Hapy Gets Solar

Last summer at the Newberry Event, I met a couple who were driving a pickup with a camper set up down the way from me. We got to talking about this and that as happens at music festivals. Conversation turned to camp set-ups and after a walk-thru of Hapy, they showed me their camper. I had seen newer camper-styles before, but I was really taken by their tiny solar panel. Today's post covers my transition from covet to install for Hapy.

Zamp Solar
I'll start with the panel that the Newberry Event couple had. It was a small, like, 1 foot square, portable panel (like this one - USP1005). It had an extending foot so you could prop it up independently, and had all of the conversion electronics attached to it. All you needed to do was run the supplied cable to your battery and clip it to the posts. Shazam, you have a trickle charge running to your battery. This all seemed to good to be true, so I took pictures of it to research later. They explained that they only camp in central Oregon, where the sun is seemingly ever-present, so a smaller panel completely suits their needs. I figured that we camp on the fog-socked Oregon coast as well as central Oregon, the Willamette Valley, etc so maybe we could use a larger one.

solar port

I did some research. I found that Zamp Solar is a small company based in Bend, Oregon. The reviews were great, and everything is manufactured here, so a purchase from them directly benefits the central Oregon economy. So, once my annual bonus arrived, I bought us one with the 1/3 I set aside for "fun" stuff. For the curious, the other 2/3 are split across saving for the future and paying off the past. It is a model I learned from some money-manager types 20 years ago. The thinking is that you're going to spend a little on stupid stuff anyway, so budget for it with 1/3 of your win-fall so you don't blow it all. It also creates some savings and eliminates some debt. Anyway, so I bought a larger one (USP1002). I also got an extension cable and a solar port. I probably could have gotten the wire harness, but I didn't realize they had it until after I had ordered a different install cable.

Install

controller

Like I said above, adding a solar panel to your luxury (or main) battery doesn't need to be complicated. I could just set up the panel and run the cable in through the slider, under the rock-n-roll bed to the battery. In all honesty, if I need to top-off the main battery, I will run a cable through the open engine hatch and alligator-clip to the posts. Since 99% of the battery usage when we are parked is consuming from the luxury battery, I wanted something a little cleaner.

To start, I soldered a 10 gauge red-black cable to the solar port (red to red, black to black, of course) and then heat-shrinked the connections. Now that I had a plug with 20' of cable attached, I could consider where to install it. I had thought about a few locations: inside the rear driver tire well, and under the belly pan on the passenger side. I resolved to putting it just behind the driver in the driver-side pan. I figured that if we were going to camp in a sunny spot, we will park so that the slider is on the shady side, so a port on the (non-slider) driver side made the most sense.

The backside of the solar port is rather thick, requiring a hole saw. Once bored, I threaded the bare-wire end of the cable up through the hole. I have an old hole in the floor of the bus where the '79 kitchen used to be so I pulled it the cable through by putting my arm into that hole. I ran the wire up out of that hole (I'll repair the larger hole one day) and then along the bottom of the old fridge cabinet where the furnace (see the Parking Heater series 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) now lives.

From the front outer edge, the cable bends around and inside that cabinet, and then runs along the outer edge before turning towards the center of the bus at the rear, exiting where the power wire for the heater exits. The cable runs the same path around the rear edge of the base of the rock-n-roll bed to the luxury battery. At this point, I added a ring terminal on each cable.

With the wiring route defined, I returned to the belly pan. I pressed the solar port into the hole, and drilled a pilot hole for a metal screw. I oriented the port so the cap ran fore to aft with the little hinge facing the front of the bus. This seemed the best for debris flying around under there while driving. Once that first hole was screwed in, the solar port was fixed, so I could easily pop the other 3 holes and thread in corresponding screws.

Testing

DrivewayFest 2020

The ring terminals slid easily onto the luxury battery extra posts. I nutted them down, and then pulled out the solar panel. It ships with a thick semi-stiff zippered case to keep the glass safe. It unzips easily, and removes by the pull of the handle. The panel folds in half, held with a simple twist clasp. Once released, the hinges are stiff, so it doesn't flop open. Instead, you need to choose to open it. Inside are all of the controls, the 15' of cable and the flip-down feet. I set the panel in a sunny spot, and the controller started flashing me status that was basically: no battery connected, but able to charge. I connected the extension cable to the attached 15' and then connected the other end to the solar port. These cable only mate one way, so this is super simple. I walked around to the panel, and toggled through the controller screen. According to the panel, I was getting 13.6V, pushing amps (peaked just below 5A, just under 2A when cloudy), and charging the battery. I felt the wires inside the bus to make sure there was no temperature at all (I used the same gauge wire so there shouldn't have been) and there wasn't.

We set up the bus for what Boo and I referred to as DrivewayFest 2020, and left the panel running all weekend. We rolled music and spent the better part of 2 days lounging by the bus. With the solar panel installed and the furnace finished, we are now 100% ready for 4Peaks.... 2021.

Since that first test, I have set up the solar panel pretty much any time I'm in the driveway working on the cars or the yard, powering the stereo so we have tunes for the work. The battery charges up quickly and then the panel suspends pushing amps until it registers a need. This panel requires no input from me once it is set up. Perfect. I'd rather use my brain effort on other things. I highly recommend Zamp Solar; I do not get anything from that endorsement. I just like them.

Thanks as always, for following along.