Help with portable solar please
Many of you know my recent setup. Four Crown 6v CR235's. I know this question may be a bit vague but work with me on this. I would like to have a portable solar setup to help with the daily charging s...
Forum Discussion
Here is my take on portable as I have done both portable and fixed. Last year I purchased a 200 watt solar panel kit from Windy Nation and used the panels as portable, I hard wired the controller and plug into the trailer so all I had to do was place the panels and plug in the cable. The panels worked great but what a pain storing the panels during travel, dragging them out of the trailer and setting them up and then there is always the worry about theft.
When on the road traveling the solar panels aren't doing me any good setting in the trailer and there a little hard to deploy in a rest stop or other quick overnight location. For constant charging with a smaller watt system it just makes since to have the panels out and working the whole day instead of a couple hours at the end of the day after I stopped for the night.
This spring I mounted the 2 panels on my trailer roof before taking off on a week long trip and have to say it was nice to not have to worry about setting up solar and since the panels are fixed I didn't have to worry about adjusting them which I guess is good and bad. The 2 panels kept my battery's charged even with some heater use at night and a little TV time to keep the 3 year old grandson happy just before bed.
This is not to say portable doesn't have its place and I plan on adding a few watts of portable to deploy during hunting season when the sun is not optimal and heater use is at its peak, I also add a couple more battery's into the mix at this time to make sure I have enough battery. For this set up I am camped in the same spot for 2 weeks so set up isn't a big deal.
When on the road traveling the solar panels aren't doing me any good setting in the trailer and there a little hard to deploy in a rest stop or other quick overnight location. For constant charging with a smaller watt system it just makes since to have the panels out and working the whole day instead of a couple hours at the end of the day after I stopped for the night.
This spring I mounted the 2 panels on my trailer roof before taking off on a week long trip and have to say it was nice to not have to worry about setting up solar and since the panels are fixed I didn't have to worry about adjusting them which I guess is good and bad. The 2 panels kept my battery's charged even with some heater use at night and a little TV time to keep the 3 year old grandson happy just before bed.
This is not to say portable doesn't have its place and I plan on adding a few watts of portable to deploy during hunting season when the sun is not optimal and heater use is at its peak, I also add a couple more battery's into the mix at this time to make sure I have enough battery. For this set up I am camped in the same spot for 2 weeks so set up isn't a big deal.
