One question to ask yourself is: Do you want to setup and take down solar panels at each campsite to follow the sun or mount it permanently to the roof and charge while you travel and take a chance on getting enough solar to keep a charge while camping.
We opted for the permanent mount with 350 watts of solar and 2 - 6volt golf cart batteries. While off the grid we use led lights, propane fridge, propane furnace, fantastic fan, phone-device chargers and the standard ¡®safety¡¯ sensors. We don¡¯t have an inverter to be able to use any 110v appliances off grid and I¡¯m not sure our batteries would support much. We have gone 4 days at a shady campsite and we were fully charged when we got back to camp at the end of each day. On a travel day when it rained all day it still charged some.
I sized the solar panels by the size if the front dormer roof where I wanted to put them. I installed the solar controller in a waterproof plastic box on the side of the trailer tongue. There are no penetrations into the camper box (something I was afraid of). The Zamp solar plug and wiring are unused. I think I have somewhere around $800 invested in the solar not counting the batteries. Don¡¯t know if I want to total how much we have put into the camper after buying it.
Happy camping,
JoeS
