On 12/6/2018 at 11:04 PM, noteven said:

Thanks for sharing your setup Loki - I can be camped in “short days” and “cloudy” days and shaded by those annoying trees and buildings sometimes so I have a question: is it feasible to use a transformer to connect the vehicle alternator for charging the lithium bank? I understand from my learning that Li batteries are not fussy about reaching a full state of charge etc. 

I think it's feasible, but not easy. If your vehicle runs on 12V, like all except trucks, you would have to pick up the AC generated by the alternator, run it through a transformer and a rectifier that produces about 24.5 - 25 V. Lithium batteries will be affected in their lifetime performance when permanently connected to a power source much above their nominal voltage. Also, I think, you would have to have some kind of currency limiter to your charging setup, because the lithium battery, once discharged over night or so, will try to draw more amps than your alternator may be ready to deliver, meaning that the electrical system of your vehicle may be malfunctioning. 

  On 12/8/2018 at 12:11 AM, rm.w/aview said:

Question: If you chose to do without air conditioning on this maiden voyage, would your power supply be enough for you? 

More than enough, including fridge, water heater, and the occasional bursts of microwave, toaster, and hair dryer

@Sushidog: Sorry for the late response! Here is the Ebay link to the guy I bought the Tesla modules from:  https://www.ebay.com/usr/k-ash . I don't have his real email address, although I drove to his place in NC to pick up the two modules. He seems to be very knowledgeable about the stuff and I would buy from him again if I needed. 

Yes you are right, the whole setup is quite an investment, but I got my Arctic Fox for about $7k cheaper than the next lowest price on the internet, and that's what I invested, give or take. Of course, not counting the many hours I invested in manual and intellectual labor!???.

One remark on the discussion about how to charge the 12V battery bank: I know, of course, that charging them from the 24V Lithium battery through the inverter and the house converter/charger is more inefficient than from solar direct, but heck, the solar is plentiful and for free! One of my main targets was to keep the 12V system completely untouched and use the  24V system for producing 120V AC only. That's the cleanest and easiest setup I can think of, and easiest to service in case of electrical malfunctions that will happen sooner or later.

Your controller at 200vdc input should handle your panels in series.

sounds good, but for the cost i can buy years of gasoline, and when it comes to electric things, i tend to let out the magic smoke way too soon.