Sunday, May 10, 2009

Solar Panel Rewireing

This morning I fixed something that has been bothering me. I was not happy with the job Camping World did replacing the solar panels that were destroyed by the low underpass. Instead of running in all new wire from the new panel to the controller they spliced into the wiring from the old panels. This wiring was for a 6o watt panel and the new one is 125 watts. In my opinion this was a shortcut they should not have taken.

I found their splice under the rooftop fridge vent cover and removed the old light gauge wire all the way back to the controller. I then spliced in two #10 wires to the positive and negative leads from the solar panel. I would have liked to have gone right to the panel itself but the connections are underneath and it is mounted and sealed to the roof. It would have been very difficult to remove but I am happy with the splice I made. I ran the wires down the conduit I had previously placed in the fridge vent and connected them directly to the back of the controller. I then mounted the controller beside the stairs where it covers a mark I made on the wall during the original installation and which I hoped Norma would not notice. Of course she did but now it is gone and I am in her good books again.

TV Project

My only remaining project on the motorhome is to mount the new 19" LCD TV onto the bedroom wall. It has to be mounted on a bit of an angle to face the bed and it will take some ingenuity to come up with something that is as solid as I want. They sell mounts but the mount costs almost as much as the TV did and I am not too impressed with them as they are not as rigid as I would like. We have been getting along so far by remembering to take the TV off the shelf before we move but it is just a matter of time until I forget.....

I am thinking of a large "barn door" type hinge mounted on a solid standoff, maybe a 2 X 6 bolted through the wall along with some way to keep it closed while traveling. Luckily there is a bathroom cabinet on the other side of the wall to hide any bolts..... This is still an ongoing process...

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