Thor Forums

[TurnerFam]

agree - the 'Gore' aspect really makes me want to 'save the planet'! Not.

agree - it's o.k. having these discussions and even disagreements, but it's all in the fun of discussing what the realities of these systems bring, when it comes to RVing, and the 'mobile' environment that ensues.

I have solar for almost one single reason: Alaska.
We planned a two month trip back in mid 2017. Not knowing much about what to expect, but realizing that many, many nights would be without electricity - without rv parks or campgrounds, I explored the cost and value of what solar could do to make up for, or offset, generator usage and fuel costs.
I found a nice new 200w solar system from HQST, with controller, wiring, and connectors, for a 12v output. I used the pricing to then financially extrapolate a 'guesstimate' of what the solar could do to lower the run time of the generator. Yes, though, it's just a guesstimate because there are simply so many variables to what will actually 'happen' while traveling that far, for that long, in an unknown environment, with little idea of what the 'sun' would be doing while we were there... cloudy, rainy, full sun, sun hours, whether to tilt the panels, etc.

I felt like the solar payback would come somewhat close to paying for itself, all calculations being conservative, and then the system would then be usable for many years beyond, as needed.

I received the panels, wired them up, and set them out to test, getting about 10-11amps during full overhead direct sun... nice.
I then pondered whether to mount them on the roof, as most RVrs do, or to take a course where I could maneuver them and tilt them for best outcomes, when parked.
That's when the idea of using my 3-bike articulating bike rack, which we had used for many thousands of miles, but were not planning on using for this trip, until now. I looked at the structure, added some aluminum 'rails' for panel supports, and devised a way to not only 'carry' the panels while traveling, but to then be able to easily deploy them flat, and also be able to tilt both toward the sun. I knew that while the sun would hardly set each day, especially in the very far north of the Yukon, and Alaska, being able to tilt them toward the majority of 'sun hours' would provide the most battery charging during those times.

It worked well. No regrets. I feel like the generator run time was much less than it might have been otherwise, though even that 'feeling' is simply a feeling - it's still really hard to totally 'prove' otherwise, since you might do things differently if you 'only' had a generator. Our generator is a Cummins Onan 6kw diesel, and performs flawlessly and powerfully for it's usage times, and is really fairly quite even then.

Now, realistically, even with 'full sun', solar is not always a power source that will be there - for instance, at a off-grid campground on a lake in the Yukon, the only camp parking sites were all under tree cover. Great for the shade, but hardly for the solar, especially if it's permanently attached to your roof. Another time we parked on a roadside pulloff while coming out of Jasper, on the way to Banff, on the Icefields Parkway, on the Athabasca river(beautiful!), the sun was full out, but just over the trees - another 'generator' overnight.

These are the realities, as everyone can 'dream' that the sun is almost always there for our solar, but it's not really the case - you just have to take it as it is - there's not always going to be a way to receive the sunlight, even if you can move your panels around.


It was fun, though, lets' go back again! 60 days to and from, and 9 days in Alaska!

I now have the panels mounted on the roof, like most, to keep them always 'out', and usable when sun is available, but I don't worry so much about whether they are getting exactly 100% of direct sun - just that they are doing what they 'can' to aid in the battery charging. It's all good.