Renogy Solar Suitcase

[Bcborn]

Originally Posted by Marine359

I just shoved my head inside the pass thru and put my finger on the point where I wanted the wires to enter, then put my head outside and approximated the entry point. Then I drilled a small pilot hole just in case I was off a bit. However, it was right on, so drilled through with the correct size bit. Nice fuses you have. But remember, it’s really not necessary to fuse between array and controller if you’re using 10awg, which can safely carry 30 amps. Your array won’t be anywhere close to that. You need to fuse between controller and battery to protect that wire, because it will be possible a 100/30 controller to output 30 amps.

The only reason for the extra 20 was it came in a 2 pak and I can use it to shut off PV rather than unplug it at SAE lol. Yes will be running Renogy 40 foot solar extension cable of 10AWG between panel MC4 and Trailer MC4/SAE adapter.

Looking at my Winnebago Schematics, all negative cables ground to the frame and the battery negative (wht) 6AWG grounds to frame inside a 4x4 electrical junction box inside frame wall. The positive (red) battery cable 6AWG goes to a 30A fuse in the same junction box then carries on via its own fused circuit.

Seeing I'm running smaller gage wire 10AWG from controller to power would I be safe to take the fused 10AWG to this junction box for power and ground and let the 6AWG go the distance to the battery. This way their is only one wire on the +/- battery besides the parallel wiring. For the shunt I would just remove the White off the negative attach it to the shunt and place a short wire between the shunt and the battery.

As for the shunt, it will tell me the AH being used and replaced, but it will not tell you what exact appliance is using the power correct?

Jim, I do like the fuse block you put in. Should you ever wish to add additional circuitry you can go from that point rather than climb under the trailer and run wires to your junction box or battery had it still been on the tongue.

[Marine359]

Hi Lyle,
You should go neg to shunt “load” if you want shunt to include the charge controller in its monitoring circuit. The shunt can’t tell you what each individual component is doing with the battery unless you shut off everything else except the one component you want to measure. This is how I got a good observed measurement on how much amperage my compressor fridge was using. Just turned everything else off (except phantoms) and measured the one load.

White is the generally accepted ground. Whatever changes you make, neg must find it’s way to ground.

For wiring simplicity, I use bus bars. All negatives are connected to my negative bus bar, and one wire runs to shunt “load” side. One 6awg white runs from bus bar to chassis ground. It’s easy to make changes when you have bus bars.

Note in photo bus bar wiring and white Gnd
One wire to shunt load side
One wire to shunt batt side
Wire sizing should match max batt and inverter output requirements
I chose 1/0 wire for that.

[Bcborn]

Originally Posted by Marine359

Hi Lyle,
You should go neg to shunt “load” if you want shunt to include the charge controller in its monitoring circuit. The shunt can’t tell you what each individual component is doing with the battery unless you shut off everything else except the one component you want to measure. This is how I got a good observed measurement on how much amperage my compressor fridge was using. Just turned everything else off (except phantoms) and measured the one load.

White is the generally accepted ground. Whatever changes you make, neg must find it’s way to ground.

For wiring simplicity, I use bus bars. All negatives are connected to my negative bus bar, and one wire runs to shunt “load” side. One 6awg white runs from bus bar to chassis ground. It’s easy to make changes when you have bus bars.

Note in photo bus bar wiring and white Gnd
One wire to shunt load side
One wire to shunt batt side
Wire sizing should match max batt and inverter output requirements
I chose 1/0 wire for that.

Hi Jim,

Are you saying, if there is 5 feet of 6 AWG ((White) wire between the shunt load (at battery in my case) and the negative bus bar (under trailer) where all negatives are attached (including controller) you will not get a proper reading from the shunt?

I assume your OEM negative bus bar is located under the trailer near the front as is mine. Neg from battery to frame and any wire attached to frame is then theoretically connected to negative battery post. If the sigle 6AWG is connected to the load side of the shunt, everything in the trailer is then connected to the load side of the shunt.

You didn't pull all the wires from the OEM grounding block/frame back into the pass thru along with the OEM 6AWG wires from original batteries which you reattached to your Lithium Batteries did you?

[Marine359]

I pulled all wires from the frame except brakes and clearance lights. Everything now routes up to the disconnect switch. Negs all to pass thru bus bar, and one gnd to chassis. Much cleaner than trying to deal with that spaghetti in the frame junction box. 7-pin charging wire now routes to pos bus bar. My battery has an I/O switch. So when i turn it off, game over, everything is off, even phantoms. When I turn it on, Victron automatically resets to 100% SOC. So, if battery is not really at 200% SOC, I have to fully charge, and then reset the Victron again. A mild annoyance.

[No1Hunter]

You need to fuse between controller and battery to protect that wire, because it will be possible a 100/30 controller to output 30 amps.

Wouldn't it be prudent to fuse both ends of that cable as there is power coming from both ends, the controller and the battery?

[Bcborn]

Originally Posted by Marine359

I pulled all wires from the frame except brakes and clearance lights. Everything now routes up to the disconnect switch. Negs all to pass thru bus bar, and one gnd to chassis. Much cleaner than trying to deal with that spaghetti in the frame junction box. 7-pin charging wire now routes to pos bus bar. My battery has an I/O switch. So when i turn it off, game over, everything is off, even phantoms. When I turn it on, Victron automatically resets to 100% SOC. So, if battery is not really at 200% SOC, I have to fully charge, and then reset the Victron again. A mild annoyance.

Did your 2108 not come wired with a I/O switch in the passthru to disconnect the battery?

[Marine359]

That depends on the wire you are trying to protect, and the amperage you might send over that wire. A 10awg wire can handle 30amps. So it needs to be protected from current flowing from a source that may potentially exceed 30amps. Controller on one end fused to 30amps and battery on the other end is fine. Battery will not be sending power to the controller because it’s not a load. Battery needs to be fused on any load that can exceed the capacity of the wire feeding the load. In most cases, that means an inverter, or inverter/charger. A 1/0 wire is usually protected by a 250amp fuse.

[Marine359]

Originally Posted by Bcborn

Did your 2108 not come wired with a I/O switch in the passthru to disconnect the battery?

Yes mine came with a disconnect, which I do use on occasion. The real I/O switch is built into my battery. In travel trailers, battery disconnect switches do not disconnect all loads from the battery nor does it shut off the battery. A battery with a built-in I/O switch makes the battery “disappear”. No current flows.

[Bcborn]

Originally Posted by Marine359

Yes mine came with a disconnect, which I do use on occasion. The real I/O switch is built into my battery. In travel trailers, battery disconnect switches do not disconnect all loads from the battery nor does it shut off the battery. A battery with a built-in I/O switch makes the battery “disappear”. No current flows.

Thanks for the info, didn't know that.

The Renogy Smart Battery has a port for plug in battery monitor and they say no shunt required.

What would be the difference between this and a shunt besides the shunt having bluetooth to an phone app?

[Marine359]

Don’t know the spec on the Renogy Bluetooth module, but it may be able to do everything a shunt can do. But I would still recommend isolating loads onto a bus bars and using just one wire for negative and one wire for positive to connect stuff to battery.

[Bcborn]

Originally Posted by Marine359

I would still recommend isolating loads onto a bus bars and using just one wire for negative and one wire for positive to connect stuff to battery.

Currently all the negatives from the trailer are on a bus bar screwed to frame in the junction box. The negative cable from the battery is attached to the frame at junction box.

As for positives, the only extra positive to the battery is the tongue jack. I can pull that back to the junction box with the rest. Once that is done I will only have one wire to positive and one wire to negative at the tongue battery bank.

I liked your setup with the fuse box, makes it easy to add additional circuitry.

Once I go to Lithium I too can pull much of the wiring from the junction box under trailer to inside the passthrough and add a fuse box to clean things up.

[Marine359]

Nice Lyle,
You’re good to go. Happy trails

[Bcborn]

Originally Posted by Marine359

Nice Lyle,
You’re good to go. Happy trails

Out of curiosity how far from Victron Controller and Shunt are you able to connect via your Bluetooth phone.

As for the Victron MPPT 75/15 controller and 10AWG wire, did you have any issues getting them into the controller terminals?

Thanks

[Marine359]

Originally Posted by Bcborn

Out of curiosity how far from Victron Controller and Shunt are you able to connect via your Bluetooth phone.

As for the Victron MPPT 75/15 controller and 10AWG wire, did you have any issues getting them into the controller terminals?

Thanks

For Bluetooth,
I can get 7-10 ft away outside. Full length of trailer inside.
Sometimes I can connect from my truck cab.

10awg works fine for Victron controller terminals, and that’s all you need coming in. Going out, the terminals are supposed to accept 6awg. But I couldn’t get that size stranded wire to fit, even using a ferrule. So I just went with 10awg from controller to fuse block, and 6awg twisted from fuse block to bus bar.

[No1Hunter]

Jim.

I was looking at your pictures and reading your posts, I see you have 6awg wire going from your fuse block over and under your inverter. Then, in the other picture of the other end of the inverter, I see your bus bars, etc. but I don't see the wire coming from the fuse block. Don't the solar controller/fuse block wires tie into the bus bars?

Also, what size stud do your bus bars have. Is there any advantage of 5/16" vs 3/8" as long as they both have a 250 amp capacity?

On a side note, I think I am going to get the Lensun 110W Foldable Solar Panel. I like the idea of it being very light and comes with a kick stand (so i done have to fabricate something).

[Bcborn]

Originally Posted by No1Hunter

On a side note, I think I am going to get the Lensun 110W Foldable Solar Panel. I like the idea of it being very light and comes with a kick stand (so i done have to fabricate something).

Are you running Lithium or lead acid batteries?

I'm not sure your camping areas, but I find in my Provincial Parks I get into a lot of shaded areas. Having said that, I have a 200w Renogy Suitcase and I have to move the panels constantly to get them in the sun and even at that I cannot get 100% charge on my dual 64Ah Lead acid.

My friend has the same Renogy 200w Suitcase and a Renogy 100AH Lithium and as they charge faster he is able to get a full charge.

I know others with 100w panels and they are not able to keep up, with lead acid foresure.

[No1Hunter]

Are you running Lithium or lead acid batteries?

Currently, I have one lead acid, but in the process of replacing it with two 100Ah LiFePO4 batteries. I am kind of waiting to do too much to my TT while it is still on warranty. I don't want to give them any excuse to refuse to fix something.

I am not if you saw I have 190w of solar on the roof but as you pointed out, doesn't help in the shade. The idea is to start with on 110w foldable, but build the infrastructure to handle adding another in the future.

I am also trying to decide where to put the LiFePO4 batteries. They are going to be the self-heating type and may mount them in a metal box on the tongue. I know it is a very isolated instance, but I sure would hate for one of the batteries to catch fire, especially under my bed! LOL.

[Marine359]

Originally Posted by No1Hunter

Jim.

I was looking at your pictures and reading your posts, I see you have 6awg wire going from your fuse block over and under your inverter. Then, in the other picture of the other end of the inverter, I see your bus bars, etc. but I don't see the wire coming from the fuse block. Don't the solar controller/fuse block wires tie into the bus bars?

Also, what size stud do your bus bars have. Is there any advantage of 5/16" vs 3/8" as long as they both have a 250 amp capacity?

On a side note, I think I am going to get the Lensun 110W Foldable Solar Panel. I like the idea of it being very light and comes with a kick stand (so i done have to fabricate something).

Yes one wire (neg) from fuse block goes over the inverter to the negative bus bar. The other (pos) goes under the inverter to the positive bus bar. Maybe hard to see because I put a loom around both of them.

The stud size is 3/8”, but stud size doesn’t matter as long as bar is rated at 250amp or higher.

You should shop around for the right soft panel for you. Things may have changed in the last year. There may be better values.

I think 9BB cells and PERC construction is the best technology has to offer. Insist on a good surfacing material (EFTE). I often forget and leave mine out in the rain. Survives well. Jackery and Bluetti are two good brands for lightweight soft foldables. But there are many more by now. Renogy used to make one, but it had been discontinued when I was shopping.

[Bcborn]

Originally Posted by Marine359

Bluetooth Negative shunt monitor displays on your phone all activity of your batteries. Amps in, amps out, voltage, and SOC. Negative battery cable connects to batter side of shunt. All negative loads connect to load side of shunt. See it at top center of photo, close to battery. Screen shot of shunt Home Screen.

What size input wire did you run to the fuse box? I see the Blk going over the inverter, it looks small. I do not see the red that comes across under the inverter., unless it is the red I mentioned above terminating in the lower hole of the red buss bar.

As a side note;

It looks like there are 4 wires (3 red) (1 Wht) coming up through the plastic wire wrap. It looks like two of the red go to the OEM I/O and nothing was changed here. I assume the third Red and the white are the original battery wires that were under the trailer and went to the battery, You just pulled them back and ran them into the pass through in your lithium upgrade. This red you ran into the bottom hole in the red buss bar and the white you took up to the Blk buss bar.

Again I assume you left the 20amp (auto reset) and 30 amp (manual Reset) circuit breakers in their original location under the trailer with corresponding wires attached.

Looking at the OEM schematics, Winnebago does not show the wiring for the Battery I/O

[Marine359]

The input wire from controller to fuse block is 10awg stranded. The output wires from fuse block to bus bars are 6awg trwisted. If you look closely, you can see that the wire coming from the bottom of the fuse block is red. It then gets covered by a black loom all the way to the positive bus bar. The wire from the top of fuse block is negative and is also covered by a loom all the way to the negative bus bar.

The only wires remaining in the tongue junction box are for brakes and clearance lights, neither of which uses battery power. All other wires are routed back up through the floor to the 12v disconnect. From there, the leads are routed to bus bars.. note a single white 6awg gnd wire goes from neg bus bar to chassis gnd. I hardly ever use the 12v disconnect switch. If I want to shut down the 12v circuit, I simply click the battery I/O switch. In the picture, the battery is off. If it were on, you would see a voltage display on the battery.