Solar for Residential Refer?

[Cooter]

Our 2017 379RD has a residential double door fridge/ freezer. It's a long story on how we purchased our trailer and we're not made aware the the fridge was a residential unit. The inverter works great to power the fridge when trailer is not plugged into power. We knew going forward with the purchase was that we needed to check into solar to keep the batteries (2 deep cycle 6 volts) charged. We do have a portable 4000 watt generator, but thought if we had solar in addition to the generator it might make life easier. As you might have guessed we do a lot of dry camping (some call it boon docking). Does anyone have information on the size of solar panel(s) and the right accessories needed to complete a system,?
Thanks

[AZ Traveler]

Cooter,

Instead of using your name to title your threads you will get better response with a more descriptive title of your question or issue.

I recommend this order in setting up for boondocking:
1. Assess expected needs
2. Battery bank based on your expected usage
3. Inverter to run some things off the batteries without turning on the genny
4. Genny to recharge your battery bank - size based on needs. Two 2000 or 2200 units give you lots of options
5. Solar

While you can get along without solar its really nice not listening to your genny run.

There are several threads here that discuss all the above that are worth reading. You need a decent sized battery bank and you may want a larger inverter. A shunt and battery monitor are important to monitor the state of your batteries. The LED readout that is stock is fairly useless.

I run 4 6 volt golf cart batteries - you may also want to read up on Lithium options (high cost but also high performance). For solar I have 530 watts and have a 3000 watt inverter charger.

If you are not electrically inclined you might consider professional help. Sounds like you have a decent start already.

[jeffba]

[Cooter]

Thank You

[darrylwt]

Originally Posted by Cooter

Our 2017 379RD has a residential double door fridge/ freezer. It's a long story on how we purchased our trailer and we're not made aware the the fridge was a residential unit. The inverter works great to power the fridge when trailer is not plugged into power. We knew going forward with the purchase was that we needed to check into solar to keep the batteries (2 deep cycle 6 volts) charged. We do have a portable 4000 watt generator, but thought if we had solar in addition to the generator it might make life easier. As you might have guessed we do a lot of dry camping (some call it boon docking). Does anyone have information on the size of solar panel(s) and the right accessories needed to complete a system,?
Thanks

I have two 265 watt solar panels = 530 watts and three 100ah of Lithium Battle Born batteries = 300ah and a 2000 watt inverter and with a good sunny days i never have to start my generator and I added a Victronic 712 battery monitor with a bluetooth shunt so I can use my cell phone to check my batteries.

[Dmcgrew]

Just added three 305 watt panels along with four 6 volt deep cycle batteries, 2000 watt inverter. I tested it by dry camping for two days and had excellent results. Watched TV for 4 hours in the evening and set coffee to turn on at 7 am. Wife used curling iron and hair dryer in the am and battery never dropped below 12 volt. We also have a residential fridge. Weather conditions were clear and sunny so that helped but found the approx 900 watts to be enough for us. I paid to have the system installed but after watching the install could easily have done it myself. I was alway intimidated by solar because of all the numbers everyone threw at me when discussing the system, but realize now it is simply an expensive battery charger, nothing more!!