Solitude 310GK with 510 watt Solar Setup

[Flyn2high]

I'm installing a 510 watt solar / inverter / charger / setup with lithium batteries on my Solitude 310GK. I'm doing the installation myself as I really do not know of a quality installer in my area of Long Island, NY.

After doing months of research I decided to buy everything from AM Solar. I was very impressed with their support and the quality of the components. My needs for boondocking are fairly light with the following AC and DC loads. Power for TV, Microwave, lights, heater and vent fans, water pump, hydraulic system, computer, phone charging and maybe a hair dryer. The frige is gas/electric and not very efficient on AC so solar would not be practical. It is actually pretty good on gas though. I have a pair of Honda 2200 generators that will run at least one Conditioner, everything else will run on propane. I originally planed to go with a 2000 watt inverter and about 400 watts of solar with two 100ah battleborn batteries.

I ended up with a little bigger system for only a bit more cost. The Victron MultiPlus 3000VA inverter/charger is a bit over kill for my setup but it has some really cool features. With the Smart Phase Selector I am able to provide power to both legs of my 50 amp shore power and if I am connected to only 30 amps or the shore power is lacking it will supplement power. I know I could save a few bucks by shopping around for the solar panels but I liked the idea of getting everything including the batteries from one source. If I have a question I have one company to call.

So here is my setup
- (3) 170 watt solar panels for 510 watts connected in parallel.
with the ability to add a forth panel for 680 watts total.

- Victron 100/50 solar charge controller

- Victron MultiPlus Inverter/charger 3000va

- Smart Phase Selector

- Victron 100/50 Solar charger.

- Victron VB712 Battery Monitor with bluetooth

- Victron Color Display.

- Two Battleborn 100ah Lithium Batteries for now.

- All cables, lugs mounting hardware and accessories.

I am very happy with the service and what I got. I received it two weeks ago and I am about 90% finished. I thought I knew what was involved but it was a lot harder than I originally thought. I will post photos when it is complete.

[Flyn2high]

One thing that I thought would be easy was that my RV is a 2020 model and has a built in cable chase that runs from the roof to the pass through storage compartment (basement). Before I started I checked out the roof access for the cable. There is an aluminum square plate that is screwed down with dicor sealant around it. Below it in the basement ceiling there is a small hole labeled for solar / satellite cable. Being more then a little OCD I put my cellphone borescope to good use and ran it up the chase to the top. I could clearly see it was a nice square cable channel that was perfectly clean and at the very top it looked like a block of wood with another small hole in it 6' away. It was looking good at this point and today I scraped the dicore off of the aluminum plate on the roof and unscrewed it. What I found is that the roof membrane under the thin plate was covering a large 2" hole. I cut a small hole in the membrane but I did not see the cable hole below. About 2" down there was the top of the bathroom ceiling panel. Using the borescope going sideways I could not find the cable hole. I figured my next step was to drill through but first I wanted to see where it would come out.

Looking from the basement I can see the cable chase is located in the bathroom wall just behind the sink. I took measurements to the center of the aluminum plate on the roof. In the bath I plotted where it would come out and it was just in front of the bathroom vanity. Someone put the roof access in the wrong place. I then measured from the basement and plotted the point on the roof. See the photo of plate resealed with dicor. It is about 4 inches away. I am pretty sure my mark on the roof is in the center of the chase but I am still a bit reluctant to drill from the roof down.

I took three lengths of 5/32" music wire and make couplers to join them them with a 5/32 drill at one end. Basically I made an 8 foot long drill. My plan is to pass it up through the basement opening assembling it as I go and position it in the center of the hole at the top. I'll use the boresope for this. Then drill and hopefully it will come out on the roof near my mark.

[Flyn2high]

That worked pretty good. I did need to use a 6” long drill but it came out about 5” forward of were the access cover was. See the attached photo showing the hole in the cable chase and lining up my drill in the hole with the aid of my borescope. The next photo is where the hole came out on the roof.




The cable going down is fairly large because all panels are connected in parallel. It is a 4 awg wire. It needs at least a 7/8” dia hole to pass through. The hole that was there is about 1/2” dia. I needed an 8” long 7/8” drill to do this but luckily I had one in my junk drawer.

AM Solar provided adhesive backed tyrap pads that I do not need to use screws to mount. They have a super strong 3M adhesive that is also used to mount the panels on fiberglass and aluminum roofs. I’m hoping that the rubber roof membrane does not pull up but it appears to be fairly well glued down.

The next step was to install the collector box and connect each of the solar panels to the cable going to the solar charger.

[Flyn2high]

This completes the solar panel install on the roof. The panels each have a fuse which let me work on them with no risk of shorting anything out. I will install the fuses back in after everything else is finished.

I purchased tilting bars for the panels. They allow the panels to tilt 45° left or right. While the panels were tilted I fastened the cable tie downs.

[Flyn2high]

I mounted the Smart Phase Selector next to the original converter. See photo of it below. It is behind the main circuit breaker/ fuse box.



On the pass through storage area I removed the middle rear panel and removed all the screws on the outer rear panel so that I could slide it out of the way with out removing the vacuum other connections. This gave me a lot of room to access the area behind the circuit breaker box. However, the plumbing was always in my way. The shore cable that connects to the circuit breaker box needs to be removed and installed in the SPS. A 6 awg 4 wire cable that was supplied connects in place of the shore cable and goes to the SPS. Then two 6 awg 3 wire cables connect from the SPS to the AC input and AC output of the MultiPlus inverter charger. in the forward compartment. I was supplied 16’ feet of this cable which was long enough for one run but I needed another 16’ to go back. AM Solar shipped this to me at no charge. I attached the cables to the aluminum frame work in the basement ceiling and through to the forward compartment.

Below is the wiring diagram for the SPS. I do not have a built in generator so there is no factory transfer switch in my setup.



By the way I strongly recommend a stripping tool for these heavy cables. I used my pocket knife which took some time. One other point is that the AC input and output cables are just a bit too big for the stain reliefs in the inverter. AM Solar recommended drilling them out with a Christmas tree bit. I used my lathe and bored it out for a nice fit.

[Flyn2high]

I installed the Victron color display and VB712 battery monitor in the cabinet above the circuit breaker panel. I cutout a 1/8” plywood panel and fit it into the cabinet. There are three cables that connect to components in the forward compartment. Two Ethernet cables and one 4 wire cable. Fishing these cables through was tough. I removed the switch panels above and used a solid copper wire as a snake from below in the basement. I pulled up a long nylon line and used it to then pull each cable up. Then I drilled a 1/2” hole from the switch panel box to the display below to run the cable to the two displays. Connectors are already on these cables so it was a bit of a challenge to pull them up. The three cables run along one of the aluminum fame members in the basement ceiling. I tied up the excess cable to one of the drain pipes. One Ethernet cable connects between the color display and the inverter, The second one connects between the battery monitor and the shunt. A short 4 pin cable connects from the battery monitor to the color display. The last 4 pin cable connects from the color display to the solar charger.

There is one more cable with a 5 amp fuse for DC power. I had enough cable to bring it to the forward compartment but it was a lot easier to connect to a spare connection in the fuse panel with a 5 anp fuse. I labeled it “Color Display”.



I plan to make a cover later on so the wires are not exposed.

[Flyn2high]

The first thing I did after I received my shipment from AM Solar was to layout the components that would go in the forward compartment. Since I did not order my Solitude with a generator this compartment is pretty much empty. I was told by Grand Designs that the back wall is more then capable of supporting the weight of a heavy inverter.

I started out with a big sheet of cardboard from one of the boxes and drew the panel size with cutouts to clear a few items mounted on the far left side. Then knowing where the major cables would come in as they would mount to the aluminum frame members in the basement compartment. I moved the components around so that everything fit nice.

I purchased a 4’ square x 3/4 thick plywood sheet and using the cardboard pattern cut it out. I used T-nuts behind to mount the two lower screws of the inverter and 4 screws for the solar charger. The other items use sheet-metal screws. I pre-driled holes for them. I sanded and filled in some of the flaws and spray painted it. After everything was mounted I used tape to see the best way to run the cables.



I mounted everything and wired it up as much as possible then bolted it to the back panel using six 5/16” bolts with fender washers to spread out the load on the back panel. The plywood actually sits on the steel floor so there is not a lot of stress on the back wall.



When I started my trailer was level in my backyard. Since the area is on a slight incline the front struts are nearly bottomed out when level. I jacked it way up in the front so that I could stand up below the bedroom overhang. You may have wondered why I have tape holding open the color display cabinet door in the photo above. It was way out of level. Not easy to walk on the roof this way but it was a lot more comfortable working in the forward compartment this way.

One thing I added is a brass ground plate for all of the ground connections to the battery bank. It is 1' wide by 1/4" thick.



In the photo below everything is connected with the exception of the battery bank and the solar cable that I pulled through to the basement today.

[BB&LAB]

AM Solar is outstanding, excellent products and top notch customer service. I have now completed my third solar install and have purchased many of the components from AM Solar. Only exception is on our Solitude 310 GK-R where I have installed 3-320 watt residential solar panels which AM Solar does not sell and 7-100 Ah Battle Born lithium batteries. Good luck with your install.

[Flyn2high]

Yes I agree BB&LAB. Wow three systems. That is impressive. If I lived closer to Oregon I would have let AM Solar do the install but it was an educational and challenging project. If something goes south I now feel comfortable to try and fix it.

[Flyn2high]

Today I connected the 4 awg solar cables to my solar charger and the solar panel switch. I also installed the two Battleborn batteries and connected the 4/0 battery cables. I turned on the original trailer DC battery switch first and the color display came on along with the battery monitor display. The color display gets it power from the DC side of the circuit breaker box . Then I turned on the solar panel switch and its circuit breaker and I was getting power from the solar panels. It was very overcast and the trailer is under quite a few trees in my backyard so it was only about 70 watts. Then I turned on the the circuit breaker for the lithium tow circuit and the DC power switch to the inverter. At that point the inverter remained off and then the color display went dark.

After trying a few things I found that if I turned off the circuit breaker for the lithium tow circuit the inverter came on along with the color display. I also tried connecting to shore power and that worked as well showing up on the color display correctly.

The lithium tow circuits purpose is to prevent the lithium batteries from discharging through the trailer connector. Since the lithium batteries are normally at a slightly higher voltage then the truck battery, if I left the truck connected over time current would drain from my trailer to the truck. It would probably take a couple of weeks but it would bring the lithium battery to zero eventually. This circuit will not allow current to flow when the engine is off and it also has a 30 amp circuit breaker in case there is too much current.

I double checked the cable that I assume comes from pin 4 (+12v) of my trailers 7 pin connector and I do see continuity. I also connected this cable back to where it was originally (the original +12V buss) and the same thing happened. We are having a nor'easter here on Long Island tonight so hopefully I can do some testing tomorrow to see whats going on.