Replacing Solar Panel on Supreme Getaway With 240w Folding Panels

We bought a 2000 Supreme Getaway about four weeks ago and were told it had a 160w solar panel on the roof and I figured that would probably do the job. Got it home and checked the output, only 3.1 amps in good sun.

Supreme Getaway Offroad Caravan Old Solar Panel Specs

It’s had a decent (if old) controller so I thought there must be something wrong with the solar panel so I removed it. Turns out it’s a top quality panel, however it was made in 1998 and has the princely max output of 64w.

Supreme Getaway Offroad Caravan Old Solar Panel Charge Controller Photostar 30 Photocomm Inc

New Panels

We had a good (read expensive) set of folding Kyocera cell 240w panels we’ve been using with the camper trailer for 3 years so I removed the folding legs and handles etc and joined them in to one long panel. $60 worth of aluminium angle and sikaflex plus about 4 hours work and we now have 9 amps showing on the multimeter late in the day with the sun low in the sky.

Supreme Getaway Offroad Caravan Solar Panels

Will be much better in full sun. Next up is to do something about the 12v wiring. It’s pretty awful, no breakers or fuses or anything. Tomorrow’s job that one. The old panel is going to be recycled. It’s going on top of the carport so it can keep the battery topped up while the van is under the carport and out of the sun. Just need a couple of Anderson plugs and a little 10amp regulator.