Solar Setup Advice

Vince1

Adventurer
60W of flexible panel and a Batteryminder charge controller works fine for me at keeping my dual battery set up charged up and healthy. I am careful about usage, but have a fridge, water pump, and lights hooked up. I've been out as long as a week without running out of power. The panel is attached to the lid of my trailer via a piece of thin plywood mounted to a flat panel TV mount. It lies flat while driving, but can swivel directly at the sun when I'm camped. I have rubber stoppers over the mount bolts, so I can invert the panel and protect it when driving on gravel trails. So far it has worked out well.
 

Michael

Adventurer
I use an 85W panel on my Tacoma. It's stored under the roof of my shell and then set up on a pole arrangement from my front Aluminess bumper. It will produce up to 5a @14.4VDC, as determined by the controller (Vm is about 21VDC). Here is a link to a unit very similar to what I have. I've used it on the trail and it works great to support my Engel fridge and ham radio power loads during the day with enough left over to pull up my 75AH aux battery for use during the night. When I park my truck in the shade, I use an extension cable and prop the panel up out in the direct sunlight.

By the way, the best way to keep your aux battery in good shape is to give it a deep charge with a 'smart charger' when you get home from every trip.
 

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zidaro

Explorer
Heres a link to my slide-in camper and has all the solar setup i installed on it. Sounds like the scenario you are talking about.
It completely recharges itself every day by midday on sunny days and is fully charged by sunset on a cloudy day. We run basic lighting, h2o pump, heater fan, stereo(IPOD boombox), and a 24hr. ARB fridge. Have never run out of power, not even close. No technical info here for ya, it just works and has been beat on across Death Valley, 300miles of N. Grand Canyon 4wheeling, a wicked winter in the Sierras.
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/43407-NorthstarTC650-n-Tundra
 

simagic

New member
solar panels

you might be interested in my ad on this site.

SOLAR PANELS 100 WATT. Two available

I have(2) two 100 watt solartech brand solar panels for sale that I cant fit where I intended for them to go. I have my three others installed but can't get the other two to go where I wanted them to go. Here is the link to where I purchased them from....

http://www.solartechpower.com/www/spm100p-n.html.

The specs are slightly different than the specs currently on their website and the physical size that I have is no longer available from them so the physical size is different as well.
First ...The physical size is 34.4 inches by 26.3 inches by 1.38 inches
The panel specs are ....
(for panel 1) / (for panel 2)
Watts 100 / 100
Vpm 18.6 / 17.0
Ipm 5.38 / 5.88
Voc 22.8 / 21.0
Isc 5.76 / 7.02
These panels cost me $350.00 each for a total of $700 (with shipping)( I have the receipt to show you). You can call the company and get a quote yourself for their current size 100watt panels. I bought these because they were a bit smaller, therefore taking up less room but as i said before, this size is not available from them anymore.
I paid $700 and I'm asking $500.. (or closest offer)... That's a pretty good savings to you and a pretty lousy loss for me just for my miscalculations.
You can come see how they function. I have a Digital multimeter to show you the specs. If you have any questions feel free to contact me. Kinda looking for you to pick them up as shipping becomes expensive. I live in Philadelphia PA email magicdennis@comcast.net
 
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