Grand Design reflection 311BHS
System Schematic
Basic Parts List
- 5 -Lion Energy UT1300 105 Ah 12V Lithium (provided by the customer)
- Victron Energy MultiPlus II 12/3000/120 Inverter with Charger
- Victron Energy VE.Bus Smart Dongle with Bluetooth
- Victron Energy SmartSolar MPPT 250/100 Charge Controller with Bluetooth
- Victron Energy Lynx Distributor
- Victron Energy SmartShunt
- Victron Energy Cerbo GX Communication Center
- Victron Energy GX Touch 50
- Miscellaneous Victron Energy RJ45 UTP Network Cables
- Miscellaneous Victron VE.Direct Cables
- Miscellaneous Victron Energy 32 V MEGA-Fuse for 12 Volt and 24 Volt Systems
- 8 - NewPowa 210 Watt 24 Volt Solar Panels
- 32 - Stainless Steel Z-Brackets with Stainless Steel Hardware
- AM Solar Roof Combiner Box with Strain Relief
- MC4 Male/Female Solar Panel Cable Connectors
- 35 Feet 10 AWG Black PV Wire
- 2 - Micro Air Easy Starts (1 installed by owner)
- Midnite Solar Baby Box Enclosure with DIN Rail
- Miscellaneous Midnite Solar MNEPV Series 150 V DIN Mount DC Breakers
- Blue Sea Systems HD-Series Heavy Duty On-Off Battery Switch
- 12 Feet of 4/0 Welding Cable – Red
- 17 Feet of 4/0 Welding Cable – Black
- 15 Feet of 4 AWG Welding Cable – Red
- 15 Feet of 4 AWG Welding Cable – Black
- 3 Feet of 2 AWG Welding Cable – Red
- 3 Feet of 2 AWG Welding Cable – Black
- 5 Feet of 6 AWG Bare Solid Copper Grounding Wire
- 7 Feet of Portable Cord Soow 6/4 6 AWG 4 Conductor
- Red and Black Dual Wall Shrink Tubing
- Various 4/0, 2 AWG, 4 AWG and 6 AWG Tinned Copper Lugs
- Positive and Negative Busbars
- 50Amp Hughes Power Watchdog
- Miscellaneous parts, sealants, breakers, and connectors
Installation Notes
This installation was completed in July of 2022. The owner of this 5th wheel contacted me about a possible installation. He already had the batteries, but wasn’t sure what other equipment he needed. We had discussions about what he wanted from his system and I came up with a proposal based on those discussions. The customer accepted my proposal and we set an installation date.
This is a Grand Design Reflection model 5th wheel so the basement area is pretty tight. The Reflections do not have the drop frame basements like the Solitudes do, so there isn’t a lot of extra space in the basement area. I was unsure if I would be able to hide all the system equipment in dead spaces behind the basement walls as a result. Once the customer dropped the trailer off for the installation, I went to work opening up the basement walls. There was a cabinet on the interior wall of the 5th wheel that backed up to the basement. This cabinet had some dead space in it behind the main power panel. This dead space opened up into the basement dead space. Between the dead space in the cabinet and the dead space in the basement, I was able to fit all the batteries, the inverter, the lynx, the Cerbo GX and the shunt. The only thing I couldn’t fit was the solar controller. The rear basement wall was curved a bit and I was able to mount the solar controller behind part of this curve and along the basement wall. This kept the solar controller from excessively protruding into the basement area. Overall, I was very pleased with the component layout for such a small space. I did have to build a platform for the inverter to sit on so it could span some water piping and valve controls behind the basement wall.
This 5th wheel had OEM solar wiring run from the roof to the front battery compartment. This wiring was 10 AWG wire. In order to utilize this wire, I installed an MPPT 250/100 solar controller and installed eight 200 watt 24 volt NewPowa solar panels. The solar panels were installed in 4S2P configuration to keep the voltage high and the amperage low to take advantage of the OEM 10 AWG wire.
Once the installation was complete, the customer returned to pick up the 5th wheel. He was very happy with the final product and was looking forward to taking it out and using his new system.
