Solar Panels

this is the roof-mounted 160 watt solar

panel made by overland solar it’s an

option it’s good option if you’re buying

a compressor refrigerator or two-way

compressor front this basic overview of

the roof vent up here over the cab over

bed vent over here in the kitchen you

can get a fan here you can get a fan

here you can get two fans you can get no

fans one piece aluminum skin roof this

customer also got Yakima tracks here so

they can add roof racks later if they

desire we put the mounting clips for the

towers in the tracks already so it’s

easy to install cross bars and towers

but for the solar system will cover the

controller on the inside and portable

solar panel on the rest of the video but

this is the 160 watt roof mounted option

tied into the tracks wired into the

solar controller in the kitchen cabinets

and then ends up hooked up to the camper

batteries so when you get your four

wheel camper this is the this is how

it’s going to be set and this is what

you’re gonna see the biggest part of the

status functions is the up and down

button that’s gonna scroll you through

the different functions and once you set

it on something it’s just gonna stay on

that so you just want to know voltage

you can keep it on voltage which is

generally what I keep mine on but you

hit the but any button once and you’re

going to hit the backlight so that’ll be

on for two minutes and you can edit that

and we’ll explain that later so right

now it’s showing battery amps so this is

amps – battery right here it says

battery you know it’s just it’s talking

about what’s happening at the battery so

4.1 or 4 amps going into the battery

right now

okay battery voltage the voltage is at

14 volts this is what I keep my camper

on I think this is the most important

number that I kind of keep an eye on I

want to know that the voltages is

correct so you might just want to leave

it in voltage and give you the peace of

mind next now we have load functions

load is not used in this situation but

there are load terminals in the

controller if you’re interested in

adding things to a load and again load

on amps okay and this will be the first

one it’s 55 watts it’s telling you how

many watts are coming from the panel and

again PV so panel voltage that tells you

what it’s reading we’re done

that’s your voltage coming from the

panel panel voltage twenty six point six

or so voltage coming from the panel down

to the charge controller this is your

daily history there’s zero because we

just set this up and connect it to a

battery but as you go through you know a

few days it’ll start giving you that

history this tells you again the PV is

gone now we’re in battery so it’s

telling you what’s happening the battery

this is the mode it’s in right now it’s

in book mode that the battery would just

connect it to is pretty under charged so

bulk mode is the first of the three

stages that it’s going into to rapidly

charge the battery and then back down to

battery in Ames so that’s the basics of

what you’re actually going to look at

okay so we’re in the status mode now

we’re gonna get into the programming

mode and so for some of us that gets

real exciting for most of you go enjoy

your beer and your four wheel camper and

do what you went out to do but if you do

want to make changes our control system

is you can tune this to all kinds of

specs if you get a new battery I’ll say

some lithium battery that wants a 14

plus volt charge you can do that easily

here so we’re gonna hold setup button

for a couple cents seconds alright so

we’re in a lock setup you can’t do

anything until you unlock it so we’re

gonna just like that and actually have

it off because we were doing this but

it’ll be in the unmowed so click it off

hit select

go we’re off back to set up all right so

now you’re in so there are 23 parameters

here that you can go through and we’ll

just kind of quickly go through a couple

of them battery voltage this kit is a

either a 12 or 24 volt system mostly

you’re in a 12 volt system but if for

some reason you wanted to go to a 24 you

could set it yourself but it also will

know if you have a 24 volt system at

factory settings and it will

automatically just change to the 24 volt

system the maximum charging current

which is 15 amps you can change that

let’s go into bulk we just talked about

changing the bulk current so we want to

unlock that say I’m in the winter time I

want to get bulk for more than 6 hours

you can change that right here

say you want 7 or 8 hours you want that

battery to be in the bulk state longer

to get as much of the Sun as possible

before it goes into the absorption it

starts trickling down to the float

charge so easily done right there

absorption time limit it’s the same as

the bulk absorption voltage you can

change that now it’s important before

you start doing any of this stuff to

check your manufacture for the battery

manufacturer specifications and don’t

deviate from that you can damage a

battery really quickly if you tried to

overdo it so just know what you’re

trying to do say you’re going to trojan

t105 and you want to be at 13 point 5

volts float you can do that since that’s

one set for 13 point 6 so again you can

fine tune a lot of a lot of these things

but that’s that’s the basics you can go

through 23 it’s self-explanatory once

you get on the screen there I did want

to show one other thing for backlight on

the display let’s go down again I got a

I got a take the lock off select so I’m

safe I’m gonna go back let’s go down

2:15 all right so here’s your back light

so we’re set at 5 so you can change that

for your intensity so if you can see

we’re getting dimmer if you like it nice

and bright you can do that here so if

it’s too bright for you just go into

this section and let’s make it 4 saved

it number 4 if for some reason you want

to have the back light always on I think

that’s it 16 you can change it right

here again up and down always on hit

saved

hit back back so your back light will

always be on but again it’s set for

leave about 2 minutes and then it’s

going to shut down so again the amp you

treat the MPPT display it can allow you

to program all kinds of things keep it

at the settings watch your voltage and

enjoy your 4 wheel camper part of solar

systems with the four wheel pop-up

campers we have an option for portable

solar panels if you need more power than

the 160 roof most customers order the

roof-mounted panel standard they’ll

order that first and down the road if

they need more power they’ll go with a

portable solar panel whether it’s a

briefcase style or a flexible panel this

is a 160 watt by solar company this will

flip out you can set it on the side of

your truck bed you can set it on the

ground comes with about a 15-foot lead

this brand is called overland solar and

the connection is at the end of it here

will plug into the back of your camper

here just plugs right in if you have a

roof-mounted solar panel you’ll already

have a charge controller built inside if

you don’t have a solar system by 4 wheel

campers you’re going to want to make

sure that your portable panel

has a built-in controller or that you

put a charge controller inside the

camper but as an option you can buy this

panel in 120 watts you can buy this in a

smaller size at 60 watts we can hook

everything up for you or you can go shop

on your own for a different brand of

components because the campers do come

standard pre-wired so this plug here is

standard and the plug on the roof is

standard the wires go inside they

terminate inside the kitchen cabinets

and then they move on to the battery box

it’s just pre-wired it’s not hooked up

it’s not set up it’s a do-it-yourself

kit so you’re gonna have to finish

putting your charge controller in

hooking those wires up hooking the wires

up to the battery put in an inline fuse

so it’s wired to make it easier for a

self install but if you buy these from

4-wheel campers

we’re gonna set it up so your wiring

hooked up your solar controllers hooked

up your panel on the top hooked up and

it’s turnkey ready to go

you