube Gonewiththewynns and they do some really good tutorials of their setup. I also installed 4 deep cell 6 volt (series-parallel) trojan T-125 batteries. I have about a 450 amp hr system for now with room to add two more batteries soon. My goal is to add three more panels and switch the charger controller to a MPPT controller so I can boondock with out using my generator (5kw onan) too much. Oh yeah, I also installed a 2000w inverter/100amp charger combo from Gopower as well.
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Post by jetzen on Sept 22, 2017 14:24:48 GMT -5
I ordered my new 2018 with the weekender kit and it came with one 160w solar panel and PWM charge controller from Gopower. Since this summer I added two more 160w solar panels from Gopower and they're easy to install and hook into the existing panel. Search youtube Gonewiththewynns and they do some really good tutorials of their setup. I also installed 4 deep cell 6 volt (series-parallel) trojan T-125 batteries. I have about a 450 amp hr system for now with room to add two more batteries soon. My goal is to add three more panels and switch the charger controller to a MPPT controller so I can boondock with out using my generator (5kw onan) too much. Oh yeah, I also installed a 2000w inverter/100amp charger combo from Gopower as well. So I'm a little confused. In this post you claim to have installed a 2000W inverter, yet in this thread kzfamilyforum.com/thread/1747/stock-inverter-power you claim you have a 1200W inverter installed on you trailer that you do not know what it is for.
I guess my question is why install another when you already have one and don't know what the one you have actually operates. Maybe I missed something somewhere.
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Post by vicseek on Oct 1, 2017 0:04:01 GMT -5
I bought my solar panels and new inverter/charger/transfer switch before I even did my walk thru on the new rig. When I was at the dealership doing my walk thru I noticed it came with the 1200w inverter. I was surprised since I did not request one on the build sheet and nobody new what it was for. I don't have a residential fridge! I'm staying with my GP-IC-2000-12 (http://gpelectric.com/products/inverter-charger-ic-series) it has a built in transfer switch, 50amp power pass thru, inverter remote, and it's a 100amp charger. I'm going to wire it into the MAIN AC panel instead of creating a sub panel so many others do. I'll flip the breaker for my stock converter and install soft starts for my main AC. With that setup, i'll be able to power anything in the coach as long as I stay at or below 2k amps. I have no idea what this free inverter is powering, it's useless in my setup.
Basically I have a free 1200w inverter i'm going to remove and either sell or give away.
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Post by splicer on Nov 13, 2017 12:50:48 GMT -5
We have the offgrid package on the new 2018 durango 380 FLF that we have on order. It will come with 1 solar panel polycrystalline the cheap one and 1000 whatt inverter. I am not sure what charge controller . I did the math and this will barly keep the residential refrigerator running but we did it for more of an experiment and figure we can add more. YouTube called duet Justus just did a video on solar and showed a link to a good website to calculate all of your power needs. They do a good job explaining it they are fulltimers.
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