Solar Panel mounts

JPFreek1

Explorer
Have any of you ever mounted solar panels to your vehicle while on extended trips? I'm curious as to their effectiveness as a battery back-up, as well as a source of energy for accessories in a trailer (i.e. fridge, etc). If anyone has any input, let me know. Thanks!
 

etbadger

Adventurer
Howdy,

We have an array of solar panels mounted on our roof, and a couple of large deep-cycle batteries for storage. In the north-american summer this is sufficient to keep us fully charged all the time with fridge, lights, computers, satellite, radio, etc. In the winter a week of clouds or snow on the panels will force us to run the engine for the alternator output once in a while to top-up.

I have a fair bit of detail about our system at http://www.badgertrek.com/sportsmobile/electrical.html

The system is sized for our full-time use, and just a fridge, or short term usage could be run on a lot less.

-Erik
 

JPFreek1

Explorer
This is perfect! Thanks a ton for your post, I'll be spending my day at work now reading about solar panels. ;) Thanks again!

Frank
 

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