This installation was completed in December of 2024.  I met the customer at a Grand Design owner’s rally in November of 2024.  While at the rally, the customer had another installer upgrade the factory solar controller to a Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100/50 controller and install two Rich Solar two hundred watt solar panels.  The customer later approached me about doing some additional upgrades.  The customer had a small travel trailer and simple needs related to powering it.  The customer wanted an inverter capable of running any circuit in the trailer and he wanted to upgrade from the existing Lead Acid batteries to Lithium.  We had some discussions about possibilities and I eventually provided an estimate for the desired work, which the customer accepted.  We set the installation date and the customer brought the trailer to me.

The installation was completed in just over a day.  The customer had removed the couch (below the murphy bed) at the front of the trailer to make access for the installation easier.  He had also reworked some of the wood supports for the couch/murphy bed to open up the space better.  This made the installation process much easier.  I installed a Battle Born GC3 battery under the couch at the front of the trailer.  I also installed a Multiplus II 12/3000/120 inverter charger next to the battery.  I added a Victron VE Bus Smart Dongle to the Multiplus so the customer could control it via the Victron Connect app (just like his other smart Victron devices).  I built new, custom battery cables to connect the Multiplus to the new battery, and also to connect the existing MPPT to the new battery.  I also ran new cables to connect the OEM DC system to the new battery.  I installed a Victron SmartShunt to monitor the new battery and used Victron Mega Fuse holders and fuses for circuit protection between the battery and all the components.  Prior to bringing the trailer to me for the work, the customer decided he wanted to add one more solar panel to the existing array, in addition to the other work we discussed.  I added one more Rich Solar 200 watt solar panel to the roof and connected it in parallel with the existing two panels (for a total of 600 watts of solar) to feed the Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100/50 solar controller.

The installation was pretty simple and straight forward.  The most difficult part was finding the best path for the AC wiring to be routed from the shore power inlet at the back of the trailer to the Multiplus II at the front of the trailer and then back to the main breaker panel at the back of the trailer.  This entailed fishing wire in the covered  underbelly of the trailer.