New Symbol with 80w solar panel help

Hi all, my first time here as I have just took the plunge and purchased a new Symbol, I pick it up in a couple of weeks, I know the solar panel on the top is 80 watt but I plan to do a lot of places with no hook up, in my previous camper I have used my Dokio 300 watt fold out solar panel and it works very well, can I connect this to the leisure battery in my Symbol without any problems with the charging system installed in the van ?

Hi 
Welcome to the forum from Bridlington, better leave your question to an expert.
Boaby

Love your Border, I have one too :-)

Snowwolf wrote:Love your Border, I have one too :-)

Love to see a photo, ours is called Tag, 2 1/2 ,ex show dog (male) we have had him a year,very friendly with people,doesn't like of lead dogs coming at him.
Boaby

He does look great - but back to the question:

Yes, as long as the portable panel has its own good quality charge controller built-in, it should cause no problem. One panel will probably "win" and suppress the other as the battery reaches full charge, as their terminal charging voltages will doubtless differ by a small amount.

TBH with a 3-way fridge you'll probably find that an 80W panel is enough from mid-Spring through to mid-Autumn anyway.

Thanks Roopert, much appreciated, my old camper had a 12/240 volt fridge so I guess that was using a lot of the battery, I was unsure if my Symbol had a 3 way fridge and glad you have confirmed it has, it is the 2019 model but I am glad that I can add the fold out solar if needed while off grid which for most of the time I will be, yes I have an expensive controller for the solar panel it's a
 
Victron Energy SmartSolar MPPT 100/20 12/24V-20A Solar Charge Controller Bluetooth Inside

Do you know where the leisure battery is in the Symbol ? is it easy to get too ? bearing in mind I don't pick the camper up until 11th July

Snowwolf wrote:Do you know where the leisure battery is in the Symbol ? is it easy to get too ? bearing in mind I don't pick the camper up until 11th July

Assuming they haven’t moved it, under the side settee/bed. Simple to get to.
As mentioned, the 80w unit has provided all our needs (we usually don’t bother with a hook up on sites) since around April/May. Typical usage includes TV, heater, charging 2 phones etc..

I have the same van (2017 model) and the 80W solar is fine during the summer months unless you really go to town with the electric.  Even in winter you'll get away with a weekend with that alone. There's room on the roof to fit another 50W in parallel if you really wanted a little extra, but with the fold out you have there's probably no need.

Not sure if they have changed the controller in the latest Symbols, but a tip is to access the service menu on the control panel (press the up and down button together for a few seconds).

In the menu you have access to how the solar charge is distributed.  It will most likely be defaulted to 'smart' charging, which in mine means it always selects the vehicle battery first to charge, but will switch over to the leisure battery after it's voltage falls below 12.4.  If you have the newer controller it should default to the leisure first as they must have realised this is the obvious option for motorhomes.

If you plan on driving quite regularly then the alternator will be charging the vehicle anyway, so I'd set it to 100% leisure battery when away so you know all the solar charge is going into it.  However on the control panel you can manually flick it to charge the vehicle battery if you will be leaving the engine off for more than a couple of weeks.  If you've set it to fix on one battery, this should stay selected then and you have the option to change.  On smart charge, it will automatically change back again after a set interval.

Also, if using the fold out, you could simply select the 80W to charge the vehicle battery while the fold out is charging the leisure, then you have best of both worlds.

The leisure battery is under the bench seat at the drivers seat end in a plastic box.  You'd need to open the box to gain access to the terminals or you could cut small access holes in with some sort of cover for when not in use.

As mentioned the 80W manages ok so you'd probably only need to use the fold out now and again to top up.

If you want to charge the engine battery , could you simply connect the portable panel to the jump start points in the engine bay?

Thanks for all the replies and good suggestions, giving me all the options I need, I do like my music in the camper, and wondering if the cab dab radio runs off the leisure battery or main battery when parked up? It I was thinking of getting an echo show or sound bar, these being 240 volts, in my old camper I had another leisure battery on an inverter which the items ran off, is there room under the seat for a secondary leisure battery and inverter for the inverter 240v options?

Cab Dab radio......hope you only like listening to music for 20 mins 

Yeah you could just about fit another battery, there's a space next to the fitted one that you could probably squeeze one in.

In summer I doubt you'd really need one though, unless you plan to wild camp for weeks on end.

The vehicle battery lasts a few weeks with no input but the alarm/immobilizer/tracker etc in the modern vans means any more than that and you'll be having trouble starting it, so definitely divert some charge to starter battery now and again.

As I mention above, with the fold out being your main solar I'd use that on the leisure and set the 80W to charge your starter, you'd be fine like that. Set to smart charge both batteries my 80W will keep both fine for over a month in storage without need to do anything at this time of year, so all into the starter will keep it 100% no problem.

Ok good, I really looking forward to getting the new camper :-)