The SoCal Teardrop Solar Panel & Fridge Install

[Doug E]

We bought a SoCal Teardrop (Voyager Adventure) last September with no fridge. 1. I was being cheap, 2. An ice chest is just fine thank you, and 3. We travel with five big dogs (Borzoi) and go through roughly 5 gallons of water/day. I wanted 10 gallons on the tongue, 10 gallons in the galley, and 5 gallons in the tow vehicle (the ZoiVan), and you have all seen photos of a 50qt Arb nearly filling the under counter portion of the galley, or perhaps you even own one of those. Where would I put my 10 gallons of water?

But after last week's trip, eating soggy bread that had marinated in a dog-food slushy, I changed my mind and went looking for a fridge. I have now ordered a 49-liter Dometic CRX-50 truck fridge, and this thread will follow the install, including a solar panel to help run the fridge.

So here is our starting point.



Ten gallons of water and a 40 quart Icey-Tek cooler. Works fine up to the slushy problem.

But first, a 100W Renogy kit. It arrived with solar panel, charge controller and mounting brackets.

I start with what seems easiest: the Charge controller.

The battery and shore power are on the lower left of the galley.

.

I figured that would be a good place for the solar controller, and so:



A closeup shows the inline fuse holder from the controller to the battery.



An absolute piece of cake, although I did have to make a hardware run for primary wire to go to the battery and for an inline fuse holder (30Amp fuse).

Tomorrow, I hope to mount the solar panel on the roof of the trailer.

 

[Doug E]

Next - The solar panel

Moving on. Time to mount the solar panel and run wires into the teardrop. Since I mounted the solar controller next to the shore power based battery charger, the obvious place to penetrate the camper was near the 110 volt plug on the side to the trailer. I found two "water tight" bulkhead covers that would accept wires coming in from the side.



Which would you pick? I chose the smaller. I used a 1.25" spade bit with "tines" to cut the Al to the right size, but stopped short of drilling through the entire sidewall.



I then used a smaller bit, sized for the cables, to drill into the galley, and then drilled out for the four screws to hold the cover in place.



I screwed up and failed to use a center punch and the drill slipped as I was starting the screw holes so I had to enlarge them a little. Oh well.

Next I mounted the solar panel on the roof. I do not have a roof rack, and didn't want to drill into the roof of the trailer. So I mounted the solar panel to a pair of aluminum angles that I attached to the roof with 3M VHB tape. That nasty stuff that holds the exterior panels on your car. Holds windows in sky scrapers. And commercial installers use it to attach panels to the tops of RVs. I mounted the panel using hinges. At the butt end, they have a nice wide shoulder that the edge of the solar panel rests on. By using a door hinge in front with the Al angle also tight up against the butt of the hinge but gate T-hinges in the back, the panel is horizontal despite the curved roof of the TD, and it is stable, not flopping about as it would if the front edge of the panel were not up against the butt.



The next three pictures are from the opposite side of the trailer. The panel is indeed horizontal. They also show the wires heading down the side of the trailer as well as my contrived cable raceway, made from 3/8" Al channel attached to the trailer with more 3M tape, and then filled with Si caulk to contain the cables. The little shiny clips are temporary, holding the wires in place until the caulk cures.







The next picture shows a closeup top view of the attachment holding the solar connectors off the top of the trailer so they won't clatter about. It also shows that I neglected to put an inline fuse early in the electrical path. I've ordered one and it will go in tomorrow. The issue, of course, is that the wires penetrate the Al shell of the trailer, and despite my being careful, and using shrink tube at strategic locations along the wires' route, they may chafe and short out. Hence a fuse before the wires even leave the roof.



The final questions: Will the hatch hit the panel? No.



Will it shade the panel? Sometimes, as will the roof vent, but during the portion of the day when the sun is fairly high, it remains unshaded.



Tomorrow, I'll build cabinetry in the galley to hold the fridge.

Doug

 

[Rutdigger]

Moving on. Time to mount the solar panel and run wires into the teardrop. Since I mounted the solar controller next to the shore power based battery charger, the obvious place to penetrate the camper was near the 110 volt plug on the side to the trailer. I found two "water tight" bulkhead covers that would accept wires coming in from the side.

View attachment 357729

Which would you pick? I chose the smaller. I used a 1.25" spade bit with "tines" to cut the Al to the right size, but stopped short of drilling through the entire sidewall.

View attachment 357730

I then used a smaller bit, sized for the cables, to drill into the galley, and then drilled out for the four screws to hold the cover in place.

View attachment 357731

I screwed up and failed to use a center punch and the drill slipped as I was starting the screw holes so I had to enlarge them a little. Oh well.

Next I mounted the solar panel on the roof. I do not have a roof rack, and didn't want to drill into the roof of the trailer. So I mounted the solar panel to a pair of aluminum angles that I attached to the roof with 3M VHB tape. That nasty stuff that holds the exterior panels on your car. Holds windows in sky scrapers. And commercial installers use it to attach panels to the tops of RVs. I mounted the panel using hinges. At the butt end, they have a nice wide shoulder that the edge of the solar panel rests on. By using a door hinge in front with the Al angle also tight up against the butt of the hinge but gate T-hinges in the back, the panel is horizontal despite the curved roof of the TD, and it is stable, not flopping about as it would if the front edge of the panel were not up against the butt.

View attachment 357738

The next three pictures are from the opposite side of the trailer. The panel is indeed horizontal. They also show the wires heading down the side of the trailer as well as my contrived cable raceway, made from 3/8" Al channel attached to the trailer with more 3M tape, and then filled with Si caulk to contain the cables. The little shiny clips are temporary, holding the wires in place until the caulk cures.

View attachment 357743

View attachment 357746

View attachment 357747

The next picture shows a closeup top view of the attachment holding the solar connectors off the top of the trailer so they won't clatter about. It also shows that I neglected to put an inline fuse early in the electrical path. I've ordered one and it will go in tomorrow. The issue, of course, is that the wires penetrate the Al shell of the trailer, and despite my being careful, and using shrink tube at strategic locations along the wires' route, they may chafe and short out. Hence a fuse before the wires even leave the roof.

View attachment 357745

The final questions: Will the hatch hit the panel? No.

View attachment 357748

Will it shade the panel? Sometimes, as will the roof vent, but during the portion of the day when the sun is fairly high, it remains unshaded.

View attachment 357749

Tomorrow, I'll build cabinetry in the galley to hold the fridge.

Doug

Sweet setup!


Sent from my spy phone
Www.tonysjeep.com

 

[Doug E]

Sweet setup!

Thanks, dude.

 

[Doug E]

The fridge

Now is the big moment. What this has been leading to. The fridge install.

But first, what fridge? This one.




Dometic CRX-50. 49 liters, more capacity than my ice chest, and as rugged as the award winning CFX-50 EXCEPT that it is not "portable" and requires a permanent install. But it is cheaper and the configuration is much more to my liking.

Now, where will it install? Why in the empty space, formerly occupied by my Icey-Tek cooler, on the right hand side of this picture, but with room to spare.



I won't go through the boring construction steps, and inevitable, at least for me, do-overs, but here is the final result.



The muffin fan cooler, visible in the second of the two above photos of the fridge, needs to be able to discharge air used to cool the coils. Thus there is a wooden duct up against the bottom side of the galley counter.



And the fridge must fit tightly into the cabinetry so not to rattle about. The piece of plywood on the right serves to narrow the opening to the correct size while also keeping the fridge from sitting hard up against the trailer sidewall. As mounted, the fridge door can open slightly more than 90 degrees.



The next photo is a fit check, which revealed that I could not use a cigarette lighter cord plugged into the provided outlet (visible at the top left of the photo).



The problem is that the water, when standing upright as it does for travel, hits the plug. There were several possible solutions, but, all things considered, the easiest was to drill a new hole in the factory panel and run a new wire from the fridge to the fuse terminal block.




And here we are, ready to roll.



Almost. Still need to put the doors in place over the opening between the water and the fridge, but for now, I'm done. Yay.

 

[Herbie]

Looks awesome. How wide is that space between the jugs and fridge? Maybe instead of doors, something you could pull out, like one or two of these Ikea magazine holders?

 

[Doug E]

The space is 6 inches. The magazine holders are an excellent idea, but one is too narrow and two are just a bit too wide. Because the depth of each of the lower and upper portions of the space is greater than the height, I'm in process making flipper doors that will tuck up out of the way when open, occupying the top 3/4" of each of the two spaces. Beyond that, my wife wants to use the setup for a while before we change anything else.

 

[krick3tt]

What stove are you using? Looks to fit very well. Thanks for posting your progress pics.

 

[Sargus7]

Looks like a nice and very practical setup. Thanks for sharing.
Kip

 

[Doug E]

What stove are you using? Looks to fit very well. Thanks for posting your progress pics.

18" Partner Steel Cook stove. Standard with the So Cal trailers.

 

[Doug E]

Finally. Done! Made a door for the opening between the fridge and the water.



It's held in place by an aluminum channel and two butterfly latches. In camp, we simply remove it.

So how is everything working? It is summer monsoon season, so the sky is overcast roughly half the day. You can see the clouds in the background.



We've been running the fridge full time without benefit of any shore power. Has the solar panel kept the battery charged? You judge.



See you on the road.

Doug

 

[Desert Rat 1]

Great job. I'm looking at doing that to my pop in the future and this helps a lot. The only concern I'd have it's about the fridge, I don't see how the heat would vent out.

 

[Doug E]

...I don't see how the heat would vent out.

First, there is a duct for the heat between the fridge and the water. That gets the heat away from the fridge and into the body of the galley. You can see it in one of the pictures I previously posted.

Second there is a (screened) pass-through between the galley and the main cabin and a (screened) vent on the roof of the cabin. Unless we are driving, or it is really cold, both are always open.

 

[Curtis in Texas]

So how is everything working?
We've been running the fridge full time without benefit of any shore power.
Has the solar panel kept the battery charged?
You judge.

View attachment 360386

See you on the road.

Doug

Good to see the solar system is working for you.
I just bought the same set up for my build, brand and everything, and then started doing the research here to see if anyone else was using it too.

And to see how well it was working for others.

Yea, I get the cart before the horse a lot.
Even my race cars I built were mid engine.
Go Figure!

Mine should be here by next Monday. (After Thanksgiving )

Looking forward to being able to not have to have shore power for the luxuries.
(I hate soggy bread)