Brands of AGM house batteries?

[86Scotty]

I completely agree that if you want to be able to take care of occasional maintenance/replacement yourself you definitely want to make space for your batteries IN the van. This necessitates AGMs of course, which I think you're probably going for anyway. There is really no way to easily remove heavy batteries from under a van. The bigger the battery the worse it is. I cannot imagine lifting the 4d and heavy rack I put under my Econoline without jacks or a lift. Using a lift or taking the van to a shop with a lift is the easy way. Raise van, put table under battery, unbolt/unattach, lift van higher and scoot table out from under. More than you want to fool with, certainly.

Wishing I were in Moab, hot or not.......

[daveb]

Originally Posted by GreyDawg

Again, thanks everyone. I am learning quite a bit from this very civil and helpful discussion.

DaveB, thanks for describing your "in the field" experiences. You say that you want "want a reasonable charge rate in partially blocked sun" by which you mean cloudy -- but what happens if one panel is partially shaded? I've read that in this case, serial vs parallel wiring of the panels is important, so that one gets at least one panel working. I've also read a bit about "bypass diodes" but haven't got a clue about that. Should I be thinking about bypass diodes at this point, or is that worrying about the minor stuff?

It sounds like our usages are similar, though I can envision being parked for a couple of days without driving, relying on solar with the heaviest load being a fridge at about 3.5AH for, maybe, 12 hrs per day? That's a swag.

Meredith

Seems parallel wins out for shade over a series connection. I've seen tests on panels like my Kyocera's that have bypass diodes and it seems shade still makes a huge difference in lowering total output. Scattered shade doesn't do as much damage as when a full cell is completely cut off from sun. In warm weather I always try to park where I get full sun in the morning hours and partial shade in the afternoon to help keep the van cool.

I carry a small portable 65w flat panel but it doesn't like the parallel configuration. To tell the truth I've only needed it a few times. Getting out that spare panel is one more chore that takes up time. Same with messing with a tilting mount... I've never felt the gain of power is worth the effort. YMMV. A standard SMB build for years was 210AH worth of battery, & 135-180 watts of solar. I do like the luxury of 400+AH available even though I only have 270 watts worth of panels. You might make sure to have that extra battery space.