Wiring Solar in "The Vault"

[BOATandCAMPinMN]

Hello All,
First time poster here We purchased a 2023 Trail Runner 199BHSS this Spring, which was a huge upgrade from our pop-up camper. We are looking to add solar to our camper and I am unsure on where to connect the positive wire from controller. It came with the Aims Power solar controller and the new "The Vault" wiring box on the front of the camper. The negative from the controller is grounded to the trailer frame, the positive wire goes into "The Vault". On the other side of the fuse in the box, I need to connect the wire to somewhere. I believe my options are, A- to the battery directly, B to the active side of the kill switch, or C to the other side of the kill switch. Any help here would be great, Pictures are below, the bottom red wire is from the battery to the kill switch on the right. The solar wire and fuse is the top golden fuse in the middle.

Thanks again !

 

[Bogie]

Ames makes more than one controller. Take a look at their web site. Once you find yours, you can look at
the connection specs. and power rating.

https://www.aimscorp.net/product-category/solar-charge-controllers-mppt/

 

[BOATandCAMPinMN]

Hi Bogie, thanks for the reply. Our camper came with the Flush Mount 30 AMP Charge controller PWM12/24V, their website states that it should be connected to the battery. However in "The Vault" there isn't an extra hole to run the positive wire back out to the battery, which leads me to believe that it needs to connect to Options B or C from above.

 

[Bogie]

You shouldn't have to run a wire out to the battery. It looks like the battery is wired directly to the main cutoff switch (via the red wire). Electrically, that is the positive pole of the battery. So you should be able to run the solar controller output there. But, you wouldn't be able to easily disconnect the controller from the battery if it becomes necessary and it would also cause the battery to be connected at all times to the solar. More on that below.

I don't like the idea of connecting the solar controller to the other side of the kill switch for a couple of reasons. A solar controller is designed supply charge current to the battery, as needed, based on the battery charge state. Therefore it should be connected to the battery side. Similarly, it is not designed to power the RV directly and would cause low voltge problems when the solar panels are unable to supply enough current (dusk for example) to operate items in your RV. Like a brown out.

That being said, I don't personally like the idea of not being able to disconnect the solar controller from the battery unless you pull the fuse. I realize space is extremely limited in "The Vault", but I would be looking for a way to add a separate disconnect between the charge controller and the battery. Similarly, I would also have a disconnect between the solar panels and the solar controller. I used fused disconnects similar to what is pictured below in my system. But I have plenty of room. IMHO you should always be able to easily isolate both the solar panels and the charge controller at any time if necessary.

Hope that helps.

 

[cocnugget]

@BOATandCAMPinMN did you ever figure this out I just bought the 2024 heartland pioneer rd210 and it looks the same inside it was supposed to be ready plug and play but I'm getting no power to the controller

 

[BOATandCAMPinMN]

I ended up calling the dealership at the end of last season and they stated that we just have to run a wire from the solar fuse in the vault to the active side of the kill switch. This way the battery would charge even if the kill switch is off, however the screen on the solar panel would always be on. So that is where Bogie had a good idea of adding another switch to isolate the panel. I have not tested any of these yet, as it was late in the season and our Trailer has been in storage for the MN Winter.