Open Bed: Storing/Mounting solar components?

[oguruma]

I'd like to add solar to my truck. I'll probably start out with a single lithium battery, which I can hopefully fit under the hood.

In the bed, I'd like to store an inverter, (possibly) the BCDC charger, and maybe an additional battery if I add one.

The bed doesn't have a camper shell, so I'm looking for a good way to store all of that, while taking up as little space as possible. Whatever I use, I'll probably drill it to add outdoor covered recepticles.

 

[cruxarche]

Depending on the size of your system you may prefer a portable solution that you can just mount and plug in. I have A 50Ah battery with SCC and DC/DC charger all in a tool box. I just plug it into a 6awg cable running from my starter to my rear cargo space. The box is essentially weatherproof.p

 

[TwinStick]

In this day and age, just make sure everything is secured good. Out of sight out of mind. People love to take what's not theirs.

As far as the solar panel/s, if you have a bed rack, you could mount it on top of that. And unless someone is really tall, or looking down on it, no one will even know it's there. But even still, security screws are your friends.

I don't have solar yet but do have my own home made aux battery/s, inverter, charger system. I used Blue Sea Marine Products & am very happy with them and my setup. I used a HF 2000/4000 watt pure sine wave inverter. It does everything I need it to do. I can run the ARB fridge/freezer/s from the truck battery or from the aux battery or both. I can charge aux battery from inverter & silmotainiously run fridge from truck battery while driving down the road. I can also run the inverter off aux battery or truck battery or both if it is a big load. We have a 700w microwave oven we take when tent camping & it starts & runs it just fine. I have it all mounted on a piece of 3/4" plywood, which is bolted vertically to the driver's side of the Cargo Glide bed slide. So it takes up almost zero bed space.

 

[Trestle]

Please don't mount your lithium battery under the hood if you want it to last. Heat being the main issue there.

Also if you think you will be using the power system in really cold temps, and the battery will be in those cold temps, then you may want to stay away from lithium in general. If you can, however, have the lithium battery in a space that is conditioned when it is real cold, then you could be OK. Lithium does take a charge below 20f (give or take), nor put out juice below around 4f. The battery management system will prevent it doing so to protect the battery. If you have a crappy lithium battery without a battery management system to protect it from low temp charge/discharging, then it will simply kill the battery instead in very short order.