Hello from California

[ruggo5]

Hi there,
My name is Jeannette. We just bought a 2003 Sunline Solaris and love it. We took it out for the first time this weekend. This is a cool site. I'm glad I came across it!

Is there a manual that helps to explain how the battery, pilot lights, propane work, etc? We are trying to figure out how to run things inside once our generator is off while dry camping. Can we still plug things in overnight??
Best,
Jeannette

[JohnB]

Welcome Jeanette and congrats on your new Sunny!

We have copies of the owners manuals here on our site, when you are logged into the site, you can download a copy for free from our files section.

In case you have not yet found our FILES section, there is a lot of great resource info in there. Including most all of the sale brochures from way back when, owners manuals, appliance manuals and other good stuff.

The sales brochure has a lot of good info on your model camper that is hard to come by in one organized spot. Just scroll to your year and download a copy. Same for the owners manuals.

To get to the FILES section, you have to be logged in. Look up top along the forum for the words "FILES". That is a tab, click it. Then select the area you want to go to can read on for hours, days, maybe even weeks...



A heads up, RV camper owners manuals are not like an automobile owners manual that gives exact instructions on most everything in your auto. The camper owners manual talks more in general and things to help you along the way. For the actual appliances, there are owners manuals with very details info on them from the manufacturer of the appliance. We have many of those in the files section too. If your model is not there, give us the make and model no. on the appliance and we can help search for it too, then add it to our files section for future help to others.

You are also welcome to ask any and all questions about your camper. Just create a post in the appropriate forums and ask away. We have many areas already answered in old post, but we have no problem with asking questions you need help on.

Hope this helps

John

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by ruggo5

Hi there,
Is there a manual that helps to explain how the battery, pilot lights, propane work, etc? We are trying to figure out how to run things inside once our generator is off while dry camping. Can we still plug things in overnight??

Our FILES area has the manufactures manuals for most appliances in the camper. See them for detailed info.

Your 2003 camper has electronic ignition for the LP gas for the furnace, water heater and the fridge, so there are no pilot lights there.

The range does have a oven pilot light that you have to light using, ideally a grill type lighter. The stove top burners may have a manual knob you rotate that creates a spark to start the burner. Or you can use a grill lighter on them too. Some of the higher optioned stoves have an electric ignition to create a spark for the burners. Sunline installed both pending camper model.

Your camper is setup from Sunline to operate most things on either LP gas or 12 volt DC from the battery out by the propane tanks. The roof AC unit and the micro wave has to be plugged into shore to use them as they are 120 volt AC.

The fridge and the water heater have a LP gas option that will run them if there is no 120 VAC. The fridge will auto detect no 120 AC power and switch to LP gas if the fridge is turned on and an LP tank is open. The fridge can also be manually run on LP gas by selecting it.

The water heater you manually select to run on LP gas or electric. The lights are all 12 VDC and so is the fresh water pump.

While the fridge and water heater both can run on LP gas, they still need the 12 volts DC from the battery to operate the controls. Same goes for the furnace, the 12 volts DC runs the blower and controls but the gas burner creates the heat.

If you are considering boondocking (off grid) in your Sunny, and many of us do, consider changing the incandescent light bulbs to LED's if you have not already. You can run 3 to 4 LED lights for the same power consumption as 1, older 921 incandescent bulb.

You asked about, "Can we still plug things in overnight?" Not sure which things you are talking about. When on battery power only, there is no power to the 120 VAC wall outlets, so things like phone chargers, or laptops cannot charge from the wall outlets the way the camper was originally configured. You have to be plugged into shore power or a generator to power up the wall outlets. There is one 12 volt DC plug near the TV antenna power booster. It looks like a cigarette lighter outlet like in your car. If you have a cell phone charger etc. that works on 12 VDC, you can plug in that any time. Just remember, the power comes from the main camper battery, and pending what you are plugging in, it can drain the camper battery if you are not on shore power. A phone charge is not that much, but trying to run many 12 VDC items a long time does add up, like a large 12 volt DC fan running all night long.

Hope this helps get you started. Have fun in your Sunny!

John