Everything in this article comes from one source video — All About RV's RV Solar Simplified! Simple RV Solar Setup., watched more than 750,000 times. All About RV's (Jared) is one of the longest-running RV channels on YouTube, and this video walks through a real install on a real rig: four 100W panels on the roof, an MPPT charge controller with Bluetooth, two Battle Born lithium batteries, and the fuses and breakers in between. Its whole point is that solar is conceptually simple — panels, controller, batteries, protection — and that the hard part is mostly running wires. If you would rather watch the install before reading the breakdown, the video is right here:
The video opens with the idea that hooks most viewers: an RV sitting in the sun, pulling power from it, with no generator and no shore power. Then Jared simplifies the whole field — mono vs poly, flexible vs rigid, MPPT vs PWM — into one sentence: solar is just another way to charge your batteries. Everything else is detail. It is the same framing our engineers use when we help customers size RV lithium batteries: start with the batteries, then size the charging around them.
That framing cuts through the jargon. Your RV already has a battery charger (the converter when plugged into shore power) and an alternator when driving. Solar is a third charging source, and it works the same way: energy comes in, the battery stores it, and your DC and AC loads draw from the battery. The only special feature is that the energy source is the sun — free, silent and available wherever you park in daylight.
Keeping that mental model is why the video works for beginners: you are not installing a power plant, you are installing a charger. Once you accept that, the component list and the wiring order both become obvious.
Every RV solar setup, simple or elaborate, has the same four parts:
Solar panels on the roof collect sunlight. A charge controller takes the panel output and regulates it into a proper charge profile for your battery chemistry — an MPPT controller is the efficient choice today, while PWM is the older, cheaper and less efficient option. Batteries store the energy. And fuses or breakers protect the wires and equipment on both sides of the charge controller — one between panels and controller, one between controller and battery. That is the entire concept; the rest of the video is about installing it neatly and safely.
The install in the video uses a complete kit that cost just under $900: four 100W panels mounted on the roof, the wiring, the mounting hardware, and an MPPT charge controller with Bluetooth so you can log in from your phone and watch what the panels are producing and what is flowing into the batteries. On the battery side, the rig runs two Battle Born lithium batteries — an average-sized bank for an RV install.
Two takeaways for buyers. First, $900 for a 400W panel-to-battery kit is a realistic price point for this class — the controller alone was about $165 in the video. Second, the Bluetooth controller is not a luxury: being able to see production and charging in real time is how you learn what your system is doing, and the video calls it a must-have. When you are choosing batteries and controllers, budget for visibility — it pays for itself in informed decisions.
The video shows the real-world output of the 400W roof array: on a nice sunny day, without tilting the panels, the system pulls about 20-24 amps, or roughly 280-340 watts. That is the honest number for a flat-mounted roof array — 70-85% of the 400W nameplate, which is normal because panels on a roof rarely face the sun dead-on.
The same rig also has two spare 100W panels that can be pulled out and tilted toward the sun when the rig is parked in shade — plugging them into the same system lets the array keep producing even in a shaded campsite. The growth lesson: buy a controller and wire that can handle more than today's panels, and future expansion is just more panels and more sun.
The video spends real time on the part most first-timers fear: putting holes in the roof. The method shown is simple — bolt the mounting brackets to the panels, lay them out on the roof, mark each screw hole, and run a bead of Dicor (self-leveling lap sealant) under each bracket before driving the screw, so the screw pulls the sealant down against the roof membrane. The kit's rubber washers are, in Jared's words, not something he trusts — the sealant is what makes it watertight.
The point for DIY installers: leaks come from penetrations installed without sealant, not from solar panels. If you cover every bracket and every screw hole with self-leveling sealant and re-inspect the seams once a year, a roof install is safe. It is the same discipline our engineers apply when mounting wall-mounted storage — seal every penetration, check everything tight.
Jared is honest about the one hard part: getting the wires from the roof down to the charge controller in a storage bay or basement. In the video, the rig had an old solar setup, so the new wiring joined the existing wires in a junction box using a waterproof MC4 connector, and the gauge was already thick enough for the new array. For a first install, you plan your own path: a cable entry box on the roof, a clean route through a cabinet or vent chase, and wire sized for the future array, not just today's.
The video's specific advice is worth repeating: size the wire for the system you plan to have, not the one you have today, because you do not want to run roof-to-bay cable twice. Wire is cheap; the labor of fishing it through an RV is not.
The single most important safety rule in the video is the wiring order:
First, connect the charge controller to the batteries — positive side through a fuse, negative to the battery (or through the battery monitor's shunt if you have one). Once the controller sees the battery, it powers on and shows its display. Then connect the solar panels to the controller and flip the panel-side breaker. Never connect panels to a controller that has no battery attached — a controller with panel input but no battery can be damaged or behave unpredictably.
The video also shows a panel-side breaker that doubles as a disconnect: one button press kills the solar input completely, which is the safe way to work on the system. That combination — battery-side fuse, panel-side breaker, and battery-first wiring — is the complete protection picture, and it is the same sequence we document in our RV lithium guides.
For anyone starting small with plans to grow, the video gives three forward-looking choices:
First, buy an MPPT controller rated 40-50A that supports multiple battery chemistries — lead-acid today, lithium tomorrow — so you are not stuck with a 15A controller when you upgrade. Second, oversize the roof-to-bay wiring now. Third, pick a battery chemistry you can grow into; the video's rig uses lithium, and the controller handles lead-acid, AGM and lithium profiles alike. All three choices cost little today and avoid a full re-install later — the same reason we recommend sizing LiFePO4 batteries for your planned usage rather than your current one.
The video's summary is the best takeaway: solar is an amazing way to put power into your batteries without running a generator or plugging in. Conceptually it is four components — panels, charge controller, batteries, and fuses — wired in a specific order: battery to controller first, panels second. The hardest part of the install is running wires, and the smartest part of the plan is sizing the controller and wire for the system you will have in two years.
If that sounds like your rig, the practical next step is to decide your daily power budget — what you actually run overnight — and size the battery first, then the array. A 400W roof array like the one in the video covers lights, fans, a fridge and device charging for most RVs; larger rigs with air conditioning or heavy inverter loads step up to 800-1,200W and bigger battery banks. Our engineers build RV drop-in lithium batteries in the sizes that match both paths, and we are happy to help you match voltage, capacity and footprint to your rig.
Dajiu Energy is a Chinese manufacturer building LiFePO4 batteries for RVs, homes, golf carts and portable applications since 2017. Our product range covers LiFePO4 drop-in replacement batteries, EV and golf cart batteries, wall-mounted home storage, portable power stations, commercial energy storage and battery swap cabinets — explore the full lineup in our product center, or browse more buying guides. Tell us your voltage, capacity and size, and we'll engineer the pack to hit it.
Source video: All About RV's — "RV Solar Simplified! Simple RV Solar Setup." (youtube.com/watch?v=KCQ0R85vKoM). Comment excerpts are quoted verbatim from the video's top comments; answers are Dajiu Energy's own. Install details, kit contents and measured output are transcribed from the video as of filming and may vary by kit and location.
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