Solar panel on hood. (1 Viewer)

[farpolemiddle]

So I purchased a 150W solar panel kit from Homedepot. I have a dual battery set up and I primarily use it to run electronics and a Ironman fridge. The kit is 3 separate 2' x 2' panels. I mounted 2 in parallel on a modified roof rack in front of my roof top tent. I am considering putting the 3rd panel on the hood. I understand it won't work well due to heat but I can't think of any other reason it is a bad idea. I planned to use 3m VHB tape to attach it for the short term. All the wiring is temped in because I want to make sure I like all the set ups before I start drilling holes in my love. Suggestions?

 

[rusty_tlc]

1- Vibration is bad for electronics, lots of vibration from the engine in the hood.
2 - Glare from the panel might be an issue.

 

[e9999]

You don't want it to get hot so you'd have to leave an air gap. But that won't improve the esthetics...

 

[Cruiserdrew]

And heat.

The real problem I see, is the need to always park correctly so the tent, does not cast any shade on the panels. With this type of panel, shading even the edge will cut all of the output from the panel. 100 watts is likely enough, but 150 watts is a nice amount of power. You might consider not doing a permanent mount and not drill any holes. When you park, run your wires to the charge controller, which hopefully is next to the battery.

 

[farpolemiddle]

My wife says the hood one is over the top so now I have no choice but to put it on the hood. Figure at worst I will just ruin the cheap panel. If this works out I will just upgrade the roof panels to one really nice mono one.

 

[farpolemiddle]

And heat.

The real problem I see, is the need to always park correctly so the tent, does not cast any shade on the panels. With this type of panel, shading even the edge will cut all of the output from the panel. 100 watts is likely enough, but 150 watts is a nice amount of power. You might consider not doing a permanent mount and not drill any holes. When you park, run your wires to the charge controller, which hopefully is next to the battery.

The controller has some USB protest plug things like an IPOD directly into so it is inside and will be mounted on the passenger side kick panel under the glove box.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Since you have a roof top tent, you might consider hinging these so they all fold up. Then deploy and set on the ground in full sun, away from the RTT.

As the sun moves, unless you are always faced directly south, the RTT will shade the panels during some or most of the day. Keep a compass on your dash!

 

[farpolemiddle]

Since you have a roof top tent, you might consider hinging these so they all fold up. Then deploy and set on the ground in full sun, away from the RTT.

As the sun moves, unless you are always faced directly south, the RTT will shade the panels during some or most of the day. Keep a compass on your dash!

Yeah I can do that. I bet that would be pretty easy to have them tilt up on the rack though with some wing nuts, hinges and a piece of wood to prop up.

I could also keep the 3rd one off the truck and set up on a stand. If it is putting out all 50W that would be close to running the fridge.

 

[farpolemiddle]

So did a small test run today. Plugged in the Iron man fridge and set one side to -18 and the bigger side to 0 where I usually keep them. Normally I pre-cool the fridge with shore power the night before I use it but I wanted to see worst case scenario. Weather was low 50s and rainy with a few small sun breaks (typical Portland weather). I made no effort to park my truck in any specific direction. The controller seams to keep to 1 or so amps when the battery is full. The controller also has a battery percent display but I am not sure how it comes up with what is considered 100 percent. I checked on it after the fridge had been running for a while and there happened to be heavy rain clouds. The controller said the battery was down to 80 percent. Came back a few hours later and the fridge had reached the right temps and the battery was back up to 100 percent so it seems to be working. I am going to load some water and food in it and see what happens over night.

One issue I now have is that my Blue sea separator doesn't really disco the battery link when the engine has been off for a while. It used to and I relied on that to disco the batteries for starting. Now they are already linked up so I will have to run a toggle to manual disco the blue sea before I start so that I don't mess up my deep cycle or run it to the start/solenoid like the wire diagram wants.

 

[Barbarosa]

How did this work over time?

 

[bug616]

Worked good for me. 100w panel does a superb job of keeping the batteries topped up. I also have another panel I can put out if needed