We free camp with our car, 120w & 100ah of batteries to run our electrical needs is more than enough. Can go 5 days without dragging out the solar panels.

 

It all depends what you are running.

How long you stay in one place.

North Aust vs South.

Option to run engine to to up.

How efficient are the appliances.

 

You really need need to provide a lot more information so a worthwhile answer can be provided.

The question is a 'how long is a piece of string ' question.

It totally depends upon what you perceive as your needs appliance wise. There are many compromises which are easily made which reduce the solar/battery capacity required. eg. avoid any appliance which generates heat - hairdryer, electric jug etc. Avoid huge fridges - you can shop a bit more often. If you travel more in the north than you probably need less solar than if you travel in the south. (But if you do both you need to set up for southern travelling). How long do you want to remain 'off grid' at a time. Will you want to stay in places for more than a day or two at a time.

Lithium atteries have been a bit of a gamechanger - allowing a wider range of appliances to be use (ie. thos with higher current draw - which would potentially have damaged Lead based batteries), but the basics are the same - you need to have sufficient means of recharging them - which unless you plan to visit caravan parks etc every 2 or 3 days to plug in & re-charge means sufficient to bring your batteries back to full charge every 24 hours.

There are many variables which differ from person to person so asking what YOU need is impossible to answer as what suits another may be insufficient or overkill for you. It is very common for folk to ask the question as you have done, & almost as common for folk to base their own system on what other's say works for them. Unfortunately this can often mean that the first (& sometimes the second & third) trip away is one filled with worry & anxiety about the batteries etc because the are not being fully charged - the owners chasing their tails in a race they rarely win.

The answer is to ask the questions as you have done, & then sit down to work out your own needs. Even if you have a system professionally fitted, without this info the supplier/installer can only make an informed guess ..... based on what works for others!

The process can initially seem daunting, but really it isn't, & thankfully their is something which will help enormously anyone in your position. My recommendation is to buy one of Collyn Rivers excellent books which are very easy to read for the lay person, but cover everything you need to consider. I'd suggest https://rvbooks.com.au/solar-that-really-works/

If you intend to do the solar installation yourself it will give the confidence to do so, or if having someone else do the install it will both help you to know what you want, & make the installers 'language' sound less like gobbledygook.

The books are not huge wordy tomes, in fact when I bought my first I thought how could this slim A4 publication contain all the necessary info - but it does & has continued to be a handy reference over the years even after two solar installs for ourselves - both giving us indefinite self sufficiency for power. We have been travelling for over 3 years fulltime, now & have never once needed to plug in to mains power, nor carry a generator.

The one single piece of advice regarding a system from me is "It is better to have too much & not use it all, than to not have enough".

RV,

Cuppas advice is most pertinent. I guess people here can give a guide as to what you need, but it would help if you could perhaps let people know what motor home you have, what it already has, if anything, wrt solar/ off grid camping (eg generator, batteries, wattage of panels etc.), and as Cuppa says, a bit of an energy audit in what you are expecting to run.

Such things as if you have a 3 way or compressor (12/240 volt unit) can help people guide you. Remember the more info you provide, generally the more answers you will get.

Hi RV freewind

I have the motorhome in my Avatar

I would free/donation/low cost camp at least 99% of the time

To find the free/donation/low cost camps, I use the "Australia Wide Camps" book, plus "Wikicamps" and word of mouth from other travellers

I do not go off road, except perhaps a few kilometres, to reach the camp, from the bitumen road

I have an on board shower, and cassette toilet, I have capacity to carry 260 litres of potable water, in tanks and collapsible containers, plus a 80 litre grey water tank

I have a 300 watt solar panel, on the roof, going through a DC/DC 20 Amp charger, plus a lightweight 160 watt portable solar panel

My house batteries are 2 X AGM 120 AH (name brand),

I also carry an (el-cheapo) 20 Amp 240 volt battery charger, plus a (came with vehicle) gen set

I had this system before I changed from a three way gas absorption fridge, to a 12 VDC compressor fridge

The 300 watt roof solar panel is enough for my needs, providing it is getting the sun
The 160 watt portable solar panel is used, when the roof solar is partly shaded

In theory I can run my engine to charge the house batteries, through the DC/DC charger (I did this before purchasing the 160 watt portable solar panel)
Also in theory (never tried this one), I can run the gen set, to charge the house batteries, through the 240 volt battery charger

Somewhere down the track, when my AGM batteries wear out, (I have had them 4 years now), I shall get lithium batteries, more solar, and lithium DC/DC charger

As we are all different, and require different amounts of power, there is probably no "one size fits all/this is what you must have" scenario

Hope that you find the vehicle you are looking for

There are a few considerations, hot or cold climate etc. ie Cairns or Tasmania, which season. We have 3x130a batteries, 400kw solar, 3600kw generator with charger and 300lits water. Water has always been the commodity we run short on. We do all of our camps off grid, 3-4 weeks at a time.

RV freewind wrote:

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We are thinking of up-grading our motorhome for one we can free camp with. What do we need as far as solar panels and house batterries are concerned.Also any other information re free camping would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

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 Hi 

My suggestion is to look further down the forum to the Techies' Corner, and then also the Solar Power sub forum at the top. People have asked and answered lots of similar questions before. Spend a bit of time reading in there and you might get some answers or at least some ideas about what to ask about for more information.

Some threads are a bit rambling but I assure you all the answers are in there given by people who do know and have done freecamping for quite a while !

Jaahn 

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-- Edited by Jaahn on Sunday 22nd of November 2020 12:52:15 PM

One advantage of lithium batteries that isn't talked about much is they are just as happy sitting at 15% charge as they are at 60% and in fact least happy sitting at 100%. This means that the usual requirement of discharging lead acids to 50% or even 40% provided you get them back up to 100% asap no longer applies. If conditions are bad for solar and you can't replace all that you use fo a few days then there is no problem if the batteries go down more and more as each day passes - provided of course you can keep them full enough that the bms doesn't step in.

I have 400 watt solar , 200 AH batteries , the engines batteries are connected via voltage sensitive relay . 30 amp solar reg, 50 amp 240v smart battery charger , 4kw diesel generator . On load side we have 220litre fridge freezer on 12v compressor type. Tvs etc run off 12v including the diesel heater. Dont have any issues with solar unless we have a whole overcast day ? Then we start the generator for 10 -20 minutes, boil the jug . By that time all batteries are pretty much charged ! Dont have todo this very often .

Bas + Eve wrote:

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Plus a 1000w inverter for foxtel/vast

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 Apart from the acres of roof space you must have to mount your 400Kw of solar  ;)

Why such a large inverter just to power a sat receiver?

 

Have every appliance 12v as much as you can. An Inverta will use more power. Everything in my van is 12v or chargeable on a 12v USB socket, except, stove(gas) air con, microwave & hot water 240v. All of which it are not really practical to run with solar anyway. Need a generator for that and generators are not socially acceptable. The hot water is a heat exchange, so running the engine until it gets warm takes care of that. Though don't do it in camp its as bad as a generator. I usually just organise my showers after I have been for a drive. Boil the kettle to wash up.