How to upgrade existing Solar on Arctic Wolf 298LB 5th Wheel

[indianathomas]

We purchased an Arctic Wolf 5th Wheel that came stock with a 50-watt solar panel. The panel's primary use is to power the units' DC electric refrigerator. The refrigerator draws about 11amps. Unfortunately, the stock solar panel does not generate enough power to keep the batteries charged. After about 5 days, the batteries are drawn down and the refrigerator will not maintain temperature.

Can we just pop off the 50-watt generator and replace it with a 100-watt? Any thoughts on this?

Best

[bigmic21]

I'm interested as well

[SantaFe big sky]

50 watt will only trickle charge you battery. 100 watt will only give you an average of 28 amp-hours a day, maybe 50 in summer pointed at the sun. A 12v fridge uses about 55 amp-hours per day in 70 degree weather. You will need 300 watts of solar and a battery bank with 125-150 amp-hours (lead-acid) or 100 amp-hours lithium. That's bare minimum and not enough from mid-October to early-March or when you have several days of rain.

Four 100 watt panels and a couple of golf cart batteries with 225 amp-hours should give you enough power to boondock using the fridge, led lights, water pump and the parasitic loads. Even then in Winter you might be turning to your generator, especially since the blower on the propane heater draws quite a bit.

I am putting 600 watts on my Alpha Wolf 23-RDL to charge my pair of T105 golf cart batteries. We don't camp in hot weather or really cold weather but even so I think I'll need a small backup generator. Never know when you will want the microwave, hair dryer or whatever.