Hood solar panel

I don’t disagree with what you are saying, except one thing when taken in context to the (sub)discussion. You’re talking with a house battery, that’s a whole different ballgame to saying run fridge off starter battery and with a 90w panel in a fixed location on your hood.

 

@jeeper

This is cool but the plastic box and wire routing kill it for me. I think viewing through the windshield would annoy me. If the box could be relocated I would be . Even if I had to drill holes for a clean install I would be .

 

I barely notice it anymore.

 

Mutely, We've been testing this setup for well over a year now and are very aware it's capabilities. I am certainly not overselling the benefits of this product. We have done a ton of R&D work with many beta testers out in the wild to ensure that we are selling a very high quality product that is worth of the Cascadia 4x4 brand. Without having first hand experience with our product I would appreciate you not bashing my company with your opinions.

As I'm sure you know, all the popular fridges do in fact have a low voltage cutoff to protect the starter battery. You are correct that these panels produce 6amps in peak conditions (FYI we have had them running at peak power for well over an hr/day). During the rest of the day the panels will still be producing a charge. Even in very low light conditions our panels can produce 0.5 amps.

In this case for instance, if a fridge (ARB) is drawing 1amp you have just increased the amount of time the fridge can run by 50% before hitting the low voltage cutoff. Lets also say for some reason your fridge doesn't have a low voltage cut off and you do indeed end up killing the starter battery overnight. Our panels will provide enough charge to allow the vehicle to start up again in ~30-45 minutes. That's certainly better than nothing isn't it?

The VSS System alone is not intended to continuously run a fridge or any 12V accessory for that matter (due to the nature of solar and nighttime) but instead it is there to add longevity to your vehicles 12V system, provide charge without the need to idle your engine and allow the user peace of mind while running any accessories off grid.

The cells we use are a 22% efficiency which on the higher end of cells available today. I'm not sure what kind of solar setup you have but if your 240watt system cannot keep up with a vehicle sized fridge then there surely there is a problem.

I would be happy to continue this conversation over PM, but not on here. Thanks,

 

Thanks! We needed to make this system 100% bolt on and plug-and-play as this is what the vast majority of customers is after. Having people drill into the body of their vehicle would exclude too many potential customers. We did our best to design the junction box and the wire in the cleanest way possible (most of them have 2 wires and a much larger box).
I guarantee you will forget you are even looking at the wire after a couple days! It is very unobtrusive.

 

Just have to point that if this is being tested here in BC with these results, that's pretty good. We are lucky to get 2 full days of sun a year ( slight exaggeration, but only slight ). This product would fair even better in the lower 49 that see more regular sun. Just my 0.02 cents.

 

Haha you are correct there! If we can develop and make these panels work here in BC then anywhere else should be a breeze! We have also been testing these panels over extensive road trips to the US including in the Moab desert heat. In the picture below the panel was STILL providing a charge!!

 

I’d be very interested in seeing the results of it on a truck stationary for four to five days with a fridge running the whole time. Preferably on a semi cloudy fall day or like posted above on an average BC day (I used to live in Bellingham so I know the weather in that neck of the woods well)

It would be interesting to see the battery voltage at the start and end of each day. My Victron controller on my truck tracks this for my current solar setup.

The hood setup intrigues me because I’d like to add more to my existing two 50W panels for quicker topping off of the batteries when the conditions aren’t ideal.

 

eBay has flexible 100w solar panel for 80bucks. Youtube has reviews and it work fine.

 

While we haven't done that exact test I can assure you that our system uses very efficient cells (22%) which allows them to work very well in low light conditions. This is imperative to making our product work as well as it does in our climate. In somewhere like SF where you are the panels would work extremely well.
Sounds like you've got a great setup already. By adding our system in series with what you have you would have no problem keeping your battery full!

 

I have a Snomaster dual fridge & freezer so it draws more amps than just a fridge alone, probably around 3-3.5 Amps/hour.

Yeah I think the combo will work. Want to be able to come back from a multiple day hike to cold beer and icecream bars. Probably doing something in the PNW next year.

I’m torn between another fixed panel (what I have now on my topper and adding yours on the hood) or a folding panel that I could angle more towards the sun for efficiency. That’s why I’d be really curious to see how yours would do stationary for a few days.

 

I like your thinking with the cold beer and ice cream! I can tell you that my truck battery is pretty much constantly at full charge with the panel on the hood, even in the gloomly BC weather.

One major benefit of our system vs a folding panels is that no one is going to be able to steal the hood solar panel if you plan on leaving it to go hiking for a few days. I'm sure in conjunction with your other two panels that the ice cream would stay frozen!

 

What’s the longest you’ve let it sit without driving it?

For sure your point on someone stealing it is valid!

 

I wonder what the failure rate on these is going to be? It's basically being cooked by the hood.

 

I've left my truck sitting for one month without moving this year. No issues. We have one on my sisters Jeep and she goes to university out of country so it has been left for several months at a time. Again no issues. Both vehicles in the Vancouver area.

 

So far the failure rate due to heat is 0 since we have been testing this product for about 1 1/2 years. We had these panels on an older F350 on a 3 week road trip through the Moab desert etc. No issues due to heat.

 

Definitely think this is an ingenious and convenient solution. Kudos to the team for putting something like this together. Not everyone is electrically savvy and identifying a need and market are key to any business.


Of course like most products of convenience you can most certainly piece together a solution for a reduction in cost but not everyone has that aptitude to do so. GLWS and look forward to seeing what else you guys come up with.

 

2016+ VSS System is now available for pre-order!

All the details here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...hicle-specific-solar-system-pre-order.639063/

 

Nice! I guess that will stop the Hood trading for a while! A good reason to keep the Non-scoop hood.!

 

100% with you on that. If I owned the hood solar company, as you do, I would double down on all possible benefits as sales are directly proportional to how much money I receive, and I like money as well.

But I guess in that grand scheme, sort of big picture of things, what about things like math and physics considered?

The engine idling would produce the same charge/joules in like 1/50th the time? Also for these solar charging scenarios, are calculations based off midday in arizona summer sun? Or like a cloudy sunset in Alberta? I get peace of mind and all, but seems like you can have peace of mine by idling the motor for like 5 minutes...also bonus points for the idling method = you can do it anytime, any day, any weather.

I suppose if the car battery dies then having the panels would give you enough charge to start it back up in 30 min you say? Is that also assuming midday AZ sun. IDK seems like for dead battery situation you might want to have the jump charge pack in case it's like night time and snowing out or something... Oh yeah do they charge just as good with snow and dust on them?

Again im just not sure:

Good quality deep cycle marine battery and jump starter VS $600 solar panels...

hard to say...