Vista Solar, Part 2

I got the wiring done for the controller and the portable panel before taking time off for a river trip. The buss bars on the left are where the panel feeds come in and feed to the controller. The controller feeds to the coach batteries at the lower left, while the feed from the portable panel comes through at the lower right corner.

The mating Anderson connector, with a red weather guard is mounted to the bottom of the side wall, just behind the entry steps.

Storing rooftop panels is easier once you get the work done. For now we'll have one up here but with plenty of room to add a couple more if they decide it's necessary.

The roof panel feeds will enter the controller compartment through a couple grommeted holes just above the yellow arrow in the first picture.

The portable panel will be stored in the rear compartment. Thankfully, the plywood deck for the bed provides plenty of structure. I added a pair of carriage bolts in two places and put the mattress back in place.

I fabbed up a plywood receiver on the street side end that is screwed and glued to the plywood. The receiver is designed so that one end of the portable panel goes there, and then the other end is lifted up and retained by a 2" nylon strap with a Fastex buckle. The panel is kept on the street-side 'shelf' by a similarly constructed stop that is also screwed and glued to the plywood ceiling.

Closed cell foam bumpers will be added to the back of the panel frame to restrict vertical bouncing. The face of the panel is protected from any extraneous damage by a thin plywood panel retained by a couple smaller straps.

Once our river trip is over we'll see about getting the roof panel in place and running the cabling for that panel and the battery monitor.