Solar power on a travco.

[Paul_Ashley]

Hey all!\n\nI am looking to outfit my 77' travco 270 motorcade with solar panels!\nI am going to remove the Onan Generator, and in it's place I plan on installing a custom box to fit 4 deep cycle marine batteries. \n\nSo I figure I Need:\nSolar panels\nBatteries\nCharge Controller.....And.....\nInverter?\n\nIs the system AC or DC?\nI don't know how I can figure this out. I am guessing it is AC because it plugs into campsites 32Amp or whatever rating....\n\nSo my question is, if I plug the controller directly into the fusebox that the generator is hooked up to, could I bypass getting a power inverter altogether? \n\nThanks,\n\nPaul

[badbillybiker]

thinking along your lines, but planning on hanging onto my genset. I so far, measured my step battery compartment and fitted\nthree high amp batteries into that space. I cannot go further until my coach is returned to me. ( long story)\nBut, not pimping this site, but among the videos shown are some novel ideas and some answers for my searches.\nAgain, ripped for my later perusal and references using a-tube catcher.. my best & fave ripper.\nA starting point for someone?\nThe site is NOMADIC FANATIC & his cat JAX.\nSee what you think... FWIW\nBBB\nremember, there is always the delete button...\n.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-wTnszqJvY

[badbillybiker]

HHmm.. didn't lose this pic. Different folder...\nHere is the way my step batteries are fitted...\nSolar will come later. O'Reilly batteries... \nHTH...\nBBB

[77Travco]

Motorhomes have both AC and DC systems. I wouldn't get rid of the genset, maybe go with a smaller Honda unit if your current genset is toast.\n Keep it simple... Just set up your solar panel to help charge your deep cycle house batteries that already exist.

[Kckalden]

Solar is a wonderful way to go but you need to do some home work. First let me say you won't be running your A/C off of it. \n\nWhen looking at installing solar, energy in and energy out is the game. Let's look at energy out.\n\nHow many amps does your refrigerator use? How often will it be running? It will be the biggest consumer. An incandescent interior light bulb might burn 1.4 amps per hour. Not much until you multiply that times 24. Converting to LED will change that number to about .1 to .4 amps. A huge savings. To run anything on A/C will require an inverter. How big of one? Depends. Are you planning to run a microwave? Or just a laptop? The process of converting from D/C to A/C will cause some waist. \n\nLet's talk about energy storage. Hear amp hours in the mane of the game. The more amp hour capacity the better. I carried 460 amp hour of storage in my sailboat. I never used more than 60 amp hours in a day. \n\nYou don't want to use more than 1/2 you batteries capicaty. This does not mean you can draw it down to 6 volts. Sorry I don't have the exact number but it might be closer to 12.5 volts. This brings me to the next consideration. How do you know what you consuming?\n\nI used a battery monitor. It monitored amps in and out. Voltage and total amps used. When I anchored in would check my monitor. If I was drawing amps I would find it. \n\nNow energy in. Solar panels are at their peak when aimed directly at the sun. This is hard to do on something that moves ar 70 miles per hour. There for you will need to mount them flat. So in you'll calculations you will need to only allow for 5 hour of peek performance. That's it. Nothing else. If you have a 180 watt array then 180 x5. But it gets worse.\n\nYour typical 12 volt solar panel is rated at about 17 volts. Since your fully charged battery is only 12.7 volts the difference between the 12.7 and 17 is lost wattage. This means your 180 watt bank will be considerably less. But there is a cure.\n\nWhen selecting a controller get a MPPT controller. It will do a little magic and by making some internal conversions and give you 100 percent performance or even a little better. \n\nOne last tidbit. If you wire your panels in series and one panel becomes shaded it will pull down the performance of all of the panels.

[Kckalden]

Solar is a wonderful way to go but you need to do some home work. First let me say you won't be running your A/C off of it. \n\nWhen looking at installing solar, energy in and energy out is the game. Let's look at energy out.\n\nHow many amps does your refrigerator use? How often will it be running? It will be the biggest consumer. An incandescent interior light bulb might burn 1.4 amps per hour. Not much until you multiply that times 24. Converting to LED will change that number to about .1 to .4 amps. A huge savings. To run anything on A/C will require an inverter. How big of one? Depends. Are you planning to run a microwave? Or just a laptop? The process of converting from D/C to A/C will cause some waist. \n\nLet's talk about energy storage. Hear amp hours in the mane of the game. The more amp hour capacity the better. I carried 460 amp hour of storage in my sailboat. I never used more than 60 amp hours in a day. \n\nYou don't want to use more than 1/2 you batteries capicaty. This does not mean you can draw it down to 6 volts. Sorry I don't have the exact number but it might be closer to 12.5 volts. This brings me to the next consideration. How do you know what you consuming?\n\nI used a battery monitor. It monitored amps in and out. Voltage and total amps used. When I anchored in would check my monitor. If I was drawing amps I would find it. \n\nNow energy in. Solar panels are at their peak when aimed directly at the sun. This is hard to do on something that moves ar 70 miles per hour. There for you will need to mount them flat. So in you'll calculations you will need to only allow for 5 hour of peek performance. That's it. Nothing else. If you have a 180 watt array then 180 x5. But it gets worse.\n\nYour typical 12 volt solar panel is rated at about 17 volts. Since your fully charged battery is only 12.7 volts the difference between the 12.7 and 17 is lost wattage. This means your 180 watt bank will be considerably less. But there is a cure.\n\nWhen selecting a controller get a MPPT controller. It will do a little magic and by making some internal conversions and give you 100 percent performance or even a little better. \n\nOne last tidbit. If you wire your panels in series and one panel becomes shaded it will pull down the performance of all of the panels.

[Paul_Ashley]

Wow thanks! \nI forgot to note that I have already replaced my air conditioning unit with a small attic fan and will be running the fridge on propane. I am thinking of simply putting a single solar panel wired up to a controller to recharge the two batteries connected in the bay behind the passengers seat. Although the previous owner cut the chord of the positice terminal so I can only imagine what that entails. Are those two batteries wired separate because obviously one is for starting the engine and the other operates the DC lights and whatnot in the cabin?\n\nIf so, to me it would make sense to wire a controller and panel to that battery to keep it juiced so I have lights when I camp rustic.

[Kckalden]

I would not know about your battery configuration plus I am sure a lot of tinkering has gone on in the past 40 years.\n\nI did not mean to discourage use of solar. If you are off grid it is a fantastic way to go. By being able to tilt my panels into the sun I stayed on the hook for 7 days in the dry tortugas with out starting the diesel. The panels did great. We ran the refrigeration watched movies at night on the lap top and I ran my CPAP to sleep at night. \n\nWe have not bought our Travco yet but my wife said "good, when your refurbishing it you can convert it to LED. It is good to know she is on board.

[77Travco]

Are those two batteries wired separate because obviously one is for starting the engine and the other operates the DC lights and whatnot in the cabin?

\nMy 1977 model 270 has 3 batteries under the step. One is the engine battery and the other two are deep cycle house batteries.\nAll three batteries are charged by the alternator when the engine is running. The alternator charge wire goes to a battery isolator mounted on the passenger side of the engine compartment. From the isolator, separate charge wires run to the house and engine battery. The house batteries also can be charged by the converter when plugged into shore power. My converter is located in the rear near the water heater.\nThe generator also has its own battery as well. That battery only gets charged from the genset when it is running.