Portable solar

Almot wrote:

mbopp wrote:

Won't work for me, the sites we like when dry camping are shaded.

Then portable solar could be difficult to use as well. Permanent roof array will work all the time, as long as there is any direct or diffused sunlight, including time on the road.

Places with plenty of shade and not enough sunny days are not optimal for solar, or require a lot of panel wattage.

The plan is two 100W panels in series, 50-100' of 12ga cable, and a MPPT controller near the batteries. Calculated IR loss should be acceptable. This would get me to the sunny spots.

kerrlakeRoo wrote:
There is a 200 watt suitcase kit from Renogy. One of the members here did a you tube video on, and he seems happy with it.
You tube search for
Grand adventure
It's his episode 16

Thanks kerrlakeRoo! Sorry that it took me a couple of days to notice this thread. Here's that vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfSxxf28q6M

Yes, this is a 200W suitcase comprised of two 100W monocrystalline panels, and we've been very happy with it. You'll see that we don't have a large TT, yet this suitcase still stows easily inside my basement storage via the small exterior door. Setting it up and taking it down takes no more than about 3 minutes. It's heavy enough (35-40 lb) that I've never had an issue with it blowing over, even in the desert southwest. We're not careful on energy consumption (I admittedly watch a lot of news) but it has no trouble keeping our 220 Ah battery bank topped off for days on end. I wish it had an MPPT charge controller instead of PWM, but I have yet to see a suitcase model that comes with MPPT. You'd have to build that, or swap it out.

And unlike a rooftop setup, I don't get the benefit of solar charging while driving, but I also didn't need to cut any holes or fish any wires. (I did drill two holes to run 1/0 AWG wire from the batteries to the invereter as is shown in the video, but that has nothing to do with the solar.)

For whatever it is worth, we park the trailer in the shade and move our portable solar into the sun. This has worked fine for us, for a couple of years now. I did add an extra long and extra heavy gauge cable so we could move the panel far from the trailer without a bad voltage drop.

mbopp wrote:

Won't work for me, the sites we like when dry camping are shaded.

Then portable solar could be difficult to use as well. Permanent roof array will work all the time, as long as there is any direct or diffused sunlight, including time on the road.

Places with plenty of shade and not enough sunny days are not optimal for solar, or require a lot of panel wattage.

Almot wrote:

Blazing Zippers wrote:

Folded, the panels would remain in the truck bed and could be removed for use whenever. I do have a Honda 2000i, which works just fine, but am looking for a quiet option.

The quietest option - big solar on the roof. Mount and forget.

But, if you need something to get you occupied - both in winter while making the hinged portable and on the camp while using it - this is a valid reason too.

Won't work for me, the sites we like when dry camping are shaded.

pianotuna wrote:
And somewhat fragile if they blow over in a wind.

It makes pretty loud sound when falls face down. No kidding.

Blazing Zippers wrote:

Folded, the panels would remain in the truck bed and could be removed for use whenever. I do have a Honda 2000i, which works just fine, but am looking for a quiet option.

The quietest option - big solar on the roof. Mount and forget.

But, if you need something to get you occupied - both in winter while making the hinged portable and on the camp while using it - this is a valid reason too.

The Renogy suitcase panels on Ebay are already hinged, have a stand, and also a carry case. I don't know if I can mess around & make a folding setup out of stand-alone panels that would be as nice. The current plan is 2-100W panels and a MPPT controller mounted in the pass-through.

Blazing, the only problem is cushioning the panels if they are in the bed of the truck. When we are on the road, I put my 120 watt "suitcase" flat on the couch in my trailer -- sofa, so good! ;)

mboop, that's kind of what I was thinking about. 2 100 watt panels, hinged, that I could put in the back of the truck when traveling - a wire (or cable) to the existing Zamp plug, then to a controller, then to the batteries.
Folded, the panels would remain in the truck bed and could be removed for use whenever. I do have a Honda 2000i, which works just fine, but am looking for a quiet option.
I'll keep looking into this, and if I build one, I'll try to post pix.