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In our first travel trailer camper, it fit easily into the back under-bed storage compartment. We could run extension cords to power fans and charge our devices. It was great and made the trips much more enjoyable. Trying to sleep in a camper when it's 80+ degrees (F) outside with 7 people and 3 dogs and windows closed because you're parked near trucks does not make for a good night of rest before a long day of driving. The AC200MAX helped make the camper a lot more comfortable on those types of night!
In the new travel trailer camper, it goes in the front storage compartment which also makes it easy to plug the roof-top solar panels into it for on-the-road charging (more on this below).
When we bought it, we didn't have solar charging capabilities so we just plugged it into a wall outlet when we had the ability. Because we weren't boondocking longer than overnight between destinations, we only needed it to last a night. Since then, we have boondocked for a few nights. See the Camping/Glamping page for details on how we have used the AC200MAX in our travels.
For our 2025 trip, I installed 3 BougeRV N-Type 24V 200 Watt Bifacial 16BB Solar Panels on the roof and wired them in series. The AC200MAX can take 12-145 volts DC up to 15 amps of solar input.
At the same time, I also purchased the BLUETTI D050S DC Charging Enhancer which is a DC to AC converter that allows DC input (like from solar) to go into the AC charging port. This allows up to 500 Watts charging in addition to the up to 1,200 watts solar charging on the built-in solar charging port.
With this setup on our camper, I had the BougeRV [up to] 600W of roof-top solar going into the AC200MAX's DC charging input AND I had the Renogy [up to] 400W portable solar suitcase plugged into the DC Charging Enhancer getting us up to 1,000W or solar charging.
This setup got us, on paper, 8.3kWh of battery (3 B300k batteries at 2764.8Wh each, the AC500 does not have a built-in battery). Assume 80% efficiency, which is a little low I think, and you get about 6.6kWh of usable battery backup.
At the same time, we purchased the 3 BougeRV solar panels, pictured below and mentioned above in "Step 2" and mounted them on adjustable-angle ground mounts in the backyard. We also wired it so we could setup and plug in the Renogy Solar Suitcase also mentioned in "Step 2" above. This allows up to 1000W of solar charging for the home battery backup system. It's not enough to go off-grid but it's something!
This setup got us, on paper, 11.1kWh of battery (3 B300k batteries at 2764.8Wh each plus the Apex 300 has a built-in battery at 2764.8Wh). Assume 80% efficiency, which is a little low I think, and you get about 8.8kWh of usable battery backup. By trading in the AC500, I got essentially one additonal battery plus the inverter plus 240V split-phase, so it was a perfect upgrade ... with some caveats, but it works perfectly in my application!
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