Video Transcript for Comprehensive Review: etrailer Solar Expansion Kit

Hi, everybody, Andy here with etrailer.com. Let's take a look together at this etrailer solar expansion kit. This 100-watt monocrystalline solar panel is going to convert the sun's energy into DC electricity, and that electricity is going to charge your battery and your RV so you can power your devices that are connected to your batteries. And again, this is a 100-watt panel and this is going to give you a maximum output current of 4.8 amps and a short circuit current of 5.1 amps. Now, do keep in mind that you do want to do the calculation to make sure that your solar system's charger controller is going to be able to handle the combined amperage from all the panels that you have together. You wanna make sure that you're not exceeding your solar charger controller's maximum amperage.

Now, maybe you're just beginning to put a solar package together for your rig. And as you have probably been finding out, finding the right solar package for your particular setup can be stressful, with all of the questions about wattage and amp hours and panel dimensions, conversion formulas and amperage ratings, and a whole lot more. Fortunately, we can take the stress off of your plate. Check out our solar calculator that you see there on your screen. I am including our link to our solar calculator.

All you're gonna have to do is answer a few questions, and that calculator will find the package that you will need for your particular setup. Now, this lightweight panel is designed for a fixed-mount installation on RVs, vans, and more, and this only weighs about 13.5 pounds, so this is not going to add a whole lot of weight to your roof. It does feature a tempered glass coating and a black aluminum frame that will withstand the harsh road and weather conditions. And just to give you an idea of the size of this panel, looking at the overall length, we're sitting at about 42 1/8" long, the overall width, about 21 1/8" wide, and then, the height or thickness, we're sitting right at about 1 3/16" thick or tall. So, you do wanna make sure that you have a spot on the roof of your RV that's going to be big enough for this to be mounted.

And you also wanna keep in mind that you wanna stay away from mounting this near your air conditioning units or anything that could potentially cast a shadow on this panel and reduce its effectiveness. As you can see here, mounting hardware is included. You are going to receive four of these Z-brackets. And if you notice, butyl tape is already applied on each bracket, so that's a nice addition to the brackets. But you're also gonna get the mounting hardware and instructions to guide you through that installation process.

I also recommend picking up some self-leveling sealant. That's going to create an additional seal over the holes that you are creating with the screws to ensure that no moisture is going to get into the ceiling of your RV. So, you're not gonna have to worry about mold, mildew, leaks, that sort of thing. Now, this is going to connect to your system with the MC4 connectors, so let me just turn this around here real quick just to show that to you. As you can see here on the back of this panel, we do have these MC4 connectors and these cables, I have them wrapped up, here, but they are just about 3' long. We do carry extension cables if you're needing more length, though. You can find that here at etrailer.com. This is the back side, here. Let me go ahead and turn this back around. As you can see, pretty manageable, pretty lightweight. It's not gonna be heavy at all, really easy to manage. Now, this is, this does not include the solar charger controller and cables. Those are sold separately. But we do carry a kit that is going to include the one panel, a controller, and the cabling that you're going to need for a complete setup. So, if you would like to check out the entire kit, on your screen, I am including our item number for that kit. You can just take that item number and pop it into the search field of our website, and that will take you to that kit that you could take a look at and maybe pick that up instead of just this panel. We do also offer another kit with more than one panel, comes with three of these panels and everything that you need for that setup. You can see those other options here at etrailer.com. Now, this does have a limited lifetime warranty, and I think that's gonna wrap up our look today. I do hope that it was helpful for you. Again, my name is Andy. Thank you for joining me.