Affordable RV Solar Setup: Our Portable Solar & Lithium Battery System for Boondocking
When you start researching solar for RV boondocking, it doesn’t take long before the numbers get intimidating.
Hundreds—or even thousands—of watts of solar. Huge battery banks. Roof installations. Inverters. Controllers. Wiring. And, of course, a price tag to match.
But how much solar do you really need to boondock?
Our answer has always been pretty simple: enough to meet the way you actually camp.
We didn’t have an enormous budget when we put together our boondocking setup, and we didn’t want to add a lot of unnecessary weight to our travel trailer. Instead, we chose a relatively small system built around a 140-watt folding suitcase solar panel and a 100Ah lithium battery.
It isn’t a huge system, but after more than a year of boondocking, it had proven to be a very practical setup for us.
Here’s what we used, why we chose it, and what we learned along the way.
Our Simple RV Solar Setup
Our solar system consisted of:
- One 140-watt Zamp folding suitcase solar panel
- Built-in solar charge controller
- 30-foot solar extension cable
- One 100Ah Battle Born lithium battery
- Battery shunt and monitor
- Phone app for monitoring battery usage and charging
That’s it.
We weren’t trying to run everything in the RV from solar. As we discussed in Part 1 of our boondocking setup, we also had a generator for larger electrical loads and as a backup when necessary.
The solar system’s job was to handle our everyday battery needs, and for us, it did that remarkably well.
Why We Chose a Portable Solar Panel
Instead of permanently mounting solar panels on the roof of our travel trailer, we went with a folding suitcase-style panel that we could set up on the ground.
There were several reasons for that decision.
The first was our RV roof.
We’d already dealt with roof problems, and neither one of us was particularly excited about putting additional holes or mounting hardware through a roof that had already given us trouble.
Portable solar eliminated that concern.
But that wasn’t the only advantage.
Portable Solar Is Easy to Clean
Solar panels work best when they’re clean.
With a roof-mounted system, that can mean climbing onto the RV roof periodically to clean the panels.
There’s just one little problem with that for us.
Neither one of us likes heights.
Our suitcase panel stays on the ground, so cleaning it is easy. No ladder. No climbing onto the trailer. No worrying about falling off the roof.
We can simply walk over and clean it whenever necessary.
For us, that’s a pretty significant advantage.
We Can Follow the Sun
The biggest benefit of our portable solar panel is that we can move it.
A roof-mounted solar panel is limited by the position of the RV. Unless the panels can be tilted, you’re largely stuck with whatever angle the sun happens to hit them.
Our panel isn’t.
We can point it toward the morning sun and then reposition it as the sun moves across the sky.
That ability to follow the sun helped us get a surprising amount of charging power from a relatively small 140-watt panel.
We generally saw around eight amps coming in under good conditions.
Our 30-foot extension cable also gave us quite a bit of flexibility. If the trailer was parked in partial shade, we could often move the panel far enough away to find a sunny spot.
And we didn’t have to worry about positioning the entire RV around the solar system.
We parked where we wanted and moved the panel instead.
There Are Downsides to Portable Solar
Portable solar isn’t perfect.
Our panel weighs about 40 pounds.
That was about the maximum weight I wanted to wrestle in and out of the trailer on moving days. Larger suitcase panels were available, but they were also heavier, which was one reason we weren’t particularly interested in upgrading to a bigger portable panel.
We also had to set it up every time we arrived at a new campsite and put it away whenever we moved.
Rain presented another issue. Our particular setup wasn’t something we wanted sitting outside getting soaked, especially because of the controller. If rain was coming, we generally brought the panel inside.
Then there’s security.
People often asked whether we worried about someone walking away with our solar panel while we were gone exploring.
Generally, no. If a boondocking area made us uncomfortable, we probably weren’t going to stay there in the first place.
But when we wanted a little extra security, we could lock the panel to the trailer frame.
Portable solar does require a little more hands-on attention than a permanently mounted system, but for us the advantages outweighed the inconvenience.
Why the Solar Charge Controller Matters
Our suitcase panel came with a charge controller already installed.
If you’re looking at portable solar panels that don’t include one, you’ll need an appropriate controller as part of your system.
The charge controller sits between the solar panel and battery and manages the charging process.
Rather than simply sending power to the battery continuously, the controller regulates charging as the battery approaches full capacity.
That helps make the solar panel and battery work together as a system rather than as two unrelated pieces of equipment.
Our 100Ah Lithium Battery
The second half of our setup was a 100Ah Battle Born lithium battery.
We purchased it in 2019 before we went on the road.
At the time, there weren’t nearly as many lithium RV battery choices as there are now, and Battle Born was the option we felt comfortable purchasing based on the research we’d done.
Were we happy with it?
Absolutely.
It had been a powerhouse for us.
That doesn’t mean we’d automatically buy exactly the same battery if we were building the system again. Even when we filmed the video, other lithium brands were appearing at lower prices, and we were interested in eventually upgrading from 100Ah to 200Ah.
But the battery we had performed extremely well.
Why We Chose Lithium
Our decision to buy lithium actually began with a mistake.
When we first bought our travel trailer, it had a traditional lead-acid battery.
While Ed was working on the trailer, something accidentally got left on overnight. By the next morning, we’d drained the battery so deeply that we couldn’t get it to recover properly.
That experience taught us something about ourselves.
We didn’t want a battery system that required us to constantly worry about accidentally discharging it too far.
So when we started building our boondocking setup, we decided to invest in lithium.
Lead-Acid, AGM or Lithium?
When we were putting together our system, RVers generally considered three major battery choices: traditional flooded lead-acid, AGM and lithium.
Each came with advantages and disadvantages.
Traditional lead-acid batteries were inexpensive, but their usable capacity was limited if you wanted to preserve battery life. They were also heavier once you installed enough capacity for your needs and required appropriate ventilation and maintenance.
AGM batteries eliminated some of the maintenance concerns of flooded batteries, but they were still heavy and also had limitations on usable capacity.
Lithium batteries cost considerably more upfront, but they offered much more usable capacity for their rated amp-hours and weighed significantly less.
For an RV, weight matters.
Every pound of batteries is a pound that counts toward the amount of cargo your rig can safely carry.
Our 100Ah lithium battery weighed about 29 pounds. The comparable battery arrangements we considered using traditional batteries would have weighed considerably more.
For us, the combination of usable capacity, weight and convenience made lithium worth the additional cost.
What About Lithium Batteries in Cold Weather?
Cold weather and lithium batteries deserve special consideration.
Our own experience included getting caught in a Colorado snowstorm where temperatures dropped to around 14 degrees and remained below freezing for more than a day.
Our battery continued supplying power and, in our particular setup, we didn’t experience problems charging it from our generator or solar panel during that trip.
However, our experience shouldn’t be taken to mean that every lithium battery can safely be charged at every temperature.
Battery chemistry, battery-management systems and low-temperature charging protection vary. If you’re building a system today, check the manufacturer’s specifications for the exact battery you’re considering, particularly if you expect to camp in freezing temperatures.
How Long Did Our 100Ah Battery Last?
For the way we used electricity, a fully charged 100Ah battery could generally carry us for about two days.
That gave us a nice cushion.
If we had a sunny day, the solar panel could replenish the battery. If the following day was cloudy, we weren’t immediately scrambling for another power source.
Under good conditions, our 140-watt solar panel could recharge our battery in roughly four hours.
Of course, solar production isn’t constant. Clouds, season, sun angle, shade and electrical usage all affect the results.
But under the conditions where we typically camped, the combination worked well.
Why We Wanted to Upgrade to 200Ah
The biggest limitation wasn’t really the solar panel.
It was several cloudy days in a row.
We occasionally encountered stretches of three or four cloudy days. That’s where doubling our battery storage from 100Ah to 200Ah would have been useful.
Instead of having roughly two days of stored power available, the larger battery bank would have given us more breathing room during extended periods without good solar production.
That was the upgrade we were most interested in making.
Not necessarily an enormous solar array.
Just more stored energy.
What Our RV Solar Setup Cost
When we originally purchased the equipment, our Zamp 140-watt folding solar panel cost about $650, and our Battle Born lithium battery cost about $950.
Together, we had roughly $1,600 invested in the basic solar and battery system, including the equipment we used for monitoring.
Those were the prices we paid around 2019–2020, not current prices.
Even by the time we filmed the video, we believed comparable equipment could probably be purchased for less because the RV solar and lithium battery market was already becoming more competitive.
If you’re building a system today, shop based on current equipment, specifications, warranties and reviews rather than using our old purchase prices as a buying guide.
A Bigger Solar System Isn’t Always Better
One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned from boondocking is that you don’t necessarily need to duplicate somebody else’s system.
Some RVers have enormous solar arrays and huge battery banks.
That’s great if that’s what they need.
But every additional panel and battery costs money, takes up space and adds weight.
Our approach was different.
We wanted an affordable system that would handle our normal electrical use, and then we had a generator available for situations solar wasn’t designed to handle.
That combination worked very well for us.
What We’d Do Differently
If we were upgrading this system, the first thing we’d change would be battery capacity.
Moving from 100Ah to 200Ah would give us additional reserve power for cloudy weather without changing what we liked most about the portable solar setup.
We’d also look carefully at the newer lithium battery brands available rather than automatically buying the same brand again.
Technology changes.
Prices change.
More competition enters the market.
Something being the right purchase several years ago doesn’t automatically make it the best purchase today.
The important part is understanding why a particular setup worked.
Is a Small RV Solar Setup Enough for Boondocking?
It certainly can be.
Our experience is proof that boondocking doesn’t automatically require covering your RV roof with solar panels.
A relatively modest setup kept our battery charged and supported the way we lived in our travel trailer.
Would it work for everyone?
No.
Someone running significantly more electrical equipment would need more generating and storage capacity. Your refrigerator, furnace, lights, electronics, appliances and camping style all affect how much power you’ll use.
But if you’re just starting to plan an RV solar setup, don’t begin by asking how much solar everyone else has.
Start by asking:
How much electricity do we actually use?
Then build a system around that answer.
For us, a 140-watt portable solar panel paired with a 100Ah lithium battery turned out to be a simple, relatively affordable and extremely useful boondocking setup.
And after living with it on the road, that’s what mattered most.
We’ll see you down the road…and Over the Hills!
Continue the Journey
If you’d like thoughtful road wisdom, practical RV tips, and reflections from life on the road, join our email list.