Mountain Trail adopts extreme off-grid caravan technology

Albury, NSW-based Mountain Trail RV has taken the wraps off its latest 'limitless' power system that doesn’t so much allow you to travel off grid as take the grid with you.

With its first public showing in a Mountain Trail 21ft 5in family bunk van at the 2021 Sydney Supershow, the latest iteration of the Melbourne-designed OzXCorp solar-powered 48-volt system takes RV energy systems to a whole new level.

“The whole concept behind this van is that you have a huge amount of solar, a huge amount of battery capacity and a large inverter, so you never run out of power," Mountain Trail RV's Nick Edwards said.

Mountain Trail's LXV 6.5 full-width caravan normally retails from $169,950, but the cost of the state-of-the art off-grid system adds a further $28,000 to the ticket, according to Edwards.

The system has 1660 watts of 48volt glass solar panels on the roof feeding into a 14.3kW lithium battery pack and uses a 5000watt inverter.

“The battery in this is a 48-volt battery, the whole van is 48 volt, and that's why we can use glass 48-volt solar panels, rather than 12v panels," he said.

“I can run the air-conditioning in this van all day; turn it on at 9am and run it until five o’clock and when I turn it off, [the state of charge] will still be at 100 per cent. That’s with a 240-volt, roof-mounted air-con!”

Edwards says that he’s found this set-up a big improvement in capacity and efficiency over a normal 12V flexi solar panel system.

“If you have 720watts of solar on the roof, you’re really only probably going to get maybe 70 per cent of that, so maybe 500 watts for example,” he explained.

Not only does the glass panel array offer a much larger capacity, it's more efficient, claimed Edwards.

“This system will run at 90 per cent efficiency, so [from 1660watt solar panels] I will be able to get 1500watts solar, running in full sun to the battery constantly.”

The 14.3 kW battery is equivalent to 1250amps of DC 12v, he said, and the battery - which takes as much space roughly as a 90-litre water tank, and is fitted just above the axle set – weighs about 100kg.

The battery is water proof and has a fire extinguisher built into it.

“It looks like a bunch of iPads lined up in a row."

There's also an external 15amp power socket "so if any other van runs out we can charge off this van!"

He admitted the solar panels and battery do add extra weight over a more conventional system.

“The roof panels are about 80kg more in total [than 12volt flexi panels] and as a lithium battery is about 45kg (this one is 100kg) you have about 130kg more in weight in total.

"The 5000watt inverter can charge on AC power, and this will charge on solar in full sun at 22amps per hour at 48v (so at 90amps DC per hour).

“I’ve never seen this van below 90 per cent battery capacity," he said.

Reducers are required to run the 12volt lights and other electrical equipment like the fridge.

“The solar and battery run 48volts, the inverter from 48v to 240v, then that’s converted to 12volt, for fridge and lights for example," he explained.

The system which also incorporates CZone digital switching controllable from an iPad, is quite clever, allowing for modifications or changes though the software it uses.

“You can do software updates as well. You couldn’t turn off the inverter at first, you could hear it at night, then we organised a control to turn off the inverter at night,” he explained.

Edwards said that this is the third Mountain Trail van to be fitted with the state-of-the-art RV power system.

“We built the first for a customer, he wanted the highest capacity system he could get. He’s had his van for nine months now, with no problems.”

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