Solar charging

[Phil miller]

I connected a 15 watt solar panel with a charge controller to the solar connection on the camper to keep the batteries charged over the winter. I removed the fuse that my technician said would kill all power to the camper so there should have been no draw on the batteries . This spring when I checked the batteries were dead. What did I do wrong?

[Mustang65]

What year model TT do you have? Was it the 30Amp fuse at the battery box that you removed? How many wires do you have connected to the TT's battery? 1 Negative (to frame) one Positive to TT? Maybe the emergency break-away switch power? How many batteries?

Was the battery FULLY charged when you put the TT in storage? You also have to understand that a 15Watt SOLAR panel will only put out a little over 1 Amp for an hour or 2 during the day, after that it is a lot less than 1 amp. Is the SOLAR panel exposed to FULL sun all day while in storage?

When you put the new battery in, and with the FUSE still removed, check to see if you have power in the TT. If the battery was not fully topped off before letting the SOLAR charger do its work, there may not have been enough SOLAR power to get it to full charge.

I normally do not recommend less than 50 watts of SOLAR to keep the battery charged. Due to the winter sun angle and lower amount of sun power.


Don
My Registry

RVing with SOLAR

[ALJO]

You talk about batteries..............think you're better off with 27 watt.
But if you did removed the fuse it might have also disconnected the solar hookup. Just check your schematic.

[Mustang65]

Is the TT's SOLAR connection actually connected to the battery?

Don
My Registry

RVing with SOLAR

[Phil miller]

My trailer is a 2017 White Hawk. We bought it last spring. It was the 30a fuse near the batteries I removed. I will need to check on the number of wires connected to the battery. I did check the solar plug on the tongue with a volt meter last fall before I connected the solar panel. It read a little over 12v. I have a 100w panel I use while we are camping and it works great. I was looking at an 80w panel, but I don’t want to buy one if it’s not going to work. I don’t want to leave my 100w out over the winter. Thanks.

[Phil miller]

Change of thought. If I used my 100w panel plugged into the solar ready plug and left the 30a fuse plugged in would the current go through the inverter? Would I need a charge controller for the panel or would the smart charger in the inverter take care of things? Thanks.