3120RL Super Solar Flex Initial Impressions

[MAWilsonPE]

We finally got our new unit delivered and spent our 10 day maiden voyage at a beach in SC. We did not boondock but I did disconnect from shore power for awhile to test the SSF package and I wanted to give you my first impressions.

First, the batteries and inverter/charger are simply amazing. I had 3 lead-acid deep cycle batteries on my old camper with a total of 300 amp-hrs of capacity, of that only half is "usable". Max charge rate was about 30 amps with the batteries at 50%. As I charged those the charge rate dropped significantly at 75% (~10-15 amps) to only a trickle above 85% (5 amps). This package will dump 100+ amps of charging continuously into the batteries to over 99%! Wow!

I was able to run run one air conditioner for almost 3 hours and drained about half of the 510 amp-hr capacity. I inadvertently had my water heater set to electric and saw about 250 amps of 12v power flowing until I switched it to gas!

When we arrived at camp my solar panels were not working. A call to Jaboni helped me find the external breakers on the box to reset the charge controllers and then it worked fine. Tripped again before I got home so I wonder if the truck pigtail connection has something to do with it.

Once working, I saw upwards of 20-25 amps coming from each pair of solar panels. It was pretty sunny but we did get shaded part of the day. I still need to better evaluate how much charging I can expect from the panels in a typical day.

Now that we are back home I plan to spend more time with the system and evaluate the power draw of all the components so I can understand what we can and cannot use while boondocking and still expect to recharge. Stay tuned...