Solar Dual Battery

[Luke]

I've been reading all the past threads on solar and dual batteries and I am looking for some opinions. I don't run very many electronics in my truck so I'm not looking to power a fridge or anything. Pretty much the only thing I'm running is a Yaesu 7800. That being said I don't really need a heavy-duty deep cycle battery and just want something for back up. So I'm considering buying a regular sized battery and mounting it in the open area near the front passenger wheel well in the 2000 Tacoma, and keeping it charged buy mounting a flexible solar panel to the top of my topper on the bed. I could then connect the second battery to the main battery with a simple on/off switch to keep them seperated until the need comes for jumping my primary battery (worst case scenario). One problem I can forsee is getting the panel mounted in a way that doesn't allow water and dirt to gather under it and ruin the paint on the topper. Overall I don't think this would end up being very expensive and pretty comparable cost to a conventional dual battery system with isolators and switches.
Any thoughts?

 

[Carlyle]

I'm pretty sure you will need a voltage regulator as well. Check with the people at RV Solar Electric and they can set you up inexpensively, that's where my system came from, and they have many sizes.