"Solar Ready" on 2019 JayFeather 27RL - Connecting Wiring to Charge Controller

[mike7840]

I have a 2019 Jayco 27RL travel trailer that was delivered "Solar Ready" from the factory. From what I understand, the Go Power Wired for Solar package that was installed at the Jayco factory was to include a cable entry plate in the RV roof and the capped off wires from the entry plate to a point inside the RV where a charge controller could be installed and then on to the battery bank. When I opened the wall to install the charge controller, I found three capped wires - a red wire labeled "solar prep option", a white wire with no label and a second red wire with no label. I made the assumption that the labeled red wire goes to the controller's PV + terminal, the white wire goes to the PV - terminal and unlabeled red wire goes to the controller's battery + terminal. When the three wires are connected, to the controller, I see a battery voltage of ~ 12.3-12.5 volts but no solar panel voltage. Although there is a terminal on the controller for a battery - wire, I don't have a wire to connect.

Does a typical "solar ready" configuration include four wires, two for PV terminals and two for battery terminals? Is it possible that this "solar ready" configuration assumes that the battery connection uses a vehicle ground? I'm thinking no …. and that Jayco forgot the white battery negative wire. When I contacted Jayco, all they did was send me a wiring diagram (attached) and to contact my dealer. The dealer doesn't really know because they haven't done any solar work on the travel trailer model. Finally, are my assumptions correct?

For what it's worth, I'm using a Renogy 175 watt flexible panel on the roof and a Renogy Rover 30 A MPPT charge controller.

I would appreciate any thoughts, advice and experiences forum readers may have had in a similar situation.

Thanks!
Mike Niesen
Bloomington, MN
612-366-7840

[GraphiteDriver]

Hi,

It sounds like you're on the right track. Jayco's "solar ready" is pretty terrible. The sticker in my trailer that indicated where the charge controller should be mounted was directly over the black tank vent pipe. So, if I cut the wall using the sticker as a template, I would have cut right through the vent. The solar prep wiring was also wrong. They had the roof top terminal wired directly to the battery bank, with no wires for the charge controller.

You are correct that two wires (pos and neg) run from the roof top solar terminal, down to the charger controller. From the charge controller, two wires (pos and neg) run the the battery(s). So, the wires run from the panels, to the charge controller, to the batteries; in that order.

To answer your question about the negative wire, it should be connected to the battery and not to the frame.

[Honeysuckle Campers]

[QUOTE=mike7840;891702]I have a 2019 Jayco 27RL travel trailer that was delivered "Solar Ready" from the factory. From what I understand, the Go Power Wired for Solar package that was installed at the Jayco factory was to include a cable entry plate in the RV roof and the capped off wires from the entry plate to a point inside the RV where a charge controller could be installed and then on to the battery bank. When I opened the wall to install the charge controller, I found three capped wires - a red wire labeled "solar prep option", a white wire with no label and a second red wire with no label. I made the assumption that the labeled red wire goes to the controller's PV + terminal, the white wire goes to the PV - terminal and unlabeled red wire goes to the controller's battery + terminal. When the three wires are connected, to the controller, I see a battery voltage of ~ 12.3-12.5 volts but no solar panel voltage. Although there is a terminal on the controller for a battery - wire, I don't have a wire to connect.

Does a typical "solar ready" configuration include four wires, two for PV terminals and two for battery terminals? Is it possible that this "solar ready" configuration assumes that the battery connection uses a vehicle ground? I'm thinking no …. and that Jayco forgot the white battery negative wire. When I contacted Jayco, all they did was send me a wiring diagram (attached) and to contact my dealer. The dealer doesn't really know because they haven't done any solar work on the travel trailer model. Finally, are my assumptions correct?


You are right, it should be two PV and two Battery wires. I have a 2019 Whitehawk 26rk and I'm working on my solar right now...were your wires 10 AWG or 8 AWG? You have the same solar specs that I have and the specs say 8 AWG but when I cut into my wall, I had a black 10 AWG wire with solar prep label, a red 10 AWG wire with no label and unfortunately another two wires connected to each other with a wire nut, but they are barely protruding through the roof beam and are not even long enough to attach to extension wires, much less actually reach the charge controller location. The two really short wires are both red, with one larger than the 10 AWG, so I think one of them is possible 8 AWG and this is by feel and using a small mirror with a light, just to see that much. I'm still trying to figure out what to do. My trailer is going in for some warranty work today, so I am going to see if Jayco will cover replacing the wires to 8 AWG and also lengthening the short wires to reach the charge controller location. If they won’t fix it, then I've thought about just completely rewiring with the 8 AWG that the schematic says it is supposed to have, but haven't decided yet.