My solar installation

[Alex Proulx]

Hello Samba.
I came across a good deal on a solar panel so I decided to jump in. I did not want a complicated set up so I kept the whole thing very basic and totaly removable.
I already had an auxiliary battery (GW kit) and Yakima roof bars so I built from there.
The panel is 140W and came from a bankcrupt local solar business. I got the panel, the controler, all weather connectors and a bunch of 10 gage wires for 330$.
I did not want to drill holes in the roof or in the body so I inserted the wires under the tent at the back, ran the wires down where the AC use to live, in the gutter above the stove and down the pillar behind the driver seat to the aux battery. I installed one 12V socket to plug accessories, only the radio and this soket are wired to the aux battery for now.
I tested it in full sun all day yesterday while at the beach. I was running a basic electric cooler and managed to recharge my battery from 11.6 Volt to full charge and run the fridge at the same time. At sun peak (12h-14h), I had 7 amps at the controller and 13 Volts on the battery while running the fridge and the radio.
Happy with the test, I just ordered a nice Dometic FC50 from Binnacle.com
Alex

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Vanagon GL 1988 Full Camper, 4 speed manual, 2.1 stock engine
Audi A3 2.0T S-Line Quattro 2015

[realfstkid]

Nice setup. I have a similar configuration on my roof rack. I went through the fresh air vent on the left side of the van, drilling through the interior sheet metal well inside the vent, so as to prevent water coming inside.

Might I recommend you put the solar panel on the left (driver) side of your van. When you park on the street, you will find that the trees along the sides of the street will shade the panel less often. In addition, you will be able to access whatever else you put on the racks--surfboards in my case--from the sidewalk, without having to walk into the street, where there may or may not be busy traffic.
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1987 Westy - "Vivian van Fuego"

[Alex Proulx]

Since there are a lot of questions on solar, batteries and fridges on the forum at the moment I figure I update my thread with our latest fridge experiment.

We recently got a Dometic CF50 with the insulated cover. Other than a difficult start (the fridge would not run on 12 volt when we first got it, had to return it to get it fixed, runs good now) it is a very nice unit. We like it a lot, it works really well and the power draw appears to be very low. The cover is of very good quality and a perfect fit, it has pockets to store the 120v or 12v cords depending on which one we are using.

We took it camping only once so far, 2 nights and 3 days, completely of the grid. My aux battery is the 44 amp-hr unit that fits under the driver seat, I was a little worried it would be too small for an extended stay but my panel is so large it seems it can recharge the battery, while running the fridge, very early in the day. We had mostly sunny days so I guess that helped. The battery has enough capacity to run the fridge all night long. The fridge was set at 2 dec C and never skipped a beat. When we left the 3rd day the battery was fully charged.

So far the setup does the job, time will tell if it works as well on cloudy days and longer stays. Might have to add storage capacity.

Making power feels good I like to say that I enjoy sun chilled beers!

Alex
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Vanagon GL 1988 Full Camper, 4 speed manual, 2.1 stock engine
Audi A3 2.0T S-Line Quattro 2015

[singler3360]