RV solar and off-grid power installation, at your site.

Florida rigs live two lives. Part of the year they're plugged in at a resort or parked at home in Ocala or The Villages; the rest, they're out where the plug isn't — state park loops with no hookups, dry camping near the springs and the coast, a friend's acreage in the horse country. That second life runs on batteries, and it's where the factory setup runs out: a couple of aging lead-acid batteries and a converter sized for a plugged-in rig. And there's a third Florida scenario the desert never worries about: the multi-day power outage after a storm, with a refrigerator full of food and a CPAP machine that isn't optional. The calls we route for off-grid work are almost never "my solar broke" — they're "we want to stop running the generator every evening," or "the batteries are dead by morning and we don't know why," or "I want the fridge and the basics covered when the power goes out."

What an off-grid upgrade actually includes

Solar is a system, not a panel. A complete upgrade usually involves most of these, sized to work together:

• Roof solar panels — the harvest. Panel count is limited by clear roof space around ACs, vents, and antennas, which is why the roof layout gets measured before anything is promised.
• A charge controller (MPPT) — the traffic cop between panels and batteries, converting panel output into proper multi-stage charging.
• An inverter or inverter-charger — turns battery power into household AC for the microwave, outlets, and TV, and replaces the old converter's charging with charging your battery bank actually wants.
• The battery bank — the storage everything else serves. A lithium (LiFePO4) conversion is the most common upgrade we see requested: more usable capacity in the same footprint, far less weight, and no watering — paired with a charger profile that matches. For rigs parked in Florida storage, a right-sized solar setup also keeps the bank maintained between trips instead of letting it sulfate in the heat.
• Monitoring and protection — a shunt-based battery monitor (so "how much do we have left?" has a real answer), correct fusing, and cabling sized for the loads.

Sizing honestly: start with loads, not panels

Any installer who quotes a system before asking what you run is guessing with your money. The sizing conversation starts with your actual loads: a residential refrigerator running around the clock, a CPAP machine all night, microwave bursts, lights, phones, a TV. Then it works backward — bank size for the overnight draw, panel wattage to refill it on a short winter day (or through a cloudy rainy-season week, when Florida solar harvest drops and the honest plan includes the generator as backup), inverter size for the biggest simultaneous load.

The honest limit: running a rooftop air conditioner off batteries is a big-system conversation — large bank, large inverter, lots of panel — and for most rigs it still buys hours, not days. A tech should tell you that plainly before quoting anything. For the classic Florida pattern — lights, fridge, devices, a quiet evening of dry camping, and storm-outage essentials — a sensibly sized system ends the nightly generator run, and that's a realistic promise.

What usually prompts the call

• Battery bank is dead by morning when dry camping, even after a full day's drive or charge
• Generator hours — park quiet hours, neighbors, and your own evenings — are the trip's limiting factor
• Storm-season outages: the fridge, lights, and a medical device covered without running the generator around the clock
• A new-to-you rig with a tired lead-acid bank, and a lithium conversion is on the table
• An existing solar setup underperforms: panels present, batteries still sagging (often a controller, wiring, or charging-profile problem, not a panel problem)
• A rig that lives in storage, whose batteries keep dying between trips

What a mobile tech can do on site

On site: a load and roof assessment, battery load testing, full system installation (panels, controller, inverter-charger, lithium conversion, monitoring), and troubleshooting of existing systems — most belt rigs sit at a home or a long-stay resort site, which is ideal working space for a job like this. Honest limits: a system is often a two-visit job (assessment and parts first, install second), roof structural problems get fixed before panels go on, and a full custom build for a large coach may be scheduled in stages.

Have this ready when you reach out

• Rig year / make / model, and whether it's a motorhome, fifth wheel, or travel trailer
• Your current setup: battery count and type, inverter if any, panels if any
• What you want to run off-grid, and for roughly how many days at a time
• Where the RV is parked — home, resort, or storage — and whether the roof is accessible there

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Get a mobile tech to look at it

Tell us what's happening and where the RV is parked, and we'll match you with one local mobile technician for your area — not a shared list of companies.

Educational note: any cost ranges mentioned on this site are typical, general information only. Your technician confirms the service-call fee and an exact quote directly with you before work begins.