Solar Recommendations

Thank you!!!! its working!!!  I would LOVE to say I figured it out by myself …but I chickened out and call in reinforcements! But we now have SOLAR!!! yipeeeee

Cheryl  

PS I went to harbor freight this am and picked up the tv swivel arm....now how long will it take me to muster up my courage for this one?? 

{I still have the window for the door in a box!!!!}

You need to figure out which side of the receptacle is  positive (+) and which is negative (-). Do you have a small volt/ohm meter (cheap ones available at Harbor Freight). Take the probes and with the black side touching the frame, insert the red one into each side of the receptacle. Since you have the negative grounded to the frame, when you probe the positive terminal, you will get a 12V reading (provided that solar wires are connected to the appropriate terminal of each battery).

Once you know that, then your instructions should point you in the right direction for making sure the polarity is correct when you plug it in.

Hi - the process is very simple and easy. This is the unit that I have and use for my 179:

As it says in the description, the wires that feed out of the solar panel controller (one red, one black) come with alligator clips on the end of them (intended to be attached directly to the trailer battery). In order to be able to plug directly into the solar port on the side of the trailer, you need to do change the connectors from alligator clips to a two-wire flat wiring plug that will fit into the trailer connection. Any decent RV supply store or local hardware or auto parts store will have one; they only cost a few bucks. They look like this:

Basically, what you do is clip the wires off of the alligator clips, and connect them to the wires on the plug that you'll use to attach it into the trailer (make sure you use the end that will fit into the trailer connection point). When you do so, reverse the wires - the red end from the solar panel goes to the black end of the plug, and the black end  from the solar panel goes to the red wire on the plug. 

Best way to connect the wires together securely is to use butt splice connectors - Google it and you'll see what they are. Local hardware stores will carry them - take the wire with you to get the right size. They work best with a crimping tool. but it a pinch I've done them with Vice Grip pliers.

Good luck - very easy to do, I've used the Renogy panels on several trips now. At the end of the day, the battery is always back to fully charged. Of course bad weather will reduce their efficiency.  Be aware that while its ok to expose the panels themselves to rain, the controller is not waterproof, so don't leave it out and exposed to rain (not going to do much good anyway).

Hope this helps!