Solar install in Myrtle SC/WilmingtonNC area

[Travlinphoolz]

Have an 07 Road Trek 190 purchased with a dysfunctional solar upgrade. Looking for a dependable tech who can look at the installation, diagnose it and determine if salvageable or not as well as look at the overall electrical system. Don’t trust going to just any RV repair center that says “they can do it”.

[SteveJ]

Are you sure that you don't want to give it a go chasing down the issue(s)?

It would be a bummer to take it to a shop and have it take them 2-3 hours at north of $100 hour to tell you they found a bad 38 cent fuse, which they will charge $5 for, plus shop supplies and environmental fees.

The system itself is usually quite simple, a gizmo or three, panels, batteries, and wiring.

There are Youtube videos to help along with posting up here. There are some folks around here that are quite talented troubleshooters.

[Rlum]

Originally Posted by Travlinphoolz

Have an 07 Road Trek 190 purchased with a dysfunctional solar upgrade. Looking for a dependable tech who can look at the installation, diagnose it and determine if salvageable or not as well as look at the overall electrical system. Don’t trust going to just any RV repair center that says “they can do it”.

I had the same situation. My 2016 PW Lexor was not charging house batteries. Change out solar controller several times. Went to Blu Sky controller because it was adjustable. Tech helped a great deal. Learned to use multimeter to check voltages, etc. After sometime, found the problem was fuse from battery bank to controller. It was reading the voltage incorrectly because of the oxidized contacts on fuse. Oxidized fuse increased resistance and controller was not reading the battery voltage properly. It took awhile to figure out issue. I am a newbie with electrical but learned a lot about my van. Changed fuse and now all systems are working great. Yes, it took a long time but glad I hung in there. Several times, I almost gave up and took to professional. Lots of You tube videos help, etc.

[Ryohn]

What's the issue? I may be able to help.

[Travlinphoolz]

Bought the RT last spring and the former owner just indicated that the solar did not work. He provided very little more information. I will get to the unit and look up the info on it from the manuals and report more later. It had two flexible solar panels that looked a bit old attached to the roof via heavy velcro. On our trip south last fall one of the panels blew off the roof and disappeared unbeknownst to us as we were driving. During this past summer we had issues with the charge/inverter not charging and our tech advised that the original charger/inverter was not operable and we installed a new charger. This is the 3rd motorhome we have owned and have never used the inverter so we just went with the cheaper charger which is now working. So I have never tried to use the solar and now that we have lost a panel not sure anything will ever work. Was hoping in this area of NC I could find a dependable tech that could take a look at it to determine if it is salvageable. I will get to the RT and pull out the manuals and provide more info later.

[Ryohn]

If you have a solar panel on the roof, hopefully the wiring is OK going from it, through the roof (roof penetration, properly sealed). This wiring "should" go to a charge controller that ties into your house 12V system. At this point it supplements the charge to your house batteries. If one blew off, I'd suggest getting an aluminum frame solar panel and attach it to roof at the point of electrical feed to the charge controller. This would be a permanent install that would stay put even driving down the highway.

[Twinbridges]

Call RV Pros in Dunn,NC. Great guys and experienced. Not only are the very capable they make a schedule and meet it. They will do remote for some things but bigger jobs they have a shop.

[Travlinphoolz]

Thanks i will look into that