I'm getting set up with some local companies here in Utah for cell repairs and replacement. If you ever want to completely replace your batteries with new batteries let me know. I'm also getting set up with a battery manufacturer for new batteries which can be shipped anywhere in the continental U.S.
I think was the first to buy auction dc in Southern Utah, crazy how it took off locally. I didn't know much about solar then. There a a bunch of options now. My next purchase will be more cutting edge. The DC set up is now very obsolete.
@@7on7footballusa ... but they're tanks! They're super robust and I really like how they'll allow the loads to exceed the rated 6,000watts per inverter for bursting it startup cranking amps. I can run both of my home's huge AC units from my trailer. I Just like the idea that I can truly run my entire home from my super trailer.
John read your comments my brother. We love you here. I love seeing what other people do with their dc trailers. I inherited two that were not taken care of. Went lithium in one with a second PV array and high voltage charger and the other I wire lead acids up I got from a UPS center for the airport about 45kw or so. I installed additional cabinet ventilation as they were overheating and maxed out the midnights with four additional panels each trailer. I use a time controller to charge them from grid between 1-4am when it’s low sun. About 12 kw in solar total With the additional array. I did have to run a ground back to the shunt from the 500v charge controller because it wasn’t seeing the amps flowing in. They are solid but all in all I am looking at going high voltage dc across the board in pv and dc storage, I like the solis maybe two 12ks or a Sandi 25kw. A small industrial inverter may be better than a pair of residential inverters.
@@casperyourfriendlyghost7552 I doubled my cabinet so my system is 1 master 3 slaves. It was pretty easy to combine my cabinets and will be doing a video on that sometime soon. This really made a big difference for my home when dealing with induction motors in my furnaces, washing machine, dryer, etc. Some of my LED lights in my home could pulse a little with the rotations of the motors. All my appliances are super old so I suspect the capacitors in these devices need to be replaced. I plan to test them soon. Now that the AC weather is leaving us, I'll need to switch over more if my house onto my solar trailer in order to utilize everything I'm harvesting.
Good thing to know about the generator and SMA! I just found out yesterday that the Kubota output was set at 48A charge instead of 100A at the Master SMA. I have been wondering why the output of the Kubota was on at 1.3kw (=/-) for the test runs to charge the single 48v battery that has survived. So many different setting to go through before this trailer is functioning as close to 100% as is possible.
Thanks a lot 🙏 I notice on my trailer only 1 battery connection is made to the master inverter but the anderson style plug is empty for the slave inverter. Is this correct for my setup, 8x 6v lead acid batteries in series? Or should I connect the batteries also to the slave inverter battery input? Or is that is I setup a seperate battery bank?
The Anderson connector on the backside of the cabinet (located behind the slave) is the same as the other one located behind the master. They're both live but only the one behind the master is being tracked by the shunt (current sensor) so it's generally better to have the master side only be connected to batteries. The slave side could be the line to a second cabinet if you wanted to introduce a second & third slave. This way all the current headed to the batteries has a single path. Connecting two cabinets together can be a little complicated and requires the two cabinets to be connected by their plugs as well as the generator inlets of both cabinets to also be joined. In addition, a network wire for master/slave communication. Don't do this unless you know and understand exactly what you're doing.
Question don't know if you can help but I have a warning slv2loss. Do you know how to fix that? I have a master and slave 1. So I am at a loss.. Thank you.
One of those plugs is the generator input to the inverters and the 2 plugs are the outputs from the ac load panel powered from the inverters as the 2 hots so it does not matter that those plugs don't match eachother 🤔
John - thanks for reminding us that there is a 1hour run time for using a little power, charging battery banks and just cycling the generator and fuel recirculation. I will keep that in mind!
Hey John, I just seen your video right now. I was wondering the same thing about the wind turbines let me know how they did because where I bought my property. It’s windy pretty much year-round. I would like to know how it worked for you.
I used a curved pick to remove those covers... some of them just pop off - others had never been removed. That was how I figured out the "battery maintenance" was almost none existent before we bought our trailer.
John - I just reviewed the Midnite Solar panel calculator and it says we are only able to use 4 (390watt QCell) panels per string. I thought you were able to get 3 strings of five for your DC Solar Trailer? We would be at a little over 3,000watts at peak but I am trying to get the most out of the DC SOLAR Trailer that we are able to. How many watts are you getting from your 3 strings of panels? Thanks for any insight!
John -greatly appreciate you taking the time to make this video. Found out the Battery Current Sensor was NONE and was able to switch it to the 50/500. Did you ever find out if the 500 referenced the Ah combined on the Battery Bank? I will raise it to 1020Ah - the batteries are 510Ah each.
Hey John Where are you located? I have 2 solar trailers I’m wanting to upgrade panels to Canadian 385 by facial. Would this work? Is it as simple as plug and play. I just don’t have too much experience and you seem to know your stuff. I’m also interested in upgrading batteries. They seem weak can only run a 750 watt heater for about 8-10 hours before the battery’s hit 25% from 100% Would you work on these trailers for a hourly charge if I sent them to you?
We have one 48v battery that we are trying to recover. The second battery requires 3-4 new cells before it can be (hopefully) be recovered for use. I am using a small deep freezer (plugged into the 110v duplex inside the cabinet) to have load while alternating charging between the Midnight Solar Charge Controller and the Kubota generator. The battery seems to be recovering - somewhat.
Hi John great video I have the same trailers also have the sunny boy , my question to you is if I want to connect all that power to my grid did you just simply disconnect the Generation and ran a connection to the RV plug from the house grid? So basically it is Grid tie to any plug from my home? Hope this question make sense
John - we were able to find a used unit in California yesterday and we picked it up! I have to run through the systems and ensure the battery SOC. I will be reviewing all of your videos again and again to become more familiar with the trailer. The unit we purchased has the masts and I still would love to try the style wind turbines you tested on your unit - do you have a link to those turbines? Thanks so much!
thanks for these videos John, I bought a DC trailer about two months ago and I'm learning a lot about its operation through your videos, and threw just playing with it. Is setting the inverter low voltage cut off in inverter settings? It was like one option above where you were going
John - I am subscribed to you (ALL/videos) and for some reason the "bell" symbol has a slash through it? Are the notifications turned off for me to your channel? I have clicked on "ALL" several times but the "bell" continues to have a slash mark through it....hmmm?!
John - you are a wealth of knowledge in regard to these trailers! Most of us wouldn't have even noticed. We need to install a regular 50AMP cord from the D Solar Trailer to our 50AMP Service connection on our RV.
Great video to get a better understanding of these trailers. I bought four at auction about two and half years ago (maybe longer??) and this really explains things now that we need to use them.
In EBAY I'm selling a "Battery Temperature Sensor for SMA Sunny Island SI 6048 NEW, never used" There are PDF link there to install this sensor correctly.
In EBAY I'm selling a "Battery Temperature Sensor for SMA Sunny Island SI 6048 NEW, never used" There are PDF link there to install this sensor correctly.
Hi John, thanks for making these videos. I’ve been watching them as I just bought a trailer with generator and lights. I live in Phoenix, AZ so I’m tempted to add more panels. Do you have any further information on the Sunny Boy install?
You wouldn't happen to know what the #13GnRvPwr setting is for. It shows as watts. It is in the generator control menu. I couldn't seem to find it in the manual. I am assuming it may be the wattage ratting for your generator.
I have a SI5048 that works fine, but oddly the entire #240 menu selection to configure the generator is missing. I'll take a look under Operations to see if I can find any settings there. Any idea why the 240 menu would be missing? I'm certain it used to be there!
do you have a video on how you EXPANDED the panels .. i see that you used super-strut -- i just don't see how you could have anchored it into the soft aluminum of the other panels to hold a few additional ones up ...
Yeah, John is very good and does consultation over the phone. He solved a couple problems for me. He knows what he’s talking about and can walk you through whatever is happening.
There could be multiple things that could cause this but the simplest thing to check is the breaker on the front of the generator itself. Often times this breaker needs to be 'on' (in the upright position) in order for the generator to transfer its power to the back of the cabinet.
The grid is connected to the plug on the backside of the cabinet. This is the same plug where the generator normally connects. I reprogrammed the Sunny Islands to be in Grid mode. In the future, I'm hoping to switch my Sunny Islands to GridGen mode and install an automatic power transfer switch so that the Sunny Islands can intelligently switch between the Grid and the Generator. From there, I installed the Sunny Boy to be on the private internal grid from the trailer. My Sunny Boy is handling all of the solar panels converting all that directly into AC power...I completely removed my MidNite Charge Controller. My Sunny Islands charge the batteries from any excess AC. I commissioned the Sunny Boy to be in Island mode allowing the Sunny Islands to control the solar harvesting with the frequency shifting feature.
