Help with solar

[Shine]

Hi there, I'm a long term viewer but have never posted before, so be gentle.  I have just purchased a Korr 150W solar blanket at the Perth Caravan and Camping show with controller to help with charging of our CT 120Ahr fullriver battery.  Previously I have carried a gennie to charge battery when camped up for a few days and I run this through the CT battery smart charger. The Korr salesman said to just connect the solar panel to the CT anderson plug and that would suffice to charge the battery. Now this is where I get  confused.  I was wondering if I could just connect the solar panel to the battery through the controller via an additional anderson plug and bypass the battery charger?  Also is there a chance of overcharging the battery.  I usually run 2 engels, one as fridge the other as freezer and some led lights as well as 2 carafarmo 12v fans. Cheers Steve

[KingBilly]

G'day Steve.  Can you provide a bit more info?  What brand/model is your CT smart battery charger and also what solar controller did you buy with the Korr panels?

KB

[Shine]

Hi KingBilly
I'm not sure what brand the smart charger is, it is a three stage charger and not geared for solar. It was supplied with Cub Brumby on purchase about 7 yrs ago.
The controller is Korr own brand 10amp digital
Cheers Steve

[McTavish]

Hi Shine - did you get this sorted elsewhere?    Do you still need some help?

[Shine]

Hi McTavish

Thanks for following up on my initial query.  I've decided to hardwire an anderson plug with short leads directly to battery and connect solar blanket to that instead of going through battery charger. Haven't been out to test setup yet, winter weather camping doesn't do it  for me. Cheers Steve

[kleyny]

http://www.campertrailers.org/redarcbcdcinstall4.JPG

This is a wiring diagram I found as I'm also half way through wring up solar in my camper with a redarc dc -dc charger.
I'm just going to bridge 86 and 87. I'm not that worried about having the car battery connected to the camper battery when the Anderson plug is connected but its not running. I always disconnect my car when i'm setting up.

As for wiring size I'm running 4mm

Neil

[McTavish]

Shine - good one - I'm about to do exactly that...

- except I don't have an installed 240v charger on board (when at a powered site I'm plugging everything to 240 anyway - so no need for battery power).  Although I always plug the fridge into the 12v with the second lead just in case the 240v goes out when I'm out or overnight and I don't notice (why not hey).

By short leads I assume you mean a couple of wires straight off the battery to an Anderson plug attached to the battery box/or to the trailer directly?   
Then plug in your controller to this (near the battery) to that plug.
Then connect the solar lead from the panels to the controller.

The advantages being a) the controller is close to the battery and b) the length of wire from the drawbar to the battery is eliminated thus reducing voltage drop?

Am I on the right track with this?

I just bought their 15amp controller - I like how it toggles between volts, amps generated in real time and amp hours accumulated AND it's waterproof....   I'm curious to know how many amps the blanket puts out and how happy you are with the set up.

McT