Foretravel Owners' Forum For owners and Fans of Foretravel Motorcoaches September 10, 2025 ...

This area is well covered on the forum with some great examples already present.  I went to school on them and especially Solar Installation Project which was a good model to work toward and from...thanks Jennifer for posting!

I decided on 800watts or five 160 watt panels.  I went 100w over the max for our controller the Victron 100/50 MPPT.  BlueSolar MPPT 100/50 (12-24V-50A) Charge Controller.  If on occasion there is more power flowing into the controller, it is not an issue but will continue to charge at 50amps.  I wanted this to be a hybrid system not completely solar but 50 amps into lithium makes for a very fast charge in a 400ah system.  This controller is connected directly to the CCGX color monitor and also communicates over the proprietary bus with the BMV 702.  First step in making sure everything was able to communicate in an integrated approach.

AM Solars reputation in this area is well known.  I purchased my panels from them as part of the entire package.  Panels are available at lower prices and many have already completed this part of the upgrade.  I did purchase both connectors, tools and marine 10/2 wire from Amazon.  Amazon.com: mc4 connectors  The crimping tool for MC4 connectors is especially useful as are the special wrenches although you can use a work around.  There are many YouTube videos on using these tools etc.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGksTZpEGJI once you are there the menu for many different self help topics are available.

Barry and Johns feedback on panel placement was very helpful.  I was using a four corners placement that would have meant longer wire runs for purely cosmetic reasons.  I decided against the tilting mechanism.  The truth of the matter is we are on the move quite a bit and I just don't want to crawl up there on a regular basis so I added a panel to help make up some of the difference.  So far our highest output has been 543 watts but then again it was the middle of winter in a mid latitude.

This was by far the easiest part of the project for me.  I was familiar with it from my Arctic Fox where I used 540 watts of Kyocera panels, Morningstar, Trimetric and 6v Interstate batterys.  That system worked well for us.  I did not do the install.  My grandson Jason, Charlie and I completed this one.

In the picture you will see the final placement of the panels.  The panel closest to the bottom is the panel for the starting battries.  At 100 watts it is overkill but I wanted something I could use as the base of an expanded system but until that time it runs to a Morningstar 6a controller via the foot of the bed.  John H was very helpful in explaining his routing as a model.

George (c)