Solar Panel for 16' Bambi

[Yooper]

Here are some photos of my installation. Thanks to several contributors to this forum. The one who suggested where the wiring harness could be found, the one who had the idea to plumb in the feed line from the solar panel through the outer housing of the Fantastic Fan, and the one who suggested adding batteries without permanently attaching them to the trailer by simply fashioning another female 7 connector receptacle and attaching that to another battery or bank of batteries and then plugging them into the trailer's plug that is detached when the tow vehicle is not attached. Terrific ideas that I used! Hopefully, the photos will tell the rest of the story.

And, of course, thanks to our neighborhood Goodyear blimp for the aerial shots.

Dick

[SilverGate]

Originally Posted by Yooper

Here are some photos of my installation...
Dick

Very nice!

Our experience with solar is similar to ericinrb's: the solar panels restore our batteries to 100% by noon of each day camping, even while running the Fantastic fans, refrigerator fan, and stereo.

I would recommend that anyone thinking about placing an Airstream Factory build order read my thread Factory Installed Solar Charging System, which shows the components of my system and why I am very happy with it.

[lewster]

Solar IS the way to go!

If you order a pre-wire on a new A/S, be sure that the factory uses 10 gauge wire thru the walls for your panel connection to the controller. Avoiding voltage drop is CRITICAL in a quality solar install.

At AM Solar, we use 10 gauge ship cable (it has a round jacket that fits properly in the water-tight connectors) to join all of the roof panels to the combiner box, then run 8 gauge marine cable from the box to the charge controller.

It may cost a bit more, but this wiring will super-charge your solar applications!!!!

BTW, I just added 2 more 100 watt AM Solar panels to the roof of my Sprinter. I now have 400 watts of panels charging 2 Lifeline GPL-6CT 300 amp-hour golf cart batteries that run a Magnum 2000 watt sine wave inverter. Next mod is adding another 2 GPL-6CT batteries for a total of 600 amp-hours of DC power.

If the 220 amp-hour Lifelines run down in the CCD, I just plug into the inverter and use the van like a 2000 watt generator......much quieter!!!

[Yooper]

The adjustable rocker feet panel mounts and the round shipboard cable I purchased from AM Solar are really the cat's p.j.'s. Very nice to work with!

I used that cable to run from the junction box on my solar panel into the Fantastic Fan outer housing just far enough to "spot weld" with adhesive sealant from the inside. At that point I stripped down to the pair of 10 gauge wires the cable contains and brought them back through two holes drilled in the lower part of the outer housing. This allows them to go into the ceiling area where I picked up the 10 gauge solar prewire harness. Because the Fantastic Fan has an outer housing, all of this is done without getting in the way of the fan workings and it is invisible from the inside of the camper. I then used a rubberized sealant on the outside of the fan unit. I liked the idea of NOT punching any holes in my roof.

Lew, your rig sounds impressive. Watt do you do with all the watts?? Aren't you supposed to leave your camper on occasion??

SilverGate: I read your excellent thread while trying to find my factory prewires. Also noticed the references to replacing the regular lights with LEDs. Has anyone found a source for "warm" LED lighting that simply allows popping the LEDs into the existing sockets? That would catch my interest.

Dick

[lewster]

Originally Posted by Yooper

The adjustable rocker feet panel mounts and the round shipboard cable I purchased from AM Solar are really the cat's p.j.'s. Very nice to work with!

I used that cable to run from the junction box on my solar panel into the Fantastic Fan outer housing just far enough to "spot weld" with adhesive sealant from the inside. At that point I stripped down to the pair of 10 gauge wires the cable contains and brought them back through two holes drilled in the lower part of the outer housing. This allows them to go into the ceiling area where I picked up the 10 gauge solar prewire harness. Because the Fantastic Fan has an outer housing, all of this is done without getting in the way of the fan workings and it is invisible from the inside of the camper. I then used a rubberized sealant on the outside of the fan unit. I liked the idea of NOT punching any holes in my roof.

Lew, your rig sounds impressive. Watt do you do with all the watts?? Aren't you supposed to leave your camper on occasion??

SilverGate: I read your excellent thread while trying to find my factory prewires. Also noticed the references to replacing the regular lights with LEDs. Has anyone found a source for "warm" LED lighting that simply allows popping the LEDs into the existing sockets? That would catch my interest.

Dick

Dick,

Don't forget that I use my van as a service van and run power tools from the inverter. The Airstream use is a nice by-product.

IMTRA Marine has a nice selection of warm white LED G-4 bulbs. These are direct replacement units for the halogens on the newer Airstreams. I have replaced ALL of my halogens with these. You might PM westfalia and get his opinion of them.

I have these (and the entire IMTRA catalog) available at the Forum Courtesy Discount. PM me if you need further info.

[Yooper]

During my solar panel for RVs research, I ran into several references about panels being shaded by the A/C hood. Didn't understand the problem until I installed my new panel. Then I understood the problem and figured out the attached solution using AM's rocker foot mounting system and 2 pieces of standard aluminum stock from my local hardware store and 4 more SS bolts with locking nuts.

The panel slides about 2" out from under the hood and over the rain gutter. After mounting the rocker feet to the new sliders, instead of the panel, I mount the panel to the new aluminum sliders (1/8" thick by 1" x 24") using AM's friction bolts and knobs. The "sliders" have slots cut into them to allow the loosened friction bolts to slide either into the retract or extended position before tightening the knobs. KISS solution in operation! And this also allows use of AM's tilt bars as the panel won't get hung up on the A/C hood when you swivel it up.

I now have 123 watts of solar (80 watt Sharp panel and 43 watt Kyocera panel) on the small roof of my 16' Airstream Bambi, and, with my MPPI controller, yesterday I was seeing 8-9 amps of charging juice midday in the "canyon" between my house and the spruce trees.

I am ready for a real world expedition!