Solar battery maintainer for storage

I have used the harbor freight 45 watt system for 6 years hooked up to my trailer when parked, it has worked great.
but if I were to want solar for the road I would go for a single panel of maybe 100 watts which would also work well when parked.

I store mine in the storage yard and have a 100w panel, morning star controller and battery disconnect. I have been doing this for years and whenever I check on it the battery is always topped off and just on maintain mode.

I have a small 2 watt maintainer mounted on the propane tanks. When I had it stored at the storage lot the battery would sometimes be dead or pretty close to it after a month of sitting. My 2 Watt maintainer puts out about 500mA which is perfect for the small parasitic load the radio and propane leak detector put on it. And for the $15 it costs it's well worth it. They do make a 5Watt one but it would not fit in the space I have.

My AF came with a 20W solar maintainer system and it seems to be doing the job fine. I could even tell it helped slightly with last weekends boondocking trip.
I would start with 20W or better yet, 100W and make sure you have the growth capacity for 200W.

Hi,

So how will you maintain the house jars?

Here are some detailed thoughts: https://freecampsites.net/adding-solar/

cencerrita wrote:

SidecarFlip wrote:
Think I'd remove the battery(s) and keep them at home with a Battery Tender on them.

Love to do that but we live in the UK!

Gonna be tough to top off the water in the batteries then. Hopefully you have AGMs.

pianotuna wrote:
Hi,

A useful system is not that much more expensive than a `just battery maintenance`. I would suggest 60 watts per 100 amp-hours of storage and the Grape controller.

Thanks for all the replies. We have a small roof solar for the house battery which I am about to fit a new controller to as it does not work due to this. 5w solar and a controller sounds the way to go for the engine battery. Hopefully then one of the systems will function whilst away Ok and be able to start the engine even if we have to use the connector switch to the house battery :)

SidecarFlip wrote:
Think I'd remove the battery(s) and keep them at home with a Battery Tender on them.

Love to do that but we live in the UK!

Hi,

A useful system is not that much more expensive than a `just battery maintenance`. I would suggest 60 watts per 100 amp-hours of storage and the Grape controller.

5 watts per battery is about right in most conditions. Still need a battery disconnect.

For the effort I recommend 80+ watts mounted on the roof and a good controller. JMHO.