Solar connections

[rscozzens]

New to this forum, looking for information on solar prep on our new Coleman Lantern, have looked at owners manual and searched for information in this forum, either I missed it or did not go back far enough! Ideas and info very welcome! We dry camp a lot and seems like solar is the way to go!

[dsol]

More often than not “solar prep” means your rig has a 12 volt connection somewhere on the exterior that you can plug a solar panel directly into for charging your batteries. That connection is often a proprietary connection that works with a specific cable type that might be hard to find.

It’s not a great or expensive feature but it does allow you access to charge or get a voltage reading on your batteries without having to open a battery box and it is usually fused.

Someone with your specific model can likely confirm.

[kjlarson]

The solar plug on the your trailer is for a trickle charger system; usually one 100watt panel that outputs less than 1 amp. It would take several days to charge a battery using the built in system so I suggest you forget that route and get a generator to recharge the battery. Also, those built in systems do not have any charge controller so they can damage the battery or batteries by over charging. If you want to go the solar route be prepared to spend so big bucks; the system I installed on our trlr costs nearly $2,800 - but it runs everything in the trlr including the A/C in addition to charging the battery bank. You can install small limited system for just a couple of hundred dollars; it all depends on what you want the system to do - what you want to power. Before considering solar do your homework by reading and viewing material on the internet; going solar is an involved process that requires a sound knowledge of how it works and how to size it for you needs. I knew very little when I started but became familiar with the subject after researching on the internet. Renogy.com is one place to start, try youtube.com and look for "rv solar systems explained" is another. Much of the material on the internet is old but the principals are the same. Good Luck in learning about solar.

[persistent]

Pretty good advice above.

100 amp panel with a solar controller may put out 8 amps.

The "solar ready" feature in my Kodiak Cub is socket on the outside with a 10 amp fuse connected to the battery on the tongue.

An owner with a newer model says there is also a connector on the roof and the two wires run to a box in the front pass through and then to the front battery. I don't know the capacity of the wire and fuses in the new system.

I doubt your Colman has much more than that. You would still need a panel and solar controller. If you wanted more than 100 watts you probably need to run bigger wire with bigger fuses.

I wish you good luck and happy trails ahead!

[Randy]

There are two different designs of solar connectors, and you can determine which one by examining the plug on the side of your rig (usually in close proximity to your batteries). But then be cautious because the rig manufacturer may have (by design) reversed the polarity of the wiring. Solar ready is misleading because you’ll still need a controller between your panels and the batteries. You can easily change out the male and female connections of wiring from your controller/panels from one design to the other.

[mapper]

im following this as well, i have a 3035, ahd just picked up a 100 watt kit, so was mainly planning to charge existing 12 volt to start with. the kit comes with charge controller, and was planing to go from that to the existing solar port. maybe add additional battery, but nothing mmore than that now.

im new to this, havent camped in it yet, just thinking about a few things now.
ive seen the pigtails to connect to the port on amazon