How to upgrade solar panel wiring

[Blue~Go]

My favorite is Ancor marine wire and cable, but it's not easy to find good prices by the foot (I buy spools).

A good source of by-the-foot wiring is Genuine Dealz It's also marine grade cabling. I don't like it quite as much as Ancor (only because the insulation is slightly thicker and harder to work with) but it does make the official grade, and have no problem at all using it. I do buy it when, for example, I need smaller amounts of multiple colors. Another good service they have is custom battery/large cables.

To make proper crimps takes some expensive tools. I bought those, but I make a number of crimps, plus I'm a sucker for buying the tool vs. paying someone else (also I had a poor experience some years ago where "pro" crimps failed). That said, this summer I helped a buddy re-wire the core of his brand new trailer (because they still don't really set them up all that well) and we were away from my big tools and wire supply. I decided to try the Genuine Dealz custom cables option. I was actually quite pleased. First of all, the web page for "building" the cables is very good. It's easy to see what you are doing and you can customize the wire color, shrink color, length, size, etc.. Even better, the cables seemed quite well made. Granted, I didn't test them to destruction (because my buddy needed to use them), but nothing jumped out at me as being horrible.

One disadvantage of buying the pre-made cables - especially if they are shortish cables of large wire - is that you can't specify how the lugs are oriented. Sometimes that can be critical in small spaces, and you can do them however you want when making your own. But I would rather have their decently made cables than home-made ones with a crappy crimp.

Genuine Dealz also has great, fast shipping. They also carry my favorite FTZ power lugs (for large cables).

I find that most RV's aren't wired up to a very high electrical standard. By that I mean that cables are overly long and thin (voltage drop), may not be properly fused, may be fused but with too low an AIC capacity (so fuse holder/fuse blow apart independently of fuse size), and may not be well secured (cushion clamps) or protected (anti-chafe). That kinda sucks, but on the other hand it can be very satisfying to clean it up. And hey, there is very little sawdust, fumes, or mess

(On the other hand, RV's aren't burning down right and left, so they do get by.)

[chin_k]

BTW, I forget to mentioned I found a dozen broken strands inside the lug that came off, and they nicked all around the copper when they striped the wire. Quality work

I ordered a short custom-made cable last week, and I ran into the exact problem you described: I need to twist the lug to get the battery switch to fit.

[Blue~Go]

It's tough when you get to large/short wires and the lugs are just "flat" (unless that's what they want to be). When I'm making those I always mark where the top of the lug needs to be on each end and most of the time they are not flat to each other.

And yeah, I'm pretty much never sorry when I re-do anyone's stock electrical work. At least Chinook's was diagrammed and color-coded. This is no small thing: We still joke about "the bolt" on my buddy's other-brand Class C that EVERY wire ran to, unlabeled, and all the same color. They were stacked a mile high on that thing and we had to slowly figure out what each one was. What a mess! (Although the "before" and "after" was sooo gratifying.)

And then like Scott said, the new, tidy wires just sit there and do the job, for years and years

[chin_k]

For those that redid the wiring for the panel, like Scott, what size duplex did you end up using?

[Scott]

For those that redid the wiring for the panel, like Scott, what size duplex did you end up using?

Chin, My rig didn't come with solar. The installation was from scratch (nothing in common with a factory Chinook setup, so I know very little about the stock arrangements).

Anyway, I used 8 awg Ancor duplex cable for the drop line, which goes from the panels' pigtails to the controller, which is right next to the bank. Total run is 13 ft.

[chin_k]

Thanx, Scott. Sometimes it is easier to do thing from scratch.

[Blue~Go]

I've done a few different setups (on my stuff and others) and what I would say is to size for minimum voltage drop. Meaning that the duplex wire coming down for a 500 watt setup and one for a 100 watt setup would be different. Likewise if panels are set up in series (higher voltage) the wire can be much smaller (for the same amount of voltage drop). You do have to add up all the different legs (each one has some drop).

If you have some panel specs and some distance figures, we can run through it.

[Blue~Go]

Dano was looking for the drawing of the roof that is on page one of this thread. When I dug it up it suddenly came to me what the "jaggy" thing at the bottom was. It was a "representation" of how much wire it would take to to from one side tier, over the top tier, and down to the other side tier. Only meant for my eyes, obviously

This will bring it to the active section.