This DIY camper solar wiring diagram and parts list is perfect for ground-up electrical installs into campervans, skoolies, or expedition vehicles. This system is most suitable for systems that do not have a pre-existing house electrical system installed.
This diagram features:
- 2000W Inverter Charger
- 200+ Amp Hours of Battery Storage Capacity
- Up to 520W Solar Array Capacity
- Alternator Charging at 60A
- Shore Power Charging/Passthrough
Not quite what you are looking for? Check out other system setups here: https://www.explorist.life/solarwiringdiagrams
Note from Nate: It’s no secret that Battle Born Batteries and Victron Energy are sponsors of the work I do here at EXPLORIST.life. Both of those brands make top of the line, high-end equipment and in my opinion, is worth every penny.
BUT… I have seen time and time again people trying to design systems with less expensive equipment to fit within their budgets (rightfully so. I get that.) but struggle with budget-friendly system design including proper fusing, wire sizes, fuse choices, busbars, component placement, switches, and everything else necessary to build a high-end system. This is why I’ve made this diagram.
This diagram features high-quality fuses, busbars, wires, and lugs with highly efficient wire routing & system design with decreased redundancies that will accommodate most of the popular and less expensive Inverter/Chargers and other components I see people using like Renogy and AIMS.
This is the Honda Civic of camper electrical systems. It won’t win any high-performance races, but it will get you from point A to point B in a safe and reliable manner.
History of Changes to this Page (Click to Expand)
Post Published Jan 8, 2021
Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
HOW TO USE THIS PAGE – VIDEO
This orientation video will show you how to best use this page to build your DIY Camper Solar Setup. It’s a quick watch but I think it’s pretty important.
DIY Camper Van Wiring Diagram
DIY Camper Solar Parts – Shopping List
The list below is a consolidated parts list for this entire system (Minus the solar charging leg, which is listed at the bottom of this blog post).
For the ‘Quantities’ in the below shopping list, each singular component is listed a quanty per each, wire is listed a quantity of feet, and heat shrink is listed as qty 1 = 2.25″.
For Example:
Qty 1 – Inverter Charger means you need to purchase 1 Inverter Charger
Qty 3 – 4/0 Wire means you need 3 feet of 4/0 wire. This may mean you need to buy 5ft from the product page
Qty 5 heat shrink means you need 5 pieces of 2.25″ heat shrink. This means you’ll need 5 x 2.25″ pieces of heat shrink for a total of 11.25″ of heat shrink.
Camper Solar Parts Detail
The section below will tell you where each of the parts from above fits into the wiring diagram. This is quite lengthy, but if you are having trouble seeing the diagram or just want more clarification that the diagram above doesn’t deliver, hopefully this will help:
Order of Operations for DIY Camper Solar Install
Coming soon
Manon
Thursday 29th of July 2021
Hi, great content here, very useful, I've just purchased a couple of diagrams to say thank you!
I'm a tad confused with wire size.
I understand wire size varies based on amp & length. In your diagram you recommend 10 feet of 10gauge wires for connecting a 30amp shore outlet to inverter. I only have 4feet lenght between my inverter charger & the plug and I'm trying to figure out the size of my wire, when looking at the table however I cannot match the 10awg to a 30amp device.
What am I missing?
Paul Merrill
Saturday 24th of July 2021
Howdy - I am looking at installing a system in my LandCruiser for ham radio and overlanding. What is the preferred method of topping off my starting battery in any of these schemes? IS it preferable to pipe the solar/MPPT to the alternator connection and then run to the house bank, or plumb as per your house bank/solar/DC-DC/Shore power plans and run a small DC-DC trickle charger back to the starting battery? Thanks....
Keaton Alexander
Saturday 10th of July 2021
Another question for ya... I am following your diagram very closely, double checked all connections with a voltmeter, and have DC circuits running perfectly thru the WFCO panel powering my fan. However, I'm having trouble with hot neutral reverse polarity on the AC side. Both black and white output wires are hot coming out of the Renogy inverter, and hot in the WFCO as well. I've followed the WFCO wiring diagram, too, with the only difference being no Converter input on the DC side.
Any troubleshooting suggestions?
Also,The WFCO website says 'This is a distribution panel only, and does not include a converter or transfer switch, though it can easily pair with a WFCO converter and transfer switch'
Am I correct that a converter is not necessary for my application?
Thanks again, Keaton
Keaton Alexander
Saturday 10th of July 2021
The WF-8930/50 distribution center instructs users to install an 8awg chassis ground wire from the AC ground terminal bar.
I notice your diagram does not illustrate this.
What is the reason for that?
Does it have anything to do with the AC circuits being connected to the Renogy inverter, which is in turn connected to the Chassis Ground or Earth Ground depending on the status of the automatic transfer relay?
Furthermore, is there any benefit or disadvantage in having the 'extra' ground wire?
Thanks!
Weston Hamilton
Saturday 10th of July 2021
I have a GEL Type Lead-Acid Battery and a Lithium Battery that came out of a Goal Zero Yeti - I am curious if there is a safe way to use the Yeti Unit or the Battery itself as a back up that kicks on in case the other battery reaches 50%? Any leads on this would be helpful - even something as simple as a quick manual switch would be acceptable. Thanks for the awesome website!