from scratch solar setup for a camper.

[nicksch79]

Im new to the forum and new to working with solar so bear with me. Ive purchased a new 28ft enclosed trailer thats gonna be used as a toyhauler/camper and i would like it to rely on solar power with a generator backup. Im sure this has been covered over and over but i have about three weeks to research, understand, and purchase, so Im trying to get right into it.

So to start i was thinking to run most of the camper off of 12v with a couple 110v circuits. I dont have a real idea of what kind of usage ill have yet because this will be project that evolves as our needs do. Im hoping to figure out what solar panels I will need, what charge controler, which batteries will work best, what power inverter will work with everything without killing it. Oh and not completely drain my wallet. I know I didnt give much info base this plan off of but any help will be greatly appreciated. THANKS.......

[Mike90250]

With no real idea or plan yet, I would suggest you opt for a 48V system and forget about 12V. The size of the camper, at 28', means you can have over 50' cable runs (to and from, + & - ) That is death to 12V gear unless you use #6 cable (heavy and expensive) or else put up with dim lights (low voltage) at the far end.
A starter 48V bank of 4 deep cycle 12V 95ah batteries in series, containing 2.2KWh of usable storage, can easily be expanded (doubled) by using 8 G2 golf cart batteries in the future. 48V means smaller charge controllers, smaller wires and overall safer (no 12V 100A wire connections to melt and start fires)

[Sunking]

No one can help you without knowing how much your daily power needs are. Lastly there is no such thing as a budget with Off-Grid battery systems. Like flying in a plane, if you cannot afford the ticket, you are not flying period. It is what it is.

This wil give you an idea of what you are looking at.

[ewarnerusa]

If you're trailer is an empty shell, then I assume that means you'll be starting from scratch for any camping amenities? You do have an opportunity to think out of the RV industry norms as mentioned. But if you're not getting fancy with accessories and power needs, then I don't see a reason to get non-traditional with your power system. You have posted in a forum dedicated to 12V power systems for RV, which is what I'm referring to as traditional.
Water system with a pump?
Refrigerator?
Heating system?
Lighting?
Radio?
These things are the typical power draws in a camper if you're talking off-grid without 120V AC accessories like air conditioning and microwaves. While their power draws will not be negligible, they are also not particularly high. A factory built camper will run all of this off of 12V power source in conjunction with a propane gas system. When that's all we had in our factory built camper, a single group 27 12V battery with a 100 watt solar panel would get us through long weekends without needing any other recharging. We didn't own a generator and didn't even have the lighting switched over to LED. Our current camper has 280 watts of solar charging 2x6V batteries in series (started with 2x12V batteries in parallel). I do run an inverter but don't run much more than a television, fans, and some gadget battery rechargers with it. Wanting 120V AC electricity via an inverter will play a big role in where you want to go with this.