30.5 Eagle HT Solar Findings

[Each]

It took a little work to reverse engineer the solar prep from GoPower on my 2019 30.5 MBOK so I figured I’d share my findings in case anyone could use them.

From the roof, my negative black 8 gauge wire went to ground via a screw with a star washer behind the little wood panel to the right of the battery box. The red positive 8 gauge wire ran to the wall near the bathroom where the Go Power sticker was(on the hallway side of the wall). It was capped with a wire nut. Another capped 8 gauge red wire ran from the same spot in the wall to a 30 amp auto resetting breaker mounted on the back side of the panel with the battery disconnect switch. I was able to grab both of the wire nut capped wires from the wall by removing the outlet above the bathroom sink. These are the only 8 gauge wires I’ve found on my camper so if you see 8 gauge you’ve probably found them.

[Nature Ist]

Each, I am interested in hearing more about your Go Power solar prep wiring, I assume you are installing roof mounted panels. I have a 2019 30.5 CKTS on order and expect delivery in the next 4-5 weeks. I have been trying to research exactly what Jayco does in the "solar prep" and cannot find anything anywhere, including at the Go Power websites.
I assume if you found capped #8 wires in the wall near the label, the intent was to install the charge controller at that location. Did you trace the wires for the outside ground level connector also? I assume they run directly to the battery compartment.
What solar are you installing?

[chuck5395]

Check out my thread here:
https://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f...tml#post622921

Starting at post #4 I show what I found when installing my roof solar panels.

[Each]

Nature 1st:

I think Jayco/Go Power’s intention is to have you install the controller at the location of the capped wires but everything I read says to put the controller close to the batteries so I will splice the wires and use the full run to get close to the batteries.

The small connector on the side had allots wiring in the partitioned off area behind the panel holding my battery disconnect.

I am installing a single 300W panel running to a Victron 100/30 controller on to the battery. Additionally I’ll be using Victron’s Battery meter with a temperature sensor to (via Bluetooth) send data to the controller for it to intelligently handle battery charging.

[kcordell57]

So was there a white wire at the access point? You have to have a - to connect to the control panel and supposedly there are white for the solar.

[Each]

The black, negative wire ran from the roof port, past the Go Power sticker parallel with the two red wires mentioned, all the way down to the battery box to ground. While the red wire was clipped and wire nutted behind the sticker, the black was not. If you install the controller at the sticker location, you will just need to cut the black wire using half as the leg to the panel and the other half as the leg to the battery.

[sfarw]

Do you have any pictures or details on your setup? Where is the solar entry plate located on the roof? I am picking up a 2020 30.5MBOK this weekend and I want to get started on a solar setup right away. Thanks for posting this info!

[TCeagle]

Wow, what a discovery process. I would suggest that anyone looking for wire get a tone generator wire finder. This really helps. As I was trying to figure this out, the solar prep wires was found on a 30A automatic circuit breaker behind the master battery switch. I saw a black wire connected to this CB but soon discovered that was the charge wire from the tow vehicle, and yes + positive from the 7 pin connector is black, while the - negative is white. My tone generator indicated the solar prep wires were behind the wall (no sticker where the go power controller would go) I was able to retrieve them enough to identify but there was not enough slack to get to the place in the wire where I could make the connection between the #8 wires. I just made the splice in the open space around where the bathroom fan is. This setup is for a 2020 28RSOK.