Hello from South Carolina

[JasonFord]

My wife and I joined the Grand Design family in June. We purchased a 2019 Imagine XLS 18RBE and have already taken it on half a dozen weekend trips. We pull our travel trailer with my F-150.

We're in the process of doing some upgrades to the interior including replacing the dinette seats and table with a counter-top and some comfy chairs. We've already implemented a 300Ah battery and solar charging system that can power the vast majority of what we need for multiple days of boondocking.

We're looking forward to being active members of the community, sharing our experiences, and learning lots from all of you.

Cheers! - Jason

[riven1950]

Hey Jason

Welcome . We pull with our 2500rl with a F150 too. Take care and enjoy

[Cannon07]

Welcome from Georgia.

[J Maguire]

Welcome from AZ. Would be interested in hearing more about the solar addition.

[Martinrivest]

Hello,

Could you please how you passed the wires from roof to panel?

Thanks in advance!

[JasonFord]

Hello friends and happy new year! Apologies for my incredibly delayed reply here. I've made a number of changes to our original solar setup since my original post. Here's an overview of our setup going into the 2022 camping season:

• 360Ah of LiFePo4 Batteries
• 300W of roof-mounted solar panels
• 200W of portable suitcase solar panels
• Victron Multiplus 12/3000/120-50 Inverter/Charger
• Victron BMV-712 Battery Monitor
• Victron SmartSolar MPPT 150/70 Charge Controller
• All connected to a Raspberry Pi 3 running VenusOS

I started off with (4) 100W Renogy suitcase panels that we positioned on the ground. These worked great, but it was a lot of setup and tear down at each stop. I mounted (2) of the 100W panels on the roof and purchased (2) 50W panels to install in open spots while I was up there. Some progress picks before I finished the wiring and sealant:




The biggest change was swapping out my 1500W inverter for the 3000W Multiplus inverter/charger. This thing is incredible! It's given us the ability to reliably work from the road and power the vast majority of our energy needs. Being able to throw it into charger mode when we've got shore power is great. The connectivity between the Multiplus and all of the other Victron gear is really cool as well.




One of the questions I've gotten frequently is "how did you get the wiring from the roof down to your charger controller?" The short answer is through the refrigerator vent. You can see it in one of the progress pics I took while I was finishing the wiring and sealant on the roof:



The cap for the roof vent is relatively easy to remove (4 screws). I fed the wire down to where I could reach it from the refrigerator vent on the driver side of the trailer, and from there down to the floor where I could then feed it behind the drawer below the oven. From there I used the same floor cutout that the breaker panel wiring is fed through to get it under the belly of the trailer and through the bridal rings in the frame up to my battery box and charge controller that's mounted on the tongue.

[Redapple63]

My wife and I joined the Grand Design family in June. We purchased a 2019 Imagine XLS 18RBE and have already taken it on half a dozen weekend trips. We pull our travel trailer with my F-150.

We're in the process of doing some upgrades to the interior including replacing the dinette seats and table with a counter-top and some comfy chairs. We've already implemented a 300Ah battery and solar charging system that can power the vast majority of what we need for multiple days of boondocking.

We're looking forward to being active members of the community, sharing our experiences, and learning lots from all of you.

Cheers! - Jason

Hi Jason, congrats and welcome to the group! Lots of great folks and experience here. Looking forward to hearing about your moods and adventures!

Bill