Thread: What solar panel can I use to charge dual batter

Hi Richard, I guess its a balance of efficiency against convenience. Yes solar panels lose effciency as they heat up, some worse than others, but it's pretty convenient to have one mounted on the roof or throw a solar 'blanket' over the bonnet. Either way they have to be in the sun to work so will heat up. I have solar panels on the roof of my van (2 x 64w) and they crank out up to 9 amps hot or not. I would probably look at a solar blanket and rig it up to hang on the car and plug into the Anderson plug. If you have a roof rack this is easy - hook it to the rack and let it dangle, or if you have a rear wheel carrier - the same. Folding panels are handy in that you can have a long lead and park in the shade and put the panels in the sun and move them around for best exposure throught the day. From my experience with roof mounted panels - I had one for 13 years on my old 300Tdi Defender - in that time it would have regularly got hot but never let me down charging my batteries. In that car the panel was hard wired to 2 secondary batteries, Optima blue tops. My van has had panels on the roof for over 6 years now, no probs.

Marty,
Agree.
My van has some solar panels on the roof but I am looking for a bit of flexibility.
I don't always travel with my van.

The blanket ones look great as they pack up easier but are a lot more expensive

Like this one
Projecta Folding Portable Solar Panel Kits 120W Caravan Camping 4WD SPM120K | eBay

This would be ideal.

Richard

I use an 80W folding pair of panels (2 x 40 W) I bought from Jaycar for about $400 from memory. I chose Jaycar because they seem to have good quality gear and to stand behind their products, whereas I had heard some horror stories about cheap panels bought over the internet which failed to produce the claimed power when tested after being bought.
Solar panel kits come with a regulator which prevents overcharging at peak periods and battery damage. We have a 40 litre Engel in a camper trailer fridge box. The panels came with battery clips, but I changed them to an Anderson plug which is connected to a DC-DC charger which had previously been installed just to ensure the quality of the charge coming from the vehicle, but that's not essential.
We have found so far that 80 watts is adequate for our needs, but we do live in sunny Queensland, so I'm not sure if that would be true in prolonged overcast weather down south, particularly Tasmania, although there is still some charge generated even when it is cloudy. However our 100 amp battery will run the fridge on a low setting for about 3 days without any charge at all. In fine weather we can run the fridge all night and the panels have the battery recharged by mid-morning. I do carry a second battery in a box as an emergency backup, but haven't needed it since we got the solar panels.
So I hope that helps you.

Sent from my GT-P5210 using AULRO mobile app

Bought a Rydge Ryder solar blanket to charge my auxiliary fridge battery
I am waiting for the Anderson plug to arrive to hook it up

mean time I plugged it in to its regulator and put it in full sunshine .....and checked if any voltage was coming from the lead that will plug into my battery
butverything is dead ....it appears to be generating no voltage .....and no lights are on on the regulator .

question

does this only generate volts / amps when it's actually hooked up to the battery ? Or is it faulty in that no power seems to be coming out of the line that goes to the battery ?

Hi Landoman, can you post up some photos of your setup, preferably closeups of any connections.

See if we can then help you.

I've got a 190W folding solar setup. Traxide DBS with an Anderson plug at the back of the Disco. I run a 35 litre Waeco in the car. Ive run it for 3 days without dramas, just off the aux battery.

If we are towing the camper, it has an AGM battery, led lights, charging points, etc. I have a three-way Anderson adapter, so I can plug the solar into the trailer, and the car (solar panel setup is stand-alone, so it can be in the sun, whilst the car and camper are in the shade). Longest I've setup in one place was three weeks, with occasional day trips in the car. No problems, all batteries stayed charged.