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davidz71 · 07-05-2007, 11:19 AM

Craftsman,
There is some good material in Chapter 4 of RV Boondocking Basics covering wind turbines and the noise they make in high winds. They like their AIR 403 with tower top weight of 14 pounds. They had a 1 1/4" top 10' mast that slid inside a length of 1 1/2" lower mast. A heavy pin held the upper mast in place.

I'd check out someone who has a system to see if the noise will be objectionable right next to your trailer. You also need to be sure that the tower you use is sturdy enough in high winds. If not, you can imagine what might happen to the top of your trailer if it fell.

Hippo · 07-06-2007, 12:34 AM

Question how did you run the wires into the trailer? Did you wire to the battery? I am thinking of doing panels to my trailer.

davidz71 · 07-06-2007, 07:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hippo

Question how did you run the wires into the trailer? Did you wire to the battery? I am thinking of doing panels to my trailer.

Hippo, I used a combiner box which screws onto the side of your refrigerator vent coming out of the trailer. The cover over the vent hides part of the box. You then drill through the vent stack where the combiner box has a hole between the + and - buss bars of the box. I put wire loom around the 8 ga. wire down the vent past the cooling fins of the refrigerator. You do not have to remove the vent cover like I did but the wire did not want to go down. Apparently it was hanging on refrigerator coil fins and a little more movement probably would have sent her on down. The cable was plastic wire-tied to some of the cooling tubes for support. I drilled through the wall from the inside so that the wire could pass into an interior credenza compartment. I ran the wire beside the wall of the trailer and underneath the credenza shelf so that it could not be seen. Rubber lined cable clamps held in place by screws into the underside of the credenza compartment and underneath the shelf held the cable in place. I then ran the cable down to the floor, underneath the couch and alongside the front of the trailer. I cut a hole in the wood shelving alongside the back of the couch to mount the boost controller where I then connected the wires. I had to drill a hole in the upper left hand side of my battery box to get the cable and temperature sensor into the battery compartment. The cable positive wire is then hooked to a resetable fuse and then connected to the + pole of the battery. The other wire is then connected to the - post. I am not pleased with this because I will have to put some type of putty around the cables to plug the hole so that battery vapors do not enter the trailer. This will change next April when I build a battery box in place of the storage compartment between the A frame of the tongue. I will be able to exit the front of the trailer where other wires are in order to access the new box. The hardest part about this project was deciding how to run the 8 ga. cable as in went down the refrigerator flue and into the trailer.

urbanfood · 07-13-2007, 04:50 PM

craig, great post!

i'm thinking of using the AM system for my flying cloud. i have three vents in the roof, but if i eliminate the vent in the middle i can fit the length of the panel in between that other two vents. i'm not sure i can fit two side by side, i need to check that out.

thanks again!

davidz71 · 07-13-2007, 05:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by urbanfood

... i'm not sure i can fit two side by side, i need to check that out.

thanks again!

Check out my thread on "Solal panel positioning". There were a few posts showing a picture of solar panels positioned side by side. Since the AM100 panels are 20.8" wide, they should work. I'm also thinking about ordering more tilt bars, shortening them and drilling a new hole on the end to position the panels horizontally when I boondock.

urbanfood · 07-13-2007, 07:25 PM

i just checked my flying cloud. they seem like they may work side by side but they would definately be on a radius and much more visible. so one would fit perfect and leave me about 40" for another solar panel as i have about 98" between vents.

it doesn't look like AM makes any other length. can you mix and match systems with other manufacturers? or maybe i need to look at another company because i can go a little wider than 21" if needed (although i like the AM width).

i too would be happy to have two fantastic fans run all day and batteries maintain a full charge. is that possible with 1 AM100 panel?

davidz71 · 07-13-2007, 08:18 PM

The AM100 solar panel is the only panel I talked with them about other than if they had an more AM65 panels around. I'm not sure if they would work other panels into the system or not. Couldn't hurt to ask. You can also go to Welcome to RV Solar Electric! for other panels that may carry more wattage.

urbanfood · 07-13-2007, 08:29 PM

i was just looking around online and found that kyocera makes a 130W panel that is 56x26 and an 85W panel that is 40x26 for a total length of 96" (not accounting for space in between) and i have 100" so it looks like that system could work well. it'll give me a total of 215W which i think is pretty good. i need to look into mounting brackets, controllers and all that.