If you go look at campers there almost always is a sticker on the camper or the dealer will tell you it is “Solar Ready”.

Wow!  Sounds cool.  Let’s delve into what that means.  In the case of my camper, a Rockwood A122 pop up A Frame camper it means there is a 2 pin connector, SAE style located on the frame.

Zamp SAE style Solar Connector

The top pin (male) is wired to the battery and the bottom pin is wired to the frame (ground).  Note that the sticker says to only hook it up to a ZAMP Solar Charging System.  Okay.  If you look at the ZAMP systems they are basically a suitcase solar panel with a charge controller on them.  They want like $700 for them.  It’s crazy.

If you go to Amazon you can get a 100 watt Renogy Solar Suitcase with a waterproof charge controller for about $240.  That’s a no brainer.  What’s the catch?

The catch is that ZAMP connectors have reversed polarity.  The good news is that all you have to do is to reverse the polarity back.  What you need to do first is test the polarity on the trailer to determine which pin is positive and which pin is negative.   You can also do that by crawling up underneath the camper frame and tracing the wires. My video below shows how to test it with a meter:

The iGreely cable and reverse polarity adapter can be gotten from Amazon here.  It’s all you need but you might want to get some extension cables so you can drag the solar panels a little further away from the camper to chase the sun.

Installation of Reverse Polarity Adapter

I wish I could go on and on about this but that’s basically it.  Connect the adapter cable to your solar panel.  Put the reverse polarity adapter on, and plug it into the port located on the camper frame.   You are now charging your battery.

Renogy Solar Suitcase hooked to iGreely Adapter and Reverse Polarity Adapter