Solar prep on early 2021 310GK

[DriverDon]

We took delivery of our 2021 310GK in March 2020. It came with a Jaboni solar "port" with 2 MC4 connectors on the roof, but its location is just aft of the entry door, which doesn't align with any wall where you would expect an electrical channel to be. I'm investigating adding a couple of panels to the roof, and have started looking for the wire pair coming from the solar port, but so far, I'm not finding them!

Anyone solved this mystery yet?

[huntindog]

We took delivery of our 2021 310GK in March 2020. It came with a Jaboni solar "port" with 2 MC4 connectors on the roof, but its location is just aft of the entry door, which doesn't align with any wall where you would expect an electrical channel to be. I'm investigating adding a couple of panels to the roof, and have started looking for the wire pair coming from the solar port, but so far, I'm not finding them!

Anyone solved this mystery yet?

The facory solar on my momentum has the wires entering the front generator compartment from the under belly

[DriverDon]

The facory solar on my momentum has the wires entering the front generator compartment from the under belly

Thanks, huntindog! I expected to find them there, but didn't recognize them if they are. We have the generator prep package on ours, and I did see some ~12 AWG wires grouped together, but assumed they were for the generator control. I am assuming (maybe not so smart) that the solar wires would be heavier gauge.

[huntindog]

Thanks, huntindog! I expected to find them there, but didn't recognize them if they are. We have the generator prep package on ours, and I did see some ~12 AWG wires grouped together, but assumed they were for the generator control. I am assuming (maybe not so smart) that the solar wires would be heavier gauge.

The solar wires are 10 gauge which may look like 12.
At any rate there are two wires run as a single cord, one side red, and the other side red/black.
Those should be good for 30 amps of panels if your run on the roof isn't too long. You can get quite a few panels run on it by wiring them in series. If you need to run another wire, I recommend using the sattellite channel from the roof to the pass thru compartment, Trying to run them like the factory did looked to me like a real challenge.

[Mwestall]

My 2021 2930rl had the wire coming out of a hole on the lower door side in the front storage area. As already described it is two wires one black and one red/black. Mine had a 15amp fuse already attached to one wire and a tag that said solar on it. I put on 5 200watt panels in series on my rig because the Victron solar controllers work better with high voltage vs high amperage. Used the stock wire and the stock Jaboni roof connection. I just plugged my panels into the Jaboni roof unit and bang it worked fine. I didn’t care where the roof channel was, the stock wire and Jaboni connection is all you need. Theoretically you could run a few thousand watts of power in series thru those wires as long as you had a solar controller that can handle it. That’s where it got expensive, my controller cost as much as my panels.
Bottom line, as long as you limit your amps the wire your rig came with will be fine.

[DriverDon]

Thank you both! Went back to the trailer today, and found the described wire pair. The capped end was behind a cover for a factory installed bus bar, which was enough to fool me. Alas, no attached fuse, and only about 15 inches coming out of the wall, but I can work with that.

[DriverDon]

I got 3 180W panels installed in series on the roof of our 310GK a few days ago, and went down this morning to pull it out of the barn and make sure everything was working correctly. It wasn't. The Victron charge controller was not detecting any input voltage from the panels. Since I hadn't found any inline fuse in the factory solar wiring, I had run it through a 20A breaker to the charge controller, so I checked the voltage on the source side of that breaker. Nothing. So I went up on the roof, disconnected the panels from the Jaboni box, and metered those. 54V, as expected.

Since it's about 100 deg F today, I decided to not do any further debugging out in the sun and smoke today. Think I'll need to call GD for some tech support. I'm wondering if there is an empty inline fuse holder on that solar line after all, stuffed in the underbelly.

[huntindog]

I got 3 180W panels installed in series on the roof of our 310GK a few days ago, and went down this morning to pull it out of the barn and make sure everything was working correctly. It wasn't. The Victron charge controller was not detecting any input voltage from the panels. Since I hadn't found any inline fuse in the factory solar wiring, I had run it through a 20A breaker to the charge controller, so I checked the voltage on the source side of that breaker. Nothing. So I went up on the roof, disconnected the panels from the Jaboni box, and metered those. 54V, as expected.

Since it's about 100 deg F today, I decided to not do any further debugging out in the sun and smoke today. Think I'll need to call GD for some tech support. I'm wondering if there is an empty inline fuse holder on that solar line after all, stuffed in the underbelly.

When my factory Jaboni Solar started acting up, I spent 2 days looking for a fuse. I never found one, though I did find the problem. The MC4 connectors were installed incorrectly. I am guessing that your wires on the roof are housed in a gland, (I think you are calling it a port) with MC4 connectors in it. If so, take a good look at it.
On mine, It was setup with a female inner part when it should have been a male. So a proper connection could not be made. The MC4 connectors can be assembled wrong, Standard assembly consists of a male metal piece crimped on the wire which is to be installed inside an female exterior connector. on the wire to be plugged into it, a female metal piece is crimped onto that wire, and installed inside a male exterior connector.
You can go ahead and run a test wire connected to the wires in the generator compartment up to the roof, and then use a volt/ohm meter to check for continuity. That is how I found my problem. I did have continuity, so I then knew it wasn't a hidden fuse issue. It had to be in that MC4 connector. I removed the gland from the roof, cut off the offending MC4 connector, removed it from the gland, and installed a new MC4 connector put together correctly. Do you have an MC4 crimping tool? Spare MC4 connectors?
They are pretty cheap online. Watch some Utube videos on how to do it. Tito has a good one.

I would make a pretty sizable bet that this is your issue.

On edit: If you plugged into that gland, and the insides were in fact assmbled wrong, then it is possible that the wire you plugged into it may have been damaged. That is what happened on mine.

[DriverDon]

When my factory Jaboni Solar started acting up, I spent 2 days looking for a fuse. I never found one, though I did find the problem. The MC4 connectors were installed incorrectly. I am guessing that your wires on the roof are housed in a gland, (I think you are calling it a port) with MC4 connectors in it. If so, take a good look at it.
On mine, It was setup with a female inner part when it should have been a male. So a proper connection could not be made. The MC4 connectors can be assembled wrong, Standard assembly consists of a male metal piece crimped on the wire which is to be installed inside an female exterior connector. on the wire to be plugged into it, a female metal piece is crimped onto that wire, and installed inside a male exterior connector.
You can go ahead and run a test wire connected to the wires in the generator compartment up to the roof, and then use a volt/ohm meter to check for continuity. That is how I found my problem. I did have continuity, so I then knew it wasn't a hidden fuse issue. It had to be in that MC4 connector. I removed the gland from the roof, cut off the offending MC4 connector, removed it from the gland, and installed a new MC4 connector put together correctly. Do you have an MC4 crimping tool? Spare MC4 connectors?
They are pretty cheap online. Watch some Utube videos on how to do it. Tito has a good one.

I would make a pretty sizable bet that this is your issue.

On edit: If you plugged into that gland, and the insides were in fact assmbled wrong, then it is possible that the wire you plugged into it may have been damaged. That is what happened on mine.

Well, you may have just saved me a considerable amount of time and effort! That is a failure mode that I would not have considered early on. And I do have all the proper tools and extra MC4 connectors!

It seems like I might be able to tell if one of the MC4 connectors is incorrect and possibly damaged without opening up the Jaboni gland, just by visual inspection. If it turns out that I have an incorrectly assembled MC4 which is not damaged, I should be able to make a pigtail for that line. It would sure be nice if I didn't have to rip up that gland.

Thank you so much for the great explanation of your problem!

[huntindog]

When my factory Jaboni Solar started acting up, I spent 2 days looking for a fuse. I never found one, though I did find the problem. The MC4 connectors were installed incorrectly. I am guessing that your wires on the roof are housed in a gland, (I think you are calling it a port) with MC4 connectors in it. If so, take a good look at it.
On mine, It was setup with a female inner part when it should have been a male. So a proper connection could not be made. The MC4 connectors can be assembled wrong, Standard assembly consists of a male metal piece crimped on the wire which is to be installed inside an female exterior connector. on the wire to be plugged into it, a female metal piece is crimped onto that wire, and installed inside a male exterior connector.
You can go ahead and run a test wire connected to the wires in the generator compartment up to the roof, and then use a volt/ohm meter to check for continuity. That is how I found my problem. I did have continuity, so I then knew it wasn't a hidden fuse issue. It had to be in that MC4 connector. I removed the gland from the roof, cut off the offending MC4 connector, removed it from the gland, and installed a new MC4 connector put together correctly. Do you have an MC4 crimping tool? Spare MC4 connectors?
They are pretty cheap online. Watch some Utube videos on how to do it. Tito has a good one.

I would make a pretty sizable bet that this is your issue.

On edit: If you plugged into that gland, and the insides were in fact assmbled wrong, then it is possible that the wire you plugged into it may have been damaged. That is what happened on mine.

One more thing,I am not a fan of the location of the circuit breaker that GD chose. And I think you did the same. (generator compartment). The fuse should be close to the power source, in this case the panels on the roof. otherwise all of the wire from the panels to the gen. compartment is not fuse protected.
They make MC4 fuse holders just for this purpose. They come complete with the fuse of your choice. Plug and play.