Carthago Starter Battery not Charging from CBE Unit.

[Steve and Denise]

Ours were dealer fit and not well thought out, the controller was fitted at the front of the van and the batteries were in the rear not going to perform very well like that.
I have now fitted a mppt controller in the rear and replaced the panels for bigger ones

 

[MichaelT]

Unl. Ess you know exactly what the dealer is going to fit and how better not to use them.
Best to either fit yourself or use a good supplier like RogerIvy Off Grid Power Solutions.

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I'm very pleased with our dealer fitted panels from chelston, bloke who does them actually owns a MH so knows what you want.

 

[Lenny HB]

Ours were dealer fit and not well thought out, the controller was fitted at the front of the van and the batteries were in the rear not going to perform very well like that.
I have now fitted a mppt controller in the rear and replaced the panels for bigger ones

That is the standard Carthago way, the factory fit solar cables run to the front RHS, as you say not very efficient.

 

[AdrianChen]

Hi Adrian
Do you know if the factory fit solar are any different in the way they work than what dealer fit ones would be ? My dealer has included solar as part of the deal , but from the order form it looks like these are retro dealer fit panels .

The factory fit kit on our current van was all CBE the controller was a PWM device, which you may know will not give as much yield as MPPT.

You would need to check with your dealer as to what they will fit, and how much you can fit on the roof in terms of the panels/output. I know some dealers do not fit particularly good controllers like the Victron.

Also worth checking where they will position the panel in case you want to add more later.

If you will be mainly going to sites with EHU the solar won't make a big difference to what you do since the EHU will keep everything charged and running. It will certainly help to extend EHU free stops for a couple of days, and keep your batteries charged in the winter

Our dealer fitted system on the first van was 175w panel with Victron 75/15 Mppt controller, and that made a useful combination, but couldnt keep up with our greedy usage! The 550w we now have is as much as we could get on the roof, and in summer very much extends the time we can be off EHU. Possibly in Spain for example it would run the van......

So the dealer fit stuff you are getting needs to be good for the way you will use your van, and ideally of decent quality.

 

[Steve and Denise]

Ours was just a cheapo PWM fitted by 3As i kitted ours our with 700w of panels for this years trip but got here and ehu was €1.50 a day so cheap heating/ water
AdrianChen

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