Hi All Tried posting on the techie corner but it disappeared. Try again.
I have 2 solar panels on top of my van that feed (i expect) into the CTEC in the boot (of the van) and through to the 2 x 120ah batteries. At times in shade I dont have enough going in so am wondering if it is possible to plug a solar blanket into the anderson plug on the caravan that hooks up to the tow vehcicle? I do have a generator but as in NP's you often cant use it. Or do I need a totally different anderson plug on the van?
You can plug it in but there could be conflicting issues with the two solar controllers.
What is the actual (not what is written on the packaging) output of the solar blanket. Then at least you know if you are going backwards when connected up with the other controller.
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Hi All Tried posting on the techie corner but it disappeared. Try again.
I have 2 solar panels on top of my van that feed (i expect) into the CTEC in the boot (of the van) and through to the 2 x 120ah batteries. At times in shade I dont have enough going in so am wondering if it is possible to plug a solar blanket into the anderson plug on the caravan that hooks up to the tow vehcicle? I do have a generator but as in NP's you often cant use it. Or do I need a totally different anderson plug on the van?
I am not an expert in solar but if your foldout has a solar controller on it you can connect to batteries via seperate Anderson plug if you go through your solar controller you will not get a full charge as you will go through two controllers
Cheers
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John
2017 dmax lovells upgrade full CSM trade aluminium canopy,3.5 m quintrex tinny and rear boat loader mangrove jack aluminium trailer
I fitted a seperate solar controller next to the batteries then ran some 6b&s cable to the back of the teepee and fitted an Anderson plug outside. My emergency solar blanket then plugs into that. It's independent to the fixed panels on roof and their controller.
All worked well during testing but have never actually had the need to use it. So far.
Keep Safe on the roads and out there.
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Dougwe has it right as you cannot have two controllers on the one line.
My Anderson plug feeds back to the battery charger so bi-passing the controller
in the van, has worked well since 05
Hi all. Just had someone (someone more techie than me,not hard) have a look at the van and apparently the feed through the anderson plug from the tow vehicle feeds straight to the batteries, not through the CTEC. Apparently the solar and 240v feeds through the CTEC. SO, his thoughts were that you can hook a solar blanket (that I don't have yet) with a regulator into said anderson plug to feed into the batteries. Make sense????
Hi all. Just had someone (someone more techie than me,not hard) have a look at the van and apparently the feed through the anderson plug from the tow vehicle feeds straight to the batteries, not through the CTEC. Apparently the solar and 240v feeds through the CTEC. SO, his thoughts were that you can hook a solar blanket (that I don't have yet) with a regulator into said anderson plug to feed into the batteries. Make sense????
And remember that the caravan manufacturer will probably fit the smallest (cheapest) controller they can to suit the fixed panels they fit from the factory, you may well overload it if you add a solar blanket into the system
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And remember that the caravan manufacturer will probably fit the smallest (cheapest) controller they can to suit the fixed panels they fit from the factory, you may well overload it if you add a solar blanket into the system
Agree.
I did a lot of research for my setup, bought quality components. Oversized wiring everywhere etc.
My solar controller was supposedly large enough for my 120 watts of panels, a 75/10 which could handle up to 145 watts.
I replaced it with a 100/20 & found that I could get up to 11.3 amps under ideal conditions. Where as the 75/10 was simply stopping at 10 amps & the batteries would miss out on anything above this.
When the techie person looked, apparently wiring is very good and heavy and already my solar controller can register 13+. And re overload the blanket, as I think I now understand, will feed straight into the batteries with a controller in between blanket and batteries. I think.
In case someone else is interested in this same question. I decided to bite the bullet and get my lovely auto leckie to come and check out my van. And yes it is now confirmed that I can hook up a solar blanket with a controller in between to feed into my batteries. Yey. And while here he explained why sometimes my connections to my lights (brakes, indicators) wasnt connecting properly. Well worth the call out fee.
