agent00111
New member
Probably the last of my COVID pandemic projects, but the one I was most excited about. I have a 2008 Jeep Wrangler JKU with a James Baroud Evasion hard shell RTT. I use a Genesis offroad dual battery system which lets me keep my ARB 50 fridge running for about 3 days before I have to start the engine. What I really wanted was to leave the fridge online all the time, even if I don't drive it for a week or so. Various reasons for this ranging from 'always want to have beer/food on hand', all the way to 'I just got back from a trip and I'm too lazy to unload the fridge'.
Key design criteria: I wanted solar without having to take panels out, but I wanted the option to supplement with external panels in the future. I also wanted it to be pretty inconspicuous and I wanted to keep the profile down low as possible.
Components I used:
1. SunPower 170w flexible solar panel - Size just seemed to fit very well on the RTT, and it was flexible so it bended enough to cover the molded shape of the hard shell top. High voltage, low amps... me likey.
2. Victron 75/15 MPPT controller - not the cheapest solution but really like the bluetooth connection. Here I used the BlueSolar with VE connect external BT dongle, instead of the SmartSolar with embedded BT. I read somewhere that the embedded BT didn't have the range. With my jeep parked outside, Im able to check the controller stats from inside the house.
I got the mounting idea from Boss Watt's youtube video, link is below.
I used masking tape to temporarily mount the panel and controller and wired it all up with some extra loop.. nothing pretty but I just wanted to see if it worked. And worked well it did: even with overcast days the system was outpacing the amp draw from the fridge.
Tonight I permanently mounted the panel on my RTT, putting a coroplast board underneath and fixing both with eternabond tape. It only took about 20min to do that part, but it's a bit nerve wracking since eternabond is crazy sticky and permanent. I don't think I would have been as comfortable doing this method on a brand new RTT, but I've had this for a while and logged many a good trips with it so the risk was lower.
I put the connectors to the front of the jeep intentionally: that way if I did want some extra charging late in the day I can open the back of the tent and just tilt that up and keep the front down. it also keeps the cable lengths nice and short.
The one part I was hemming and hawing over was if I should just connect the controller to panel and battery and not use load output (just top of the aux battery which feeds everything), or if I should run all of my back electronics off the load output.
I ended up running dedicated wire from the load output to my fridge in the back, and everything else feeds off of the aux battery. That ended up working nicely as the fridge is really the priority, and I can measure the load wattage of just the fridge from the Victron controller. Temporarily I'm using 14AWG for that which is what I had on had, but I'll swap that out with 12AWG.
First plan:
Final plan:
Let me know if anyone else has a similar set up as I'd like to swap notes and ask questions. I'll post more pics after I clean up and dress the controller wiring.
Reference:
Boss Watt's youtube video:
Key design criteria: I wanted solar without having to take panels out, but I wanted the option to supplement with external panels in the future. I also wanted it to be pretty inconspicuous and I wanted to keep the profile down low as possible.
Components I used:
1. SunPower 170w flexible solar panel - Size just seemed to fit very well on the RTT, and it was flexible so it bended enough to cover the molded shape of the hard shell top. High voltage, low amps... me likey.
2. Victron 75/15 MPPT controller - not the cheapest solution but really like the bluetooth connection. Here I used the BlueSolar with VE connect external BT dongle, instead of the SmartSolar with embedded BT. I read somewhere that the embedded BT didn't have the range. With my jeep parked outside, Im able to check the controller stats from inside the house.
I got the mounting idea from Boss Watt's youtube video, link is below.
I used masking tape to temporarily mount the panel and controller and wired it all up with some extra loop.. nothing pretty but I just wanted to see if it worked. And worked well it did: even with overcast days the system was outpacing the amp draw from the fridge.
Tonight I permanently mounted the panel on my RTT, putting a coroplast board underneath and fixing both with eternabond tape. It only took about 20min to do that part, but it's a bit nerve wracking since eternabond is crazy sticky and permanent. I don't think I would have been as comfortable doing this method on a brand new RTT, but I've had this for a while and logged many a good trips with it so the risk was lower.
I put the connectors to the front of the jeep intentionally: that way if I did want some extra charging late in the day I can open the back of the tent and just tilt that up and keep the front down. it also keeps the cable lengths nice and short.
The one part I was hemming and hawing over was if I should just connect the controller to panel and battery and not use load output (just top of the aux battery which feeds everything), or if I should run all of my back electronics off the load output.
I ended up running dedicated wire from the load output to my fridge in the back, and everything else feeds off of the aux battery. That ended up working nicely as the fridge is really the priority, and I can measure the load wattage of just the fridge from the Victron controller. Temporarily I'm using 14AWG for that which is what I had on had, but I'll swap that out with 12AWG.
First plan:
Final plan:
Let me know if anyone else has a similar set up as I'd like to swap notes and ask questions. I'll post more pics after I clean up and dress the controller wiring.
Reference:
Boss Watt's youtube video: