Wayne - it was a pleasure meeting you, Carolyn and some of the members of the SCCampers. Your posts have inspired a lot of the things I have done to my TM so far, so it was great to be able to thank you in person.
After winning the panel auction last week I started sourcing all of the other parts and ended up getting:
Morningstart Sunsaver MPPT Controller
w/ Remote Meter Display
w/ Remote Battery Temp Sensor
w/ PC Meterbus Adapter
50' MC-4 M/F Extension Cable and 2 MC-4 Y Connectors (M/M/F & F/F/M)
Solar Panel Rocker Foot Mounts with Tilt Bar from AM-Solar
link
#8 wire and 25 amp fuse for the run from the controller to the battery.
The controller arrived on Tuesday. I decided to mount it in the storage area under the dinette seat next to the fresh water tank. I used liquid nails to glue a piece of plywood to the thin cabinet veneer and then mounted the controller to the plywood. I bought a small heater register that I plan to mount below the controller to allow the storage area to vent a bit more than it does now.
I ran #8 wire to the battery and fused the + terminal at the battery with a weather proof blade fuse holder w/25 amp fuse. I also ran the remote temp sensor to the batteries on the tongue. Morningstar recommends the remote temp sensor if the temp at the battery can be greater the 9 degrees +/- different than the controller.
I installed the controller meter display next to the status panel/thermostat below the counter-top at the sink.
While at Home Depot getting the #8 wire, I decided to pick up a thermostat to replace the original. We normally use small electric heaters, but with more dry camping we expect to be using the furnance more. What a difference the thermostat made! Should have done that mod LONG ago.
As I was wrapping up the cabling between the controller and the batteries, the mail arrived with my MC-4 cables and connectors.
I bought one 50' MC-4 extension cable with one male end and one female end. I cut the extension cable in half and connected the cut ends to the controller and ran the ends with the MC4 connectors to the roof following the TM wiring bundle most of the way. On the roof, I then used the two pre-built MC-4 Y adaptors to split the + and - leads in to two.
With the SunSaver MPPT controller, I can run the panels in series (35V, 5 amps) or parallel (17.5 volts, 10 amps). They're currenlty set up in parallel.
We had made reservations at PT Mugu for Friday and Saturday night. Friday evening when I came home from work, both the panel mounts and panels had arrived.
The mounts are two pieces - a mount that attaches to the panel and a bracket that attaches to the roof. They attach together via a bolt with a large twist knob (which can be repalced with a security bolt if needed.) The bracket came with 3M VHB tape already applied to the bottom. The mounts are custom for the panels AM-Solar sells and the hole for bolting the mount to the panel was a little off. I used a drill press to drill new holes in the stainless steel mounts to line up with the holes in my frames.
I then set the panels on the front shell of the roof. Before the drive down to Point Mugu, I detached the brackets from the mounts and removed the panels from the roof to make the trip without putting any stress on the freshly mounted brackets.
We made it into the campground around 9:00 PM. The following morning we lowered the shells and re-mounted the panels. Just after we got the panels installed and connected, Wayne drove up to say Hi and he and Carolyn invited us to a pot luck Saturday night
The only issue I had was with the install was with the contoller meter display. It was powering up, but the LCD display was stuck on some kind of diagnostic code and none of the keys were working. It turned out to be a bad RJ11 cable. We went to Staples and bought a phone cord and re-ran the connection and the display has worked fine since.
The optional PC Adapter lets you capture the controller logs and customize the settings using your PC and software called MSView. The default settings are fine, but you can optimize the settings based off your particular batteries and the mfg recommendations for those batteries. I've gathered the information from Interstate's site, but have not yet customized the controller settings.
Pt Mugu gets full sun nearly all day and the controller indicated as much (I was getting the full 17.5V/10amps with a gradual slope downward leading to sundown).
We mainly ran the heater, lights and waterpump Friday and Saturday night. During the day, the batteries were quickly brought back to full charger and I arrived home today with a full charge. The 3M tape also held up against the wind gusts that hit last night and the drive home
I plan to get a Xantrex LinkLite to be able to really read the battery bank like a fuel gauge and an inverter to be able to use some A/C devices.
At this point, all I can say is the panels did arrive in a timely manner and they are creating the rated volts and amps in the ideal conditions at Pt. Mugu - So, so far I'm pleased.
Will try to get some pictures of my install to post and will update my experience as we camp in different places with different conditions.
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