Solar Mounted On Truck Cap?

Don't have an answer but I now wish I'd taken a picture of this mini van in a campground I was at - the guy had solar panels duc-taped to the hood and roof.

I picked up a flexible 50 watt Renogy panel that I plan on securing on my roof rack while driving to add a little boost to my TV charge and then using with my other solar when I set up camp. I am using Goal Zero cables and charger, so I picked up a 30‘ GZ extension cord. I will post photos when I take off in September.

I used the 80 watt solar panel with a 100 ah battery last winter while boondocking some.  I ran out of power during one rainy, absolutely no sunshine weekend with very little solar gain. 

The other time I ran out of battery power was when I blew the fuse on the solar panel, somehow.  I was in a hurry and didn't troubleshoot well, so I just unplugged every thing from the battery for the night.  I found the blown fuse first thing in the am, only lost 2 degrees overnight on the ARB and as soon as I replaced the fuse, the solar panel started charging the battery. 

This winter, I will have 200 watts of solar panels with 264 ah of batteries.  Even with the phantom battery draws, I do believe I will be fine with power.  I can be very frugal in my battery usage, and have no problem pulling fuses for the TV, sound system and the fridge if I run low on power.

120 watts of solar power is the recommended amount for a T@B, by the way.

And, one thing you do need to remember is that you should never run your battery under 50%, but that is not 6 volts......it is 12.06 volts. 

RZRBUG said:

I've been thinking about the pros and cons of this setup and it occurred to me that I would be limited to keeping the truck in camp.  If I decided to do any motoring around the area, I'd be taking the panels with me, right?  So there would be no charging while I was gone.  Just another thing to consider.

I have a 10W GZ maintainer, but that is the only experience I have with solar.  I also have no experience with boondocking (unless you count one night in a Walmart parking lot), but I'm thinking more and more about doing so and will need a power source.

Larry, yes, that's the con of a vehicle mount solar set up, that's why my main set-up will not be mounted to my Jeep. This set up should allow for quick and easy access to install and remove, utilizing the grommet and some reusable ties. In addition to the TV boost, I am thinking it will at least provide a little bit lf a charge if I stop somewhere or before or after I am done driving for the day, if there is light, when I am just overnight parking while traveling. The panel also easily hangs via suction cups to the T@b to augment my existing 120w solar set-up, bringing the total to 170w.

I will let you know what I think after my bigger trip at the end lf September since this is mostly untested theory right now.

RZRBUG said:

...

My question is what is the maximum length of cord I can use with solar panels?

Direct Current (DC) like comes out from solar and batteries does not do distance well and is why AC (Alternating Current) is what's prevalent for distances - think transmission lines from power stations to substations to homes. 

Anyway as as to what's the max distance depends on the voltage (think of it as a measure of strength to propel the current through the wires) and the conductive quality of the wires, quality of your power source (your panels and quality of light hitting them to generate power), etc. and will depend for your installation. The best way to determine is you could get a multimeter and measure the output voltage using the standard length to confirm how much your panels are generating from the sun and more importantly the current (measured in series to your battery). Then add an extension to see how much loss there is at the end of the extension (compare the current with and without). This will give you an idea of how much power your extension is robbing from your set up. 

Remember, Power = Voltage * Current and when you take your two measurements it'll give you an idea of how much of your rated panel's power is actually delivered. 

I recently returned from 9 days of camping in partial to full shade.  Some days involved driving, but half did not.  In each case, my batteries were fully charged before noon.  I don't worry about getting the panels in the sun despite pretty liberal use of battery power.  I had the low-amp Fantastic Fan running 24/7 along with two refrigerators ( Norcold in the trailer and ARB in the tow vehicle).  

Yes, you certainly could install the panels on the top of your truck.  The only concern I'd have is that if you go off for the day with your truck to hike, bike, sightsee, etc, then the solar panels won't be with your trailer to do their job.  I wouldn't want to feel tied to the campsite.  

I actually keep two mounted on the T@B permanently and have an additional one that can be plugged in if I feel I want additional capacity (and this one can be located wherever I want, including on the T@B). RZBUG, I did get a great deal on them (less than $200 spent on 200 watts worth).  

I try to not proseletize about mounting on the T@B (the opinions seem strong on both sides of the debate).  As I've said before, I never deal with them, they are just always there.  When the T@B is parked, they're keeping the batteries charged.

While the angle of the permanent panels isn't perfect, it's not a bad approximation.  I just try to generally orient the T@B to to where the sun is and they function fairly well.

Since unisolar's 68's are back up to $200 per panel, I'm not sure whether I would go that route at this point.  There are some other flexible panels out there (look like they're about 175-200 for 100w).   

I think lisa has a similar system to mine and her experience sounds like mine as well.  Since I moved the batteries inside, the distances of the charger, are minor.  I used 00 gauge wire to hook up components of the system to minimize resistance and kept the distances as short as I could.  

If you use the truck during the day, it will limit the value of the panels -- unless you don't plan on using the vehicle.  If I didn't install permanently, I would not have gone to the vehicle.  I love leaving in the morning and returning to a full battery set after a long day of going places....

On the panels, keep an eye on ebay... I've seen some better deals than are there today.  I think I've seen other flexibles at about $150 for 100 watt panels.  

Since you're thinking about it for a while, just keep your eyes open for deals, particularly on EBAY.    
   

Verna said:

Larry, I've thought about putting two 100 watt solar panels on my kayak rack on my truck shell. 

As far as how long of a cable, I know the Zamp 80 watt solar panel I have has about a 20' cable on it.  I'm still waiting for my Zamp 200 watt solar panels to come off of backorder, so I don't know how long its cable is.

They recommend about 30 feet total...