portable solar.

having spent 3 nights at Watlington without hook up, the battery on our nuevo shut down. because the gas tank valve is electric this stopped the fridge. the 80 watt panel on the roof doesn't seem enough even with the sun beating down. we had alarms ringing on site at 2am. not popular. 
would a portable panel of say 130watts be a viable proposition or not?
Doug.

There must be more drain on your battery. I only have 80w panel through dual controller to both batteries and never have low voltage from March through to October.  As your van is 2024 it must already have a B2B charger so it shouldn't be your smart alternator not charging your leisure battery whilst driving. Needs proper investigation. Back to dealer?

Almost certainly the solar is connected via Sargent.

Infinitely better is as Paul says and I have, is a dual battery solar controller connected directly to the solar panel and then the 2 batteries via inline 10A fuses/

For most folks 80w will suffice.

When we had 100w we never had any issues

However, as your van is new you may have warranty issues....

yes there does seem to be a fault. the van goes in Tuesday for previously paid for 100 watt battery. they will hopefully check charge rate and fix various snags.
thankyou for replies.

I have to suggest that, with as I recall a 60 ah Li battery, that is simply not enough capacity for more than a day or so, particularly after allowing for all the parasitic loads. An 80 watt panel via Sargent will do very little. The simple fact is that standard vans are designed (and costed) to travel from EHU to EHU, just as for caravans.

Perhaps Bargee.

But not having anything Sargent, thankfully, but even when we had on the two Warwick, we had 100w solar, dual battery Pwm controller all connected directly to the panel and batteries.
A single lead acid 110Ah . We never had , nor still do, with a similar system, any issues at all re power. Being static is irrelevant, our batteries are full by lunchtime......
In the case of the OP, his set up is different and, as you say, marginal.
It wouldn't be if conn as above imho

The standard 80W panel can produce over 5A in sunshine. Mine has been doing so. The weather and latitude are obviously a factor, but if it's sunny, it should be doing something. Maybe the panel is faulty? My first one was.

v8oholic wrote:Maybe the panel is faulty? My first one was.

Agreed - and bear in mind that panel faults don't always manifest themselves as zero output. It's not uncommon for them to fail partially.

doog1948 wrote:having spent 3 nights at Watlington without hook up, the battery on our nuevo shut down. because the gas tank valve is electric this stopped the fridge. the 80 watt panel on the roof doesn't seem enough even with the sun beating down. we had alarms ringing on site at 2am. not popular. 
would a portable panel of say 130watts be a viable proposition or not?
Doug.

If your Nuevo has the same Sargent solar regulator mine had which through the EC700 was supposed to smart charge whichever battery needed it, it won't support you off-grid for long even at this time of year.  I like many others replaced my Sargent regulator with a MPPT Votronic DuoDig regulator that charges the LB with a trickle charge going to the VB and most important of all it bypasses the EC700. There is much about this on the Forum.

I bought a 200 w excel folding  solar panel , fitted a mppt controller  directly to leisure  and  with 2 mc4 connectors to remove the solar  panel  when not in use , works well as it can be pointed directly to the sun  , I have 1x  110 amp lead carbon leisure  battery  ,  when not in use battery is charged from roof panel through sargent 328 unit ,