IowaNomads said:
I appreciate the replies. We want to be able to dry camp as often as possible to save money as we are on a limited pension. I have done more research on these and I agree that we'd spend more time charging the battery than using it. We have a motorhome that has a generator. We're now hoping we can find a good deal in Arizona at the RV show in January.
Be very cautious about installers working out of a truck. They may or may not do a "quality" install. Even though, some people may have good things to say about them, that is not always a good indicator of quality work. Most people don't know just what they are getting when they buy a solar system. Much more info in "Handybobsolar" link below as well as Jack Mayer's link below.
You MUST educate yourself about what constitutes a "quality" system.
I don't know what your background is, but for some excellent educational information about RV electric systems, batteries and solar start here:
http://www.marxrv.com/12volt/12volt.htm
http://www.marxrv.com/12volt/12volta.htm
Once you understand the info in the above two links read and understand the info in these two links (which were given earlier in another reply):
http://www.jackdanmayer.com/rv_electrical_and_solar.htm
https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/
Once you understand the info in the above links, you will be ready to talk with installers and insist on quality components.
It is possible to go for weeks at a time w/o running a generator with a properly sized solar system. Or at the worse you run your generator for an hour, first thing in the morning, to pump in a big part of your charging and then the solar takes over and brings your batteries to 100% or close to that.
Here is a well sized system with high quality components with links to a place to buy them. This is not the only place to buy the components. Some are available on Amazon. Not inexpensive, but designed for long term use.
-- Two 340 watt solar panels like this for a total of $634:
https://www.solar-electric.com/solarworld-sunmodule-xl-340w-mono-panel.html Shipping is not cheap, but the last time I checked you can pick the panels up at their warehouse in AZ, NW of Phoenix.
-- 60 amp Morningstar Tristar Solar controller for $600:
https://www.solar-electric.com/motr60ampmps.html
-- 2000 watt pure sine wave (PSW) inverter from Magnum: $1735:
https://www.solar-electric.com/maenms2020wa.html
-- 4, or better yet 6, golf cart batteries from Costco or Sam's Club at about $80 each.
? Trimetric battery monitor, about $160:
https://www.solar-electric.com/bogart-engineering-tm-2030-rv-battery-monitor.html
Total of $3600 for the components above, plus $400-$500 cables circuit breakers, etc. Adding labor, probably brings this to around $5000. I'm sure a lot more than you have in mind.