new guy saying hi and asking some questions

[recon250]

Hi i just picked up a 1987 jayco sportster 8 slide in truck camper. Over all in great shape however did find a little rot in the drivers side front cab over part. Trying to find info on fixing that. Also wanting to add a solor panel and batterys. I just dont know whats needed and how big of a panel is needed. Is there a place to buy a "kit" that would have everything needed? Ive been lurking around on this site for awhile and have found lots of good info. Thanks in advance.

Kyle

 

[haven]

I didn't find the answer to your repair question, but I did find this note

Defect Summary When the furnace and cooktop are operating at the same time, the furnace air-circulating fan can pull the cooktop burner flame down into the aluminum burner, causing the burner to melt. This can cause a fire.

Read more: http://www.faqs.org/car/jayco-sportster/#b

Jayco doesn't make popup truck campers these days, but the company is still in business. You can contact them to ask questions about the internal construction of the camper.

Jayco Owners Mailing Address:
Jayco, Inc.
Attn: Owner Relations
903 S. Main Street
Middlebury, IN 46540
Phone: 574-825-5861
Web: http://www.jayco.com/pages/about/contact_service.php

 

[tanglefoot]

Congrats on the camper!

How bad is the rot in the cabover? If it's just darkened wood but it still feels solid (that's the case on mine), I would just let it dry out really well, possibly disinfect it and keep an eye on it.

For solar battery systems, I find it much more cost-effective to piece one together as opposed to using a "kit". The size of the panel and battery depend on your typical electrical load in the camper and whether or not the camper is also being charged by the truck.

My truck camper has minimal appliances (no furnace, no fridge, no TV, etc) so even without a truck connection to charge while driving, the 10W panel, single, Walmart RV battery and an inexpensive charge controller (~$20) keeps up with the demand of the lighting, water pump and accessories very nicely and maintains the battery well while the camper is parked. If you have a furnace, depending on how often it's used, a 30W panel may be able to keep up. If you use an electric compressor fridge like an Engle, etc, most have found that a 50W panel can usually keep up. If you have a flat-screen, gaming system, home-theater, etc, you may need 100W of solar or more and at least a pair of deep cycle batteries connected in parallel. It all depends on your typical electrical load.

I've found the least expensive way to source the panel(s) and charge controller are the products directly from China that are listed on Ebay. Just do a Ebay search for "20W solar", "50W solar", etc. Do be sure to use a charge controller between the panel and battery. Panels have an open circuit voltage of about 20V and if left connected for long without loads or monitoring, it can damage the battery due to an over-voltage condition. The charge controllers are fully automatic and easy to wire. They do a great job of keeping the battery in a healthy voltage range and prevent sulfation that affects RV batteries that are not solar-charged or otherwise charge-maintained. My 10W panel and charge controller totaled about $50 and I salvaged a free, used battery. I believe the solar charger has gradually desulfated the battery over time--it has much greater capacity now than it did a few years ago.

 

[recon250]

I already put my finders through the rot. It needs to be replaced. Just waiting for a good day to jump into that. As for the panel all I want to really use if for are the three lights and maybe be able to charge a cell phone or use a coffee maker. The heater and fridge run off propane and I'm okay with using the propane for that

 

[tanglefoot]

If your heater is an RV-style furnace, it has an electric blower in it that is fairly power-thirsty. Make sure to accommodate for that.
A coffee maker might be a fairly large electrical load. My favorite way to make coffee in the camper is to boil it on the stove (just in a pot--I don't even have a perculator). I like decanting it off the grounds and you get those natural oils from the beans. Dr. Oz says it has a little more cholesterol but I figure a few times a month won't hurt.

Do you have under-mattress storage trays in the cab-over? If so, you may be able to carefully cut out the affected area and just put a larger piece of plywood over it. Maybe you wouldn't even need to cut it out--just patch over it. Even if the mattress rests right on the bottom of the cabover, you might not feel an extra piece of plywood through the mattress. If you cut, It may be easier to do with the outer skin removed from the bottom of the exterior cab-over, although removing it requires patching things back together afterwards.

 

[recon250]

i do have the under bed storage. i think im going to try to cut the rotted part out and fill it in with new wood. ill check ebay for the solor panel. so all i need is the panel, a charge controller ( are they all the same), and a battrey?

 

[tanglefoot]

Good luck on the rot repair. There are plenty of people on the forum who have made similar repairs...post up if you get stuck.

Yes, all you really need in order to have a solar-electrical system is a panel, charge controller and a deep-cycle (RV) battery.

How is your camper currently wired? Is it set up for a camper battery with a storage compartment and connections or is it setup to run from the truck battery? Do you already have a fuse block in the camper that feeds energy to the lights and appliances?

If your camper already has a battery in it, just mount a panel on the roof, run it into a charge controller and then connect some charge leads (preferably fused) from the charge controller to that battery.

There are lot of different types of charge controllers but they all do about the same thing. The large and expensive ones are usually for off-grid housing applications and would be overkill for a camper. For a camper system, a small, inexpensive one is a good match. Just size the current capacity a bit higher than the panel (divide the panel wattage by 12 to get maximum current in Amps) and you're good to go. I think mine's a 7 amp, even though my small, 10W panel only produces less than an amp.

 

[recon250]

the camper is set up to run on the truck battery. However when i go out the truck may not run for up to a week. Im going to put a battery or two in it. Can anybody direct me to a diagram showing connections? I have not seen a fuse block yet. There is a converter and i imagine if there is a fuse block it would be around there. also how would i go about connecting the battery to the converter?

 

[tanglefoot]

I don't have a converter and don't have any model-specific photos or diagrams, but the battery would just connect in parallel with the 12v output of the converter and the rest of the camper electrical system.

Here's a generic system diagram:

 

[bob91yj]

I just put together a 90w, 7.5a solar system for less than $170 shipped. I jacked 4runamok's idea.

Looks like the 45w panels I got are gone, but they have 40w and 55w panels at a decent price.

http://www.solarblvd.com/Solar-Panels-&-Systems-12-Volt-Solar-Panels/c1_269/index.html