Rundhauber Truck

Rewiring and the Solar Array

April - December 2020

The first thing I needed to do was insulate the battery box from sommer heat and winter cold.

In April 2020, I pulled out the battery, and using styrodur I built insulation that surrounded the battery holding box, with an air gap all around to keep a constant temperature.

Into the top of this I added a 72W Peltier cooler.

So the battery is out and just starting with the back wall of insulation.

Battery is reinstalled and all the insulation is in place.

The front closing piece is ready for slipping into place. The Insulation piece on the left of the box has a small wooden handle, so I can remove it in winter. This is the side to where the heating stove is and the heat from that will heat the battery and keep it warm for the winter

Preparing the Peltier to be mounted into the top cover of the Battery Box.

This is the cooler element after I've mounted it all in the top cover. I used small bits of Styrodur to

seal all around it and glued them in place.

Finally, all together and working as it should.

On a hot sommer day if I start it early in the day it will keep the box from heating up.

This uses then the energy from my Solar Panels and in Sommer it is usually sunny enough to run this every day that I need to.

I like to keep the battery between 20 °C and 25 °C

The next thing to do was change the Solar Charge Controller DC Circuit Breaker from the Panels on the roof. I've gone from a 20A DC to a 40A DC

Here I still have the two cables from the Solar Panels going into the top of the 20A DC circuit breaker

With the wiring cabinet open, I'm able to change out the Circuit Breaker and change some wiring that needed attention.

One of which was to add three separate DC Circuit Breakers, for each of the three series, of two 150W panels on the Truck.

While in Berlin, during Feb 2020, I added two more solar panels to the side of the Truck as in the North a lot of my sun comes in at a low angel.

I riveted an aluminium frame to the Truck with a glue sealant under it and then attached the Panels to this.

This now gives me three series of two 150W panels connected to the Truck, for a total of 900W.

Into the top of the new 40A DC Circuit Breaker, I've taken off all the positive cables from the Truck panels, and lead them to three separate Circuit Breakers that I've put in a black box to the left side of the Wiring box.

One cable was brought back from these circuit breakers and that now goes into the 40A breaker.

This will allow me to disconnect each two panel series separately, as well as just turning off all panels at once.

Now the 16 mm² cables are all joined to the black 40A breaker and ready to be closed up.

All closed and working, Three 6 mm² cables going in, one 16 mm² cable coming out.

Gluing in the nuts to the back of the board that will hold the new Victron 150/50 Charge Controller.

So here I'm just finishing up the cabling of the 150/85 Victron Charge Controller.

I'm putting ferrules on all the cable ends, especially on the big controller as it now carries a lethal 118

Volts DC.

At the top:

The old Votronic Charge Controller which is now wired up directly to the Truck Starter Battery and this is fed from my old Original 100W Polycrystalline panel that I bought in about 1999.

On the left side:

The new 150/50 Victron Charge Controller is now connected up through the three new circuit breakers to the 6 x 150W Mono Solar panels on the Truck. 900W

On the right side:

The 150/85 Victron Charge Controller is connected through a Two Pole Schneider A9N61699,

SW60 DC 2P 50 A 1000 V Circuit Breaker, then down to a NATO Pig-Nose Plug Socket that I mounted on the side of the Truck.

This can be connected to the 9 x 335W Mono panels on the Array. 3015W

35 mm² cables going from the Pig-Nose to the 50A 2P Circuit Breaker.

The SW60 DC 2P 50 A 1000 V

Circuit Breaker,

below the House Supply Cut-off switch

The cables ready for the Pig-Nose

Drilling the mounting holes

Pig-Nose finished and ready to be connected to the new Array.

Building a combiner box for the Array.

I have Nine Panels set up as three Series of three Parallel Panels.

The three separate series get connected through three Circuit Breakers, which combines them into the Positive and Negative cable that goes into the NATO Pig-Nose beside the combiner box.

From the box, NATO starter cables will connect the Array to the Truck.

I am able then to disconnect each series as I need, or turn everything off when plugging in and out the main NATO Cable.

Also, the Tomzn 25A DC Circuit Breakers, (shown here) got changed to a lower amperage 16A DC Schneider Circuit Breaker.

About to close it all up. It's sealed inside from water entry.

Just testing it all with one of my

new 335W Panels

NATO Pig-Nose with NATO Cable plugged in

I'm using my NATO starter cables to connect the Array to the Truck.

They are 35 mm² and well built, so are perfect for this.

Combiner box attached to the Array with NATO starter cable plugged in!

The 3015W Array

So as I've moved to Sweden and I know the light level is going to be less than where I've been, I decided to buy some more panels and build an Array that I will have standing beside the Truck and I connect up to for the winter.

I bought 9 x 335W Monocrystalline panels of 120 half-cut cell, design.

I then built an array to mount them on, in such a way that I can unbolt it all when I move to a new place.