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Old 07-18-2018, 06:15 PM   #1
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Portland , Oregon
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 12
How I Fit 200w of Solar on the roof of a 16'

I recently completed a 200w solar install on the roof of my 16' Sport and want to document it here as a reference.

First to free up space I had to relocate the TV antenna to the rear of the roof. I was able to remove the antenna and used 3m 4950 VHB tape to stick down a Wineguard cable entry plate then used a RG6 connector and 6 foot coax cable to extend the reach. All the holes and gaps in the cable entry plate were sealed with Sikaflex 221.



Mounting the antenna at the rear was a little more difficult but after some trial and error I ended up bolting the antenna to an adapter plate I made out of 5/16" aluminum with countersunk stainless steel bolts. The purpose of the plate was to give me enough surface area for the VHB tape to safely bond the antenna to the roof. By the way, moving the antenna did not affect my TV reception in any way.




That freed up enough space, and I was able to get 2 Renogy Eclipse 100w panels mounted using the no-drill method with AM Solar 35mm rocker mounting feet.



The standard Renogy panels are too large, only the eclipse will fit. A standard 12g 2 pin harness and a few feet of 12g wire as an extension let me hook the panels into the existing ZAMP pre-wire box.

Phew all the roof stuff is finished so now back to solid ground.

Under the dinette the Solar prewire from the roof went straight into a Blue Sea Battery Switch then over to a Victron MPPT 100/30 charge controller



From there I used some 6 gauge cable and followed the existing battery cable pathway through the floor and out to a 40 amp DC breaker I mounted in the battery box with VHB tape. Speaking of the battery box, I was not happy with the capacity of the stock single 12v Interstate battery, so I upgraded to 2 Trojan T105 golf cart batteries with screw terminals. I used a Century Plastics battery box that fit the stock battery tray perfectly, and I mean perfect. It was like it was meant to live there all along.



A couple cans of black plastic spray paint and a couple lashing straps to hold everything together and it looks like it could have come from the factory.



The system works great and my batteries are always charged by noon. There is enough capacity in the charge controller to hook up a portable panel to use in shady campsites. The bluetooth monitoring on the charge controller is awesome. Best part is I didn't drill a single hole in the roof and everything is reversible. In fact I could pull the whole system and put it back to stock and the only evidence would be the screw holes where I mounted the charge controller and panel shut off switch under the dinette.

Anyhow, hopefully this thread will help anyone considering adding solar to a 16' Bambi Sport. This seems to be a pretty run of the mill setup but the space limitations of the roof need some special consideration on the 16.
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Old 07-18-2018, 08:44 PM   #2
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2022 25' Flying Cloud
NCR , Ontario
Join Date: Feb 2017
Posts: 3,085
nice

too bad you didn't go with lion batteries instead

I'm looking for slimmer panels for the roof of my 22FB
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Old 03-06-2021, 12:50 PM   #3
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2021 16' Bambi
Austin , Texas
Join Date: Mar 2021
Posts: 4
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zachary M. View Post
I recently completed a 200w solar install on the roof of my 16' Sport and want to document it here as a reference.

First to free up space I had to relocate the TV antenna to the rear of the roof. I was able to remove the antenna and used 3m 4950 VHB tape to stick down a Wineguard cable entry plate then used a RG6 connector and 6 foot coax cable to extend the reach. All the holes and gaps in the cable entry plate were sealed with Sikaflex 221.



Mounting the antenna at the rear was a little more difficult but after some trial and error I ended up bolting the antenna to an adapter plate I made out of 5/16" aluminum with countersunk stainless steel bolts. The purpose of the plate was to give me enough surface area for the VHB tape to safely bond the antenna to the roof. By the way, moving the antenna did not affect my TV reception in any way.




That freed up enough space, and I was able to get 2 Renogy Eclipse 100w panels mounted using the no-drill method with AM Solar 35mm rocker mounting feet.



The standard Renogy panels are too large, only the eclipse will fit. A standard 12g 2 pin harness and a few feet of 12g wire as an extension let me hook the panels into the existing ZAMP pre-wire box.

Phew all the roof stuff is finished so now back to solid ground.

Under the dinette the Solar prewire from the roof went straight into a Blue Sea Battery Switch then over to a Victron MPPT 100/30 charge controller



From there I used some 6 gauge cable and followed the existing battery cable pathway through the floor and out to a 40 amp DC breaker I mounted in the battery box with VHB tape. Speaking of the battery box, I was not happy with the capacity of the stock single 12v Interstate battery, so I upgraded to 2 Trojan T105 golf cart batteries with screw terminals. I used a Century Plastics battery box that fit the stock battery tray perfectly, and I mean perfect. It was like it was meant to live there all along.



A couple cans of black plastic spray paint and a couple lashing straps to hold everything together and it looks like it could have come from the factory.



The system works great and my batteries are always charged by noon. There is enough capacity in the charge controller to hook up a portable panel to use in shady campsites. The bluetooth monitoring on the charge controller is awesome. Best part is I didn't drill a single hole in the roof and everything is reversible. In fact I could pull the whole system and put it back to stock and the only evidence would be the screw holes where I mounted the charge controller and panel shut off switch under the dinette.

Anyhow, hopefully this thread will help anyone considering adding solar to a 16' Bambi Sport. This seems to be a pretty run of the mill setup but the space limitations of the roof need some special consideration on the 16.
I am doing more or less the same thing right now... thanks!
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