Advice for Adding Solar to an Ambulance

Hello All,

I've recently purchased an ambulance and I have great plans to convert it into a camping rig. Does anyone here have any experience with adding solar to an ambulance?

For me, the ambulance aspects that make it such a great conversion prospect (already wired, shore power, powerful alternator, coach battery bank, etc.) also make it just a little bit of an extra solar mystery to me. As I have tried to learn about solar by watching hours of youtube, I recognize that my particular rig is a bit unique. If I were starting with a blank canvas, like say a cargo van, then adding solar I think would be fairly doable with my current level of understanding. But with this ambulance, I just don't know what I don't know.

It seems to me like all I would need to do is run solar to a charge controller and then to my coach battery bank and then I'd be good to go. But then again I have this sneaking suspicion that I am missing something.

Is your coach battery bank a 12v system? I'm assuming you know if it's lead-acid, AGM, or some other type of battery chemistry, right?

You've got the right idea, you basically put some solar panels on the roof, grab a solar charge controller appropriately sized (I recommend one that you can change the charge profile parameters on, should you need that functionality down the line), throw in a fuse or two, and you're good to go. Solar really isn't that complicated.

Your ambulance will have loads of wiring and circuits you either don't need or are wired up in such a way that will not suit your needs. Be prepared for a lot of head scratching and to see wires in your sleep!

Shoud check out AmbulanceRV.com also they have everything ambulance