New owner Apex Nano 193BHS

[cityfrank]

Originally Posted by kfergiez

I can’t recommend this trailer more. It’s amazing. And like you, we came from a PUP of many years as well. So to answer some questions:

My 6 year old daughters as never complained about the top bunk. She loves it because it’s cozy.

I think that tandem axles are inherently more stable, but the concerns of a blowout aren’t any worse for a single axle. You’ll just ride on the rim while you get stopped. The same will happen for a tandem though. The major damage is caused by the tire flipping around and ripping up the side of the trailer. The #1 cause(s) for blowouts are underinflation, or overloading. So keep an eye on them EVERY trip, and watch for any abnormality in the condition of the tires.

There is no way to bring in the slide or awning manually. The motors for the slideout are actually in the wall with no way to crank them in. It may sound like an inconvenience, but unless they jump a gear, they never need adjusting. The awning’s motor is also inside the roll so it’s extremely difficult to retract manually. However, if you find yourself without power and dead batteries, simply hook up your tow vehicle and it will provide power.

You CAN switch off the water heater. The switch inside turns the propane source on/off and there is a separate switch on the exterior for the electric (120v AC) element. (It has both!)

Overall, it’s a great trailer. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Thank for the quick reply to my questions!
I am going to have to get used to that battery situation since it is new to my. Never used a battery with my PUP just shore power and gas.

I know the refrigerator switches automatically from electric to gas, but what about when you are driving. Is the refrigerator getting power? From the tow vehicle?

[kfergiez]

Originally Posted by cityfrank

Thank for the quick reply to my questions!
I am going to have to get used to that battery situation since it is new to my. Never used a battery with my PUP just shore power and gas.

I know the refrigerator switches automatically from electric to gas, but what about when you are driving. Is the refrigerator getting power? From the tow vehicle?

Yep. If your doing any sort of dry camping without shore power, get a dual battery setup. It’s VERY worth it.

The refrigerator actually does not run on 12v at all, most newer RV refrigerators don’t. What we do is turn it on the night before we leave, load it with food the day of, and run it on propane while we’re going down the road. If we connect to shore power, it automatically switchers over.

[BobFink]

I was curious what hardware kfergiez used to install the solar panels and how they are attached to the roof structure.

The roof has a 1/8" Lauan Panel just below the roof membrane and I was curious if you drilled and used toggle bolts to secure anchors to this layer in the roof or if you did something different not evident from your photos.

I ironically have purchased the same panels and charge controller you chose and am working on the final install strategy. I liked your approach to install the charge controller where you did and your wire routing. With the size system we will have, this location will not have significant voltage drops.

Thanks in advance in sharing how you attached the panels ( hardware, sealants etc.) and if you have had any issues or leaks since your last post.

Thanks, BobFink

kfergiez
Senior Member

Join Date: Jun 2017
I don't have any pics of the solar setup right now, but I'll post them maybe Sunday. We're headed out for a trip this weekend.

LOVE the solar panels. I bought two 100W Renogy panels from Amazon, some wiring, and the panels came with a controller. It was about $350 for everything. The solar setup is very straight forward, but the actual install is difficult.

When I ran the wiring I drilled a hole in the roof into the hollow wall between the dinette and the bunks... That was a nail-biting challenge. Running the wiring down the wall was challenging too. But once we got the wiring down the wall, I install the controller next to the CO2 alarm, and wired it directly to the main power supply cable underneath the bottom bunk bed.

We NEVER have to worry about power again, even in cloudier days. On bright sunny days, those things are putting about 13-15 amps back into the batteries. On cloudy days it drops to about 5 amps.... still not bad

[kfergiez]

Originally Posted by BobFink

I was curious what hardware kfergiez used to install the solar panels and how they are attached to the roof structure.

The roof has a 1/8" Lauan Panel just below the roof membrane and I was curious if you drilled and used toggle bolts to secure anchors to this layer in the roof or if you did something different not evident from your photos.

I ironically have purchased the same panels and charge controller you chose and am working on the final install strategy. I liked your approach to install the charge controller where you did and your wire routing. With the size system we will have, this location will not have significant voltage drops.

Thanks in advance in sharing how you attached the panels ( hardware, sealants etc.) and if you have had any issues or leaks since your last post.

Thanks, BobFink

Bob,

You hit the nail on the head. We used toggle bolts with Z brackets to secure everything down. We then sealed everything with Dicor. No issues to report. They are VERY solid.

I think in post you mentioned, we had the solar controller that came with the panels, but we've since dumped that one and got a Victron BlueSolar MPPT 75/15. It is MUCH better than that cheap controller our panels came with.

[BobFink]

kfergiez,
Thanks for the previous feedback. I noticed a couple toggle switches next to your charge controller. I was curious what the purpose of these switches were. Are they to isolate the AC Converter from your charge controller when on you have AC attached to the camper ?
I was planning on using the load control feature of the Victron but was uncertain if there was an issue when the trailer is plugged into AC and the converter is now trying to charge the batteries. To use the load control feature would require the charge controller be between the batteries and the DC panel. The converter feeds the batteries back through battery connection to the DC panel and would power or back feed the charge controller in attempt to charge the batteries.
Are you using the load control feature and have you used or had any issues with using AC power since installing?
Thanks,
Bob

[kfergiez]

The toggle switches are to cut the connection between the PV panels and controller, and another to cut the connection between batteries and the controller.

I would highly recommend NOT using your load controller connection at all. Depending on your Victron controller, the amperage that you'll need to run things in your RV are greater than what your controller can handle. If you have a set of lights on, the furnace running, music playing and the water pump kicks on, you're probably pulling around 40 amps at 12v. Your controller can only handle about 10 amps. That's not good.

The load controller is primarily use for standalone systems like a solar powered street light that comes on at night. It's used to measure the power output and stop output if the battery gets too low. The controller also uses it to find how much power to draw from the battery if it was unable to charge back up to 100%. All in all, it's not meant for the uses we have in RVs or TTs.

Just connect the 12v and the PV panels themselves, and disable the load controller via the settings.

The AC charging system works just fine with this setup as the controller constantly monitors the voltages of the batteries. If the controller was in the middle of charging the batteries and you plug into shore power, the controller will see that sudden jump in voltage and stop what it's doing. It's completely self-contained.

[Crstlln24]

Anyone else have an issue with your awning getting caught on your door? Our door goes past the awning (which is out as far as it can go) so when we go to close the door, we have to lift the awning with our hand to shut the door. It’s super annoying and now creating a mark on the awning from the top of the door rubbing on it.

[kfergiez]

Originally Posted by Crstlln24

Anyone else have an issue with your awning getting caught on your door? Our door goes past the awning (which is out as far as it can go) so when we go to close the door, we have to lift the awning with our hand to shut the door. It’s super annoying and now creating a mark on the awning from the top of the door rubbing on it.

Yep! This is a common thing for this trailer. You simply don’t extend your awning out all the way. Presto! Problem solved.

[Crstlln24]

Wouldn’t it sag worse and still cause it to snag? I mean I’ll try it tomorrow, but in my head I just don’t see how that would fix it.

[kfergiez]

Originally Posted by Crstlln24

Wouldn’t it sag worse and still cause it to snag? I mean I’ll try it tomorrow, but in my head I just don’t see how that would fix it.

Not at all. Your awning has the exact same amount of tension on it whether or not it’s fully extended or partially extended. The tension comes directly from the gas struts which work at any interval.

So it will not sag. I’ll post some pics.

The first one is 50% out,
the second is as far out as I extend it at any given moment so avoid the door situation. Never had any issues with it.

[Crstlln24]

Thanks for this suggestion!! It worked perfectly! ����

[Hwkscr]

We had this issue, I didn't want to drill a door guide into the exterior of the fiberglass. So, came up with this limiting strap solution. Stops the door from banging into the awning arm and keeps the door close so it doesn't hit the awning.

[kfergiez]

Well that's odd, we have a gas strut built in to prevent that.

[Hwkscr]

We have a gas strut on the bottom as well. But, let it absorb a few abropt stops from the wind and/or kids and the mounting point on the kick plate will start to hallow out. Cheap insurance for the door and awning arm.