170w Sunpower Panel on James Baroud RTT

[agent00111]

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:

 

[Thinman]

This looks great and basically checks all the boxes for what I am similarly trying to accomplish. I hadn't thought about running the fridge directly off the controller load. Does it steal power from the Genesis still or would it be completely dependent on the solar in this config?

Only difference is that I have an iKamper and am looking for a recommendation on which panel would be best output and also fit on it properly. I'd consider doing two panels if they fit better then one up the middle.

 

[ConcordCarlos]

I have that Victron with the built in Bluetooth, the range is basically me standing by the front of the vehicle. Anything farther and nothing . My switch pro gives me 20’ of range from the truck and they are both mounted under the hood within 5’ of each other .

 

[ripperj]

My Victron 100/30 will connect to my phone with the camper outside and me in the house. 15-20 ft away

Edit. Same with the Smart Sense battery monitor


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[agent00111]

This looks great and basically checks all the boxes for what I am similarly trying to accomplish. I hadn't thought about running the fridge directly off the controller load. Does it steal power from the Genesis still or would it be completely dependent on the solar in this config?

Only difference is that I have an iKamper and am looking for a recommendation on which panel would be best output and also fit on it properly. I'd consider doing two panels if they fit better then one up the middle.

Yes, I was pleasantly surprised at how it works when I run fridge off of the load output. If the fridge is pulling low amps, less than what the solar panel is producing, it pulls from pv and if anything is left over, that goes to battery. If the fridge is pulling high amps (like the first time you turn it on and it has to fast cool), it pulls from PV and then also supplements from battery. Normally you'll see battery current as a positive number, but when this happens, it's a negative number.

As an example, for the screenshot below, I'm getting 55W from PV which is 1.87a at 29.4v. For simplicity, let's convert that to 4.58a at 12v. My fridge starting up (load) wants 5.6a at 12v, but it has a shortfall of a little over 1a, so it pulls that from the battery. That's why the battery current is negative value below. But I think this is really neat, since my fridge is going full blast to cool down from room temp to target temp, but it's only pulling a little over an amp from the battery, versus the full 5.6amps. Overall this should minimize the draw from the aux battery since load can be pulled from PV first, then battery if more is needed.

Since keeping the fridge running was my top priority, hanging the fridge off tof he load also lets me record they daily power consumption of the fridge, as that's the only thing coming from the load output. All of my other accessories are powered from the genesis power/ground terminals.


I did first try it the other way (nothing connected to Victron controller's load output and fridge connected to Genesis dual batteries), but I do like it this way better with just the fridge hanging off the load output.

 

[agent00111]

Cleaned up the wiring, here is the Victron 75/15 controller, I mounted it inside jeep cabin, above passenger seat, using heavy duty velcro. My engine compartment is pretty full with the dual battery so I didn't want to put it there. This also reduces the wire length from PV to controller to about 4-5 feet (12awg). I used velcro so I can pull it down when I want to adjust wiring. To the left is the entry point for the PV cables and I route it through the top door frame. Love jeeps. So may ways to route cables!

Priorities I had for mounting location:

1. Close to PV and close to batt
2. Easy access
3. Keep water away from controller
4. Keep the external BT dongle high to maximize distance