I need a Cheap solar unit for my truck trailer. Any ideas?

HenryJ

Expedition Leader
I think I'm going with that setup for sure Henry, looks like a great deal
Indeed. I have been watching for a very long time. This set-up usually goes for almost twice that price. I made the 40W suitcase in the pictures many years ago. Works great. Later the "copies" started showing up, but they were expensive. Only lately has the price come down to be so attractive.
I actually jumped the gun and bought one a week too soon. Paid $80 more than the set I linked. When those showed up , I could not pass it up and bought one of those too. I now have more than enough LOL. I plan on keeping one in the truck. Use it for the 12v fridge. One in the trailer.
Nice to have all three as an option at home if the power goes out :)

I think it will serve you well.

BTW, the controller on this panel is the best of the three that I have so far. I put a little Morningstar on the one I built myself.
 
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java

Expedition Leader
Maybe a little late to the game here, but heres my take. I went with the Renogy stuff off amazon. Panels are very nice, seems to be good quaility and put out the spec'ed voltage.

Controller sucks. I think thats the case with most cheap Chinese controllers (no problem with Chinese ones really just cheap) It cuts voltage at 12.5V, not enough for a full charge IMO. Ive heard good things about moringstar, and may go to one later on down the road.
 

1stDeuce

Explorer
I initially charged my camper battery off the RV connector on the truck, but found that I wasn't running the truck long enough to charge the battery back up, particularly when camping in the same spot for more than an overnight. (voltage is too low by the time it gets to the camper battery, even with the truck batteries getting 14+ volts.) I finally put an 85w panel on the roof with a charge controller. Honestly, I don't even plug the camper into the truck anymore. The 85 watt panel is easily big enough recharge the battery. I'm running a vent fan, heater, lights, charging cells and laptop occasionally, all off one Group 31 AGM battery. After a fairly cold night, the battery is down to 50% in the morning, but back to 100% by early afternoon if the day is sunny. If it's overcast, it takes most of the day to charge, but it still gets to 100% before the sun goes away.

Chris
 

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