Caravan wired for solar

Johnty · Veteran Member

Caravan wired for solar

Plendo · Guru

Johnty, you do not mention what type of van you have, but "provision for solar" normally indicates that the wiring is in place within the body of the van. This will then allow panels to be fitted on the roof, and connected through to where there would be a space for a solar controller to be fitted (close to the battery).

I would not expect the wiring to go anywhere near the plug that you connect into the tow vehicle.

Stratman77 · Senior Member

Plendo asked the obvious question 'what sort of van you have'? And whether or not the 'solar panels' with 'charge the batteries sufficiently' depends on several things, e.g. - the power generated by the panels and the condition of the batteries. My initial advice would be for Johnty to seek the services of a professional with solar experience and knowledge of his van as there are so many issues here that need to be addressed.

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

Depends on size of panels? I assume around 240 watt?
The elect wires off solar this size don't need to be large ..
The cable size on the load side need to be though..
The main part if I'm reading this right is to have flex able wires to battery via controller...

PeterD · Guru

I very much doubt that the solar would be run through the 12 pin connector. There is possibly a wire from pin 8 in the trailer plug to your battery for charging from the tugs alternator. Also pin 9 would be the hot wire to supply power to your absorption fridge (but only use this whilst you are travelling.)

If there is wiring for solar panels, I would suggest you contact the manufacturer giving him the VIN number on the compliance plate so he can look up his records. Probably best to contact him by letter or e-mail. This will allow him to look at the records without having to rush.

Johnty · Veteran Member

Thanks for everyone's help. Finally after many phone calls and research I have found out yes I can run my portable solar panels from the caravan plug. It has been wired for portable solar panels and the wiring runs through one of the cables connected to the plug on the A frame which is then linked to the two batteries in the van. All I need to do is get an auto electrician to make me up a connector that connects to the solar pins on the caravan plug and the other end to the solar cable. And yes I will need a regulator so I don't cook the batteries.

-- Edited by Johnty on Friday 14th of November 2014 09:47:34 AM

-- Edited by Johnty on Friday 14th of November 2014 09:48:12 AM

PeterD · Guru

John, you still have not revealed your make and model of van. You seem to have a 12 pin plug on the van to tug connection plug. If so (and you have not told us otherwise) what they are telling you is a solar input for charging a battery is simply a feed wire that will charge your battery if you have a hot wire from the tugs battery to the appropriate pin on the socket on the tug. This wire simply just passes current from any power source to the battery if its voltage is high enough. It is not normally referred to as being wired for solar.

If your van is a Jayco then if you simply connect a solar panel to it via a regulator then the solar charge will not work very well. There is extra work that needs to be done. Three of us have asked what van you have. I don't know why you are being so secretive about your van when you have put your name and suburb in your profile. We need full disclosure to give the full information you require. Not all van electrics are the same, a lot of us know the quirks in different vans but we are not mind readers. An easy way to get this info across is to put the details of your tug and van in your signature block as two of us above have.

Johnty · Veteran Member

Peter, thank you for your advice. Just as an update I have been back to the manufacturer on a number of occasions and after some initial glitches managed to confirm that my connector will accept auxiliary power from an alternative source (solar). The key appears to be getting an auto electrician to configure the right socket to attach to my van. The reason I posted this on the forum in the first place was to assess if anyone already had this set up as at the time I couldn't get any straight answers. Once again thanks for your input.

oldtrack123 · Guru

Johnty wrote:
Peter, thank you for your advice. Just as an update I have been back to the manufacturer on a number of occasions and after some initial glitches managed to confirm that my connector will accept auxiliary power from an alternative source (solar). The key appears to be getting an auto electrician to configure the right socket to attach to my van. The reason I posted this on the forum in the first place was to assess if anyone already had this set up as at the time I couldn't get any straight answers. Once again thanks for your input.

HI John

If that is the same plug as you connect to the vehicle,I think all they will be using is the normal House battery charging pins from the Vehicle alternator

THAT is hardly what SOLAR ready means!!

,You will find the results very disapointing, if they have a diode in that circuit ..

PeterQ

-- Edited by oldtrack123 on Friday 14th of November 2014 06:49:00 PM

PeterD · Guru

Johnty wrote:
The reason I posted this on the forum in the first place was to assess if anyone already had this set up as at the time I couldn't get any straight answers. Once again thanks for your input.

Yes there are many who take the easy way out and feed their solar charging power into the alternator charging input. It can work reasonably well if there are no impediments between the plug and the battery. Jayco vans are one of those that have an impediment as stated buy oldtrack123 There are other vans as well that have similar obstructions.

You should be able to construct your own connection. Purchase a 12 pin vehicle socket. Find which of the large pins in the plug are the live ones. You can do that with a multi meter or a 12 V light globe. The middle of the pins will be the earth pin. The positive one will be pin 8 or 9. Wire your solar array to the appropriate pins.

One of the problems you are going to encounter is the length of lead between the controller and the battery. This will introduce voltage loss problems, it does not take much voltage loss to reduce the effectiveness of the operation of the regulator. The regulator should be mounted fairly close to the battery. You are going to have a little voltage loss between the panel and the battery, it's better to have that loss between the panel and the regulator rather than the regulator and the battery. I suggest that as a future project you consider having the regulator mounted near your battery and a dedicated input from the panel to the regulator.