Supplementing 2022 Flying Cloud 25' Power Systems

[SSPod]

Hi Everyone,

We are newbies on Airforums and have no experience in the travel trailer world. We’d like your recommendations on the brand(s) of a portable solar panel and a portable power station that are compatible and would also work together with our 2022 Flying Cloud 25’ FB. We’re looking for advice specific to our situation as described below.

We are embarking on retirement. We’ve been clearing out and packing our home to move our keepsakes into storage and will be selling our house. We plan to live full-time in our FC for the next year or so, enjoying our new freedom and not being tied in one place while exploring the Western US. We want to do mostly boondocking and very little campground as possible. As we make our way west, we are thinking we might be on the move every 1-3 weeks, depending on how much we enjoy the current spot. We will eventually return to living in a home with a permanent address and our FC would then become our vacation travel trailer.

With Zamp 180w rooftop solar, 2 AGM batteries, and 2 air conditioners that our FC comes with, we want to purchase a portable solar panel (say 140w-200w panel) so that we could connect it to a solar panel input port (located on the hitch of our FC) with a 30’ cable. This is so we could put the portable solar panel where it would get the most sun while our FC could be parked where it might be shady.

We also want to buy a portable power station like a Goal Zero or EcoFlow power station which would eventually be for our home’s emergency use:
1 - during power outage to keep essentials like fridge, freezer and wifi running and to recharge laptops/cell phones
or
2 - during natural disaster evacuation (with or without FC in tow) to recharge laptops/cell phones and to run a fan and some lights at night.
Should such emergency occurs, we could recharge this power station with a portable gasoline/propane generator or the same portable solar panel that we mentioned for use with our FC. Yes, we are hoping that this same portable solar panel mentioned earlier would serve double duty.

Also, we are hoping to use this power station on our FC to allow us to sporadically run an electric coffee maker, hair dryer, and a 700-watt microwave oven (just to quickly reheat any leftover dinners). Of course, it’d be nice that this power station would also be able to run one of the air conditioners at night (even if only for a few hours). We would charge the power station using the same portable solar panel mentioned above. And on a travel day, we would charge the power station using our F-150's onboard 2kW Pro Power and hook up to the portable solar panel upon arrival if needed.

We’ve read many threads on portable solar panels, lithium batteries, controllers, and inverters, but we ended up overwhelmed. We are not wanting to modify our FC but rather want to go with a plug and play approach. So, we are hoping you might be able to give us recommendations on brand(s) of portable solar panel and portable power station that would be compatible with our FC and for our specific situation. Thank you.

[WellSaid11]

You have listed a lot of great options that with careful power management MIGHT get you where you need most of the time, but for what you are proposing as to almost all boondocking you may be disappointed.


I am not an expert, but I believe your best bet may be to upgrade your AGM batteries to lithium, buy the Zamps for a power assist when sunny, but also seriously consider buying at least one if not two (run in parallel) Honda EU2200i generators with one 30 amp plug and propane conversion. You could also buy one new Honda EU32i when it comes out this year:

https://global.honda/newsroom/news/2022/p220117eng.html




As full-timers that will mostly boondock (even for a year) you will likely want to be eventually "overpowered" vs. too little. The good news is you can learn as you go if yo are patient and not go all out until you see what your real day to day needs might be.

[field & stream]

First, you have to understand that modern Airstream trailers are power hungry, and that Airstream does not provide enough power (even optionally) to run unplugged for more than a day or two. Be prepared to spend something like $10,000 more to achieve your goals.

In my non-professional opinion, you will need at least 400w of rooftop solar and at least 400Ah of lithium batteries, plus a 200w portable panel with a 30’ cord. 600w of rooftop and 600Ah of lithium batteries would be better. Even then, you will need favorable solar conditions.

And the above will not run your A/C. For that you will need a properly sized generator, which you will need to backup your solar system anyway.

[1StreamDream]

My objectives are very similar to yours, I will share my approach for your reference. One key item you *must* reconcile on your own is that your newer trailer has an all-electric fridge ... mine is a 2-way LP/electric, and when boondocking my electrical power use will be lower than yours, many folks say it is significantly lower than yours, but I dont have any direct experience to offer on that.

I currently have 480w of Zamp panels on my roof, and I have a 140w suitcase. I have 2 BB Lithiums, and I also carry a Honda 2200w generator as an emergency backup, or for times I want to run my high draw items like A/C, microwave, etc. My A/C has a micro-air easy start installed, so I can reliably run my A/C from a single 2200w generator.

I find in that when we boondock in "frugal" power use mode, we use about 80aH a day, but that certainly can vary. That is essentially all you can get out of lead acid or AGM without doing some damage. I upgraded to Lithium batteries to improve my longevity, and improve my recharge time. Lithiums recharge much more quickly, so now I have 2 of them, for a total of 200aH of capacity, and we find that is more than adequate to be self sufficient. We *cannot* run any high draw appliance (no toasters, coffee makers, microwaves, etc) but we can survive somewhat indefinitely, as long as we get several hrs of sun per day. Your usage profile could be very different from mine, and your electric fridge will certainly mean you draw more than me in a given day (boondocking). All that said, portable panels is an excellent supplement, it gives you many more options to ensure placement in direct sunlight. I think Lithium batteries in your trailer is a better approach than a portable power bank (goal zero and similar) but you might have other factors that make it a better choice. If Airstream boondocking is the only objective, I think a Lithium upgrade is your best bang for the buck. If you want to run high draw items in the boondocking case, like a microwave, you will need more battery bank capacity (more total amp hrs) and you will need a higher capacity inverter than the one that came from the factory. I don't think plug and play will get you to your objective, unless you consider the Honda portable generators part of your plug and play solution. Best of luck navigating the options, you will have to do some homework to be sure you satisfy your objectives in a reliable way.

[2012FB]

We have similar goals but will not be full-time. We do plan on boondocking as much as we can. With that said we took delivery of our new FC 25' RBT a few weeks ago. We are completing the installation of a 400A Multiplus II system with factory 3-panel solar, 30A DC to DC from the truck, and the built-in airkrafters Cummins Onan generator kit. This combination will allow us to use the trailer as we desire wherever we want in the most convenient manner possible. The generator being integrated into the trailer with internal remote start is something I did not want to compromise on.

[SSPod]

Thank you for sharing your experiences. It is very helpful.

[Toasterlife]

We have an older rig - a 23 ft with a refrigerator that runs on electricity or gas, we also hav a gas oven. We mostly stay in National Parks or Forest Service sites so we rarely have shore power.
We are also frugal with power and although we travel with a Honda generator we rarely use it and try and get by with our solar, a combination of rooftop and an external panel with a long cord that we move to follow the sun.

We generally do quite well, but there is a huge difference in solar avaiability depending on any given campsite - Organpipe cactus NM on the Mexican border great sunlight, the Hoh rainforest in Olympic NP not so much.

For anyone planning to boondock or go for days without power, I really would not be able to recommend buying a newer trailer which has the all electric fridge and the convection microwave. An older rig with gas appliances would be more suitable.

It boggles the mind how Airstream keeps adding power hungry features, and then keeps the same skimpy batteries they have used for some half a century....Their target market must enjoy spending time packed into commercial campsites.

I don't love the noise or hassle of our generator, but it is a necessary backup, even when using power sparingly, even with a rig like ours with gas appliances.

[Jeff7176]

We're full-time now. We sold all of our stuff (everything that wouldn't fit in the 25' AS or TV) And hit the road.

We spend an average of about a week at a location... predominantly National Parks, Forests, State Parks, or COE campgrounds.

We have 600 watts of solar and 600 a/h of lithium. We do not have a portable solar panel. We also have a generator (propane) which has been unused for the last six months, but it's nice peace of mind to have it.

We also have a 3000w inverter, which I would highly recommend. We can run the AC (not for long though) which is nice for lunch stops on hot travel days, and we use the microwave, convection oven (the wife bakes all of our bread), coffee maker, etc. with no reservations. We use our powered equipment when we're dry camping/boondocking just like we do when when have electric hookups (except the AC). All the outlets in our trailer run off the inverter.

We started with AGMs and it was much less enjoyable. The lithium batteries are more expensive (but last longer, from what I've been told), but they are absolutely worth it, IMO. There was (not sure if it still exists) and tax credit (I think it was a credit, not a deduction) we were able to take advantage of for our solar/lithium upgrade. After all was said and done, our total cost was less than $10K. That's still a lot of money, but for our travel style (which sounds like what you are planning) it has been perfect.

One last thing, I would be cautious about how you plan to plan. We have reservations usually six months in advance. The places we want to stay would be very difficult to get into with out prior planning. It was worked very well for us. We have had to call a couple of audibles to run from weather, and didn't have a problem getting a reservation in a warmer place, but I wouldn't like to wing it everyday. It's nice to see the plan ahead to be able to research what we want to do in a given area, and so keeps us moving.

Good luck with whatever you decide. This has been the best year of our lives.

[SSPod]

Thank you. We've been reading and thinking about all the experiences you all have shared with us. The fridge comes all electric in the 2022 FC so we didn't have a choice to get electric/LP, but we knew enough not to get the convection oven upgrade. We opted for the 2 air conditioners for when it is really hot out which then we would plan on staying at a campsite with full hookup to cool off. We opted for the rear hatch so that we could take advantage of cross breeze and hopefully our FC would be a tad bearable when without AC and hot out. And now after reading your experiences and also many posts since the past few months, it seems we should get Easy Start installed on both of our ACs and get 2 Honda eu2200i generators with a parallel kit in the event it is very hot out and we need AC but aren't at a campsite with full hookup. Hopefully the noise of the generators wouldn't be as bad as we fear. We still really want a Solar Power Station and a portable solar panel. Thank you again for taking the time to educate us.

[DCPAS]

Originally Posted by SSPod

And now after reading your experiences and also many posts since the past few months, it seems we should get Easy Start installed on both of our ACs and get 2 Honda eu2200i generators with a parallel kit in the event it is very hot out and we need AC but aren't at a campsite with full hookup.

We have a 2019 FC25RB with two a/c's. Two a/c's on a 25 are great for cooling things down quickly after travel on a really hot day but are otherwise overkill. We have one Genconnex propane converted eu2200i and an Easy Start on both a/c's. I suggest you start with one Honda. I think you will discover you don't really need two. My plan was to buy a second if needed. I don't think its needed.