RV Solar and Lithium: Our Extreme 48 Volt System

The Next Step in Building Our Dream RV!

Next up in our tour series on our new 2021 Newmar New Aire, we're giving you a full tour and behind the scenes of building our custom 48 volt solar and lithium battery system! This is an extreme RV solar and lithium system that allows us to run both of our roof air conditioners for more than 30 hours off of our batteries! And that's just the beginning!

In this video, we walk you through highlights of the install and share why we chose this particular 48 volt system for our new full time RV home. We'll also discuss why we chose Master Tech RV in Elkhart, Indiana to complete the project and how it all turned out.

UPDATE:

This episode was recorded in 2021. As of 2024, we've heard that Master Tech is undergoing changes to their business and location. While we had a fantastic experience in 2021 and 2023, we caution our audience in regards to doing business with Master Tech until they have worked through their challenges.

Watch The Video About Our HUGE 48 Volt Solar and Lithium Battery Setup:

Video: RV Solar and Lithium: Our Extreme 48 Volt System

Our Solar/Lithium System Numbers:

With this setup we have 2,280 watts of solar panels on our roof and 600 amp hours of 48 volt Lithionics lithium batteries in the basement. (That's equivalent to 2,400 amp hours of lithium batteries at 12 volt!

Importantly, we had our RV weighed with a 4-corner weigh after this system was installed and our New Aire is still almost 2,000 pounds UNDER our gross vehicle weight rating. And yes, this was fully loaded.

See Our Full New Aire Tour:

This is the 3rd in our series of videos giving you the details of building our dream RV. If you missed the first 2 videos in the series, you can watch them here:

Episode 1: Inside Tour Of Our Newmar New Aire 3343

Episode 2: Exterior Tour Of Our Newmar New Aire 3343

Mentioned In this Video:

Our Padre Island Video

If you'd like more details about our RV's extreme solar and lithium build, check out our podcast episodes with:

Tim and Austin Klenk, Owners of Master Tech RV

Jason Mabie, Our Lead Tech and The Headlight Guy

Thanks to Austin Klenk at Master Tech RV for filming the drone footage.

We Also Recently Changed Our Toad!

While we were in the midst of completing this install at Master Tech in Elkhart, Indiana, we had to replace our 1999 Jeep Wrangler. Next Up: we'll share our new tow vehicle (a 2021 Jeep Gladiator), why we chose it, challenges we faced and how we got it set up to pull behind our motorhome.