Looking for input, opinions. Want to add solar and fridge to ATC Bobcat

[hand_foot_maneuver]

Howdy, i was hoping to glean some guidance and advice to see if a plan i dreamed up is realistic. Im newish to the camper modding.

-have ATC Bobcat, was a shell model, Had the heater installed by them, propane. Thats my biggest power consumer besides charging devices. Otherwise fantastic fan and led lights. Nothing else that consumes power.

-its wired for solar at the roof and rear panel. I can house probably 160w worth of panel on roof, plus a freestander when parked.

-i have this battery https://shop.odysseybattery.com/p/34m-790?pp=12

-i dont boondock for more than about 4 days most times. Generally drive 2-4 hrs Each way to most of my regular haunts.

-im considering starting with a 160 w panel and a controller, see how goes and add freestanding later.

-im wanting to add this fridge, https://www.dometic.com/en-us/us/pr...tors/rv-refrigerators/dometic-crx-50u-_-30983 or something comparable, as it will fit under the bro bed passenger side, opposite the bulk and weight of propane and heater. My fuel tank is on the drivers side already, got the battery on passenger. Hoping to floor mount.

Is this a feasible idea? Or am i hopelessly shooting too lofty with the fridge. Hoping to not have to go propane but not sure if its avoidable. Propane would mean id have to mount opposite side, so way heavy on drivers side. Trying To balance weight out and make all the trouble and expense worth it in the First place.

Thanks in advance, anything is helpful. Head spins.

 

[hour]

I'd eliminate the 2-4 hours each way of driving from the equation if you're stationary for 4 days. You'll arrive full and it doesn't really matter what you leave at when the trip is over, you can recharge the rest of the way at home (or parked via solar, not camped out using furnace/opening fridge/running fan/lights)

That battery seems kind of puny at 61ah total, so 30ah usable. I have a tiny Suburban propane furnace in my camper and wouldn't want to rely on that battery for more than a single night of LED camper lights and heating. If your fridge is in your heated space then it'll be cycling much more than if it were left out in say 40*F weather overnight. So yeah I think you're going to have problems with the capacity of that battery.

Then morning rolls around, sun is coming up and blasting your camper but is too low in the sky to produce much charge. Your fridge is getting even warmer but keeps hitting the low voltage disconnect. You want to run the max fan, but even that is drawing more power than you're gaining from the sun. Food becomes suspect. Camper becomes sweaty.

So anyway, let's say 30ah is your limit if you don't want to exceed 50% depth of discharge on that battery. A 100w panel given 5 hours of prime conditions can give 25-30ah. I don't know if you could expect that much from a flat roof mount @ 100w, but I'd say mostly yes with a 160w. That's just getting you back to full though, not accounting for daytime running of the fantastic fan, fridge, charging devices, whatever.

That battery may be a dual purpose starting/cycling battery and not a true deep cycle, and if that's the case you should upgrade it anyway. You may be able to fit a 50-60 usable ah battery in its place. That would get you through the night and in to the next day when the sun is up high enough. Still in bad shape though if day 2 of your trip is stormy from 11am-3pm, or overcast all day, or you incorrectly anticipated where the sun would rise and what shadows would hit your panel.

I'd still shoot for more battery than that though which means more weight. Or if you have the money, a 100ah Battleborn Lifepo4 will give you ~100ah usable and save you 15lbs off your current far-too-small battery. That plus a 160w panel should get you through 4 days even with some less than optimal charging conditions. You may not leave charged but you can take care of that when home.

Do check and make sure 160w is about the biggest you can fit, accounting for whatever is on your roof that can cause shading like your fan vent. I'm an advocate for 24v panels, or two panels in series, so much that I'd take the complexity of mounting 2x50w over 1x100w. I've found I can charge a lot earlier and later in the day like this. My charge controller won't do anything until the panel voltage is (5 I think) volts higher than my battery, so the morning hours where a single panel is giving me 15v is useless. In series I'd be getting 30v at that time, and thus be able to charge.

 

[tk421]

Very good information above. I used a Cabela's ~120 ah AGM battery for 5 years of hard service coupled with 100-200w solar and it powered LED lights, fan, furnace, laptop, and ran the 41l 12v fridge 24/7/365 . Ran it dead a couple times by accident and it has lost capacity so moving to DIY LiFePO 200ah now but would recommend (2) 6v Deka golf cart batteries for the low cost to capacity ratio, if you have the space and weight allowance. LFP is expensive for drop-in and DIY is a rabbit-hole (fun rabbit-hole however). Another issue is how much sun you receive. I live in Nevada so I can get away with a small battery because I will almost always get a full charge quickly the next day, but if you are in a cloudier or higher latitude location you should factor that in to your battery capacity.

 

[hand_foot_maneuver]

Late reply, thanks for the info. Sounds like ive got to check a few more angles but the battery thing makes sense. Def will get good measurements up top to see how much panel i can put up there. Also looking at a lesser fridge, like the arb or the new dometic ones, like cfx . Ill never be able to get rid of a beer cooler for beer and use as a step.

 

[hand_foot_maneuver]

Just realized battleborn batteries are only 15 min away from me. Derp! Spendy but worth it is my takeaway.
Hoping to get out with the tape measure After it cools down.
Funny how much nevada popped up, reno here. majority of my time is in very sunny places, dont go up north too all often. Sun supply should always be ample for me

 

[dreadlocks]

Get a pair of Duracell GC2's from Sams for $200 and tha'll run the fridge 4 days pretty effortlessly (>200AH), 150W of solar on the roof will extend it a few more days more than likely.. the LP furnace will kill all that tho depending on how much it runs, you may need to double up on the solar with some portable ones too on their own charge controller for the colder months.

Could consider something like a Wave heater that requires no electricity so you dont get in a situation where you really need heat but also really need your fridge too.