Thor Forums

[TurnerFam]

the thing about many of our 'wants' with solar is that we 'want' it to benefit us during the overnight/dark hours, when Solar is not 'able' to do anything for us... I get that we 'think' that Solar during the day will somehow give us the battery 'charge' to take us thru the night, but the simple fact is that we can easily forget that we are probably going to be running the generator at the dusk hour in order to run the microwave, make supper, etc., which will already charge the batteries while running...

Solar makes a lot of sense when you are simply 'sitting' during the daylight hours and don't want the noise or fuel consumption from a generator, but even then, especially during the hot months, you are going to want air conditioning anyway - so the generator will probably be used, at least part of the day, anyway.

My comments are not to necessarily dissuade those who it makes financial 'cents' for, but many of us jump on the solar bandwagon simply because we see others doing it and easily think that it should be something we should have, as though we're 'missing out' on some type of 'need' during camping, or for some to be able to 'say' we have solar.

What I think many of us miss, though, is that 'big' engine that we already paid for, that came with our RV, and is ready and willing to be used - the generator. Neighbors who dry-camp certainly expect you to use your generator - they'll be using theirs, too... and the very few times we ever go 'camping' to a state or national park where generator hours are limited is not really a great 'reason' to spend so much extra money on something that we may find that doesn't really 'do' what we think it will. I can be a mind game just as much as anything.
I've heard folks state things like 'well, we got thru the night because of our solar', or 'our solar is giving us many, many more hours of battery power'... but many times these are just subjective opinions to bolster our purchase, when in reality it's very, very difficult to actually identify exactly what 'would' have happened even if we didn't have solar...it might have been the same outcome.


travel, enjoy... and by all means, park in the SHADE! : )