Comments on: Solar Rover, Part 2: The Install

By: Tony

Tony — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 16:49:50 +0000

Hey Mike and Kathie,

This might be a shot in the dark, but I was wondering if you had saved the measurements for the location of the refrigerator vent? We are doing a solar install in the next few weeks on our 2014 Tiffin 36la and are hoping to run the wire exactly as you guys did. Thanks for any help!!

By: Lonnie

Lonnie — Sat, 18 Jul 2020 19:49:17 +0000

Mike,

We are thinking of adding solar to our Tiffin 32SA. Routing the wire from the combiner box on the roof to the area where the controller is mounted is one item that causes me the most concern. I am interested in more detail in how your measured to find the vent opening over your frig. Great write up. While your Tiffin is larger than ours I see many similarities that will help if we add solar.

Thanks
Lonnie

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 10 Jun 2017 21:54:48 +0000

In reply to Joe Martinez. Congrats on the coach, I'm sure you are counting down the hours until you pick it up! Once you do the solar install I'd love to hear about it. The more different setups we can document, the better it'll be for other folks (or me in the future ;-). -Mike

By: Joe Martinez

Joe Martinez — Sat, 10 Jun 2017 21:45:29 +0000

Just found your blog Mike after we made a decision to purchase our 31SA and I started to look for mods the community has done. You site has been tremendously helpful in our planning.

We pick up our coach next week and I intend to document my mod and solar work as well so as to pay it forward. Thanks for the inspiration.

By: Life Rebooted – Solar Rover, Part 3: Inverter Upgrade

Life Rebooted – Solar Rover, Part 3: Inverter Upgrade — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 19:09:25 +0000

[…] 600 watts of solar panels on Rover’s roof. You can check out Part 1: Who Go Solar? and Part 2: The Install for more background on our solar setup. The solar panels are just one part […]

By: Ed Bickford

Ed Bickford — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 23:39:47 +0000

Thanks for the info, that would definitely work for us. I guess the only way it would make sense to add more panels would be to add more battery. Hard to do unless you want to give up some storage space.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 23:18:03 +0000

In reply to Ed Bickford. Our laptops are on pretty much all day, but use very little power. We often don't watch any TV, but if we do it's 1-2 hours per evening. We've been boondocking for over a week now, and we've found that we need about 30-60 minutes of generator first thing in the morning to give some bulk charge to the batteries, then the solar takes over for the rest of the day. By sunset we're usually at 100% battery, by the time we go to bed we're around 85%, and when we wake up we're around 70%. Rinse, repeat.

By: Life Rebooted – Solar Rover, Part 1: Why Go Solar?

Life Rebooted – Solar Rover, Part 1: Why Go Solar? — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 20:56:04 +0000

[…] into two blog posts. Part 1 (this article) discusses what we’re doing and why, while Part 2 showcases the actual installation of the panels and integration into Rover’s electrical […]

By: Ed Bickford

Ed Bickford — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 17:12:25 +0000

I think we have decided on the UA as it has bunks which we will use for extra clothes and junk that we are struggling to get rid of. Grandkids may use them too. Would be interesting to know your normal usage TV, Computer etc. and how long you can boondock with the solar. I’m thinking of starting with a setup like yours until I see how it works for us. With the tax credit iI think the payback will be a year or less.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 22:27:56 +0000

In reply to Ed Bickford.

Not bad… #4 is what we ran for our 600 W of panels in parallel (12 V). Under the refrigerator is the propane furnace, but we didn’t have to remove that panel. We had to get a step stool to reach the top of the fridge! So far we’re enjoying the solar, but it’ll take a while to decide if it’s worth the cost. The big slide on the 36UA looks interesting, we’ll be keeping an eye on it as it’s the first time Tiffin has ever done a full wall slide… -Mike