2017 305RL Montana High Country and solar

[Dave Sinclair]

We bought a new 2017 Montana High Country 305RL about a month ago and are going west this winter and want to boon-dock some. The question is, does it have any solar pre-wired into it? If not would it be possible to add another battery and a couple of solar cells. I know it has an inverter that comes on when I turn the battery cut off to the ON position. We also have a 30 amp generator in the truck, but I want to only use it when I need more power (like A/C). I guess I am asking what would be the best thing to do as far as adding solar.

Thanks

[Lenny K]

I don't know if the 305RL is pre-wired for solar, but if it is, I'm sure it would have undersized wire and not support any real amount of solar. I'm thinking you must have a residential fridge if you have an inverter. Do you know what size the inverter is? Or are you hearing your converter cutting in?
If I was putting on a solar system, I would start with 500 watts of panels or there about and find room for four 6 volts batteries.

[mjammersc]

I agree with Lenny, the 4 battery & 400-500W of panels is the minimum system size I would go with if you are going to go through the effort. You need to understand/determine how much DC you will really need based upon usage from your fridge to lights (DC and AC) to other electronics such as TV and Sound bar. A 500W system can be expected to provide ~30A of charging current on good weather days over several hour window. Based on that you could replace ~100-150 AH (Amp Hour) of usage on a typical good day. This should cover a decent amount of general usage though your residential fridge, assuming that is that you have as said you already had an inverter, is the item you need to understand the usage for in addition to the general electronics.


A residential fridge pulls 5-7A AC I think which is 50-70A+ DC via the inverter. Even if it is only running 15-20% of the time, you are consuming at least 180 AH (5A AC -> ~50A DC * 24 hours * 15% duty cycle) just with the fridge. A situation like that will drive you to needing a larger battery bank and/or array setup to keep up with that.


Food for thought - your mileage may vary

[WaltBennett]

Just slapping a couple panels and another battery on is not the way to go. Also, any wiring installed by a mfr will be way too small. As has been said, 400 watts of solar and four golf cart batteries is the minimum you'll need to do anything reasonable. I put this on ours almost four years back (http://www.montanaowners.com/forums/...ventures+solar) and the system has served us extremely well. Runs everything save the air conditioner and the electric sides of the refer and hot water heater.