Anybody did solar panels on the prinsu roof yet?

My truck is an sr5 and I was thinking of putting a solar panel on top of my roof between the rotopax and the pelican and wire it to the bed to something like a goal zero power station. Did anybody attempt that? I found a dude on YouTube but he has the power supply in the cab. I’m more interested in someone who has done it and hooked it up to the bed and made it a clean OEM look. Maybe hide it in the back or something. This is the video of the dude on YouTube that attempted it. I’m sure he is on here so shout out to him:

https://youtu.be/pxp0P1C1BHo

 

I use two large panels on my Yakima rack. Made mine so that I can take them on and off as I want though. I use them mainly for emergency power for radio equipment during hurricanes etc. I just mounted the charging equipment and deep cycle batts in Ammo boxes from Academy that we’re on sale. They can be charged by the vehicle, solar panel(s), or generator as needed. Gives me lots of options and flexibility for powering radios, laptops, inverters, and can easily be moved from one vehicle to another or even left to power a base camp.

 

Any updates with the solar?

 

went really good actually I went with everything Goal Zero including top Solar Panels on the roof and it’s been working good so far

 

Looks killer man! Great job!

 

thank you brother. Let me know if you need help with anything if you’re going with a similar setup and I can get you pictures or videos or whatever you need

 

Im running the Victory4x4 rack. Wanted something that didn’t affect my ability to put stuff up there. So I sandwiched some little panels between the cross bars. A whopping 30watts! Then I used the Renogy wanderer solar charge controller. Pretty much just a trickle charger during the day.

 

Hey OP,

how’d you run the wire to the truck bed? I’ve got the goal zero boulder 100, and would like to run it to the truck bed to be plugged into my yeti 400... thanks!

 

Are those their Boulder 50 panels? Looks good

 

Carlos - that's a really good solution. Can you flesh out how you did it a little? How do you secure the panels to the rack pieces? Thanks.

 

nothing exciting, just removed the aluminum extruded crossbars from the rack. Made 2 holes each side of the panel frames. Put the hardware on the crossbar, then the panel on that, install the nuts from inside the panel frame. When done you have all three panels and both crossbars as a unit. The take the whole unit and reinstall onto the rack.

 

Sub

 

That's awesome, I've been contemplating doing a more permanent install on the Prinsu. I've already got a 100w panel that goes up top while camping;



How was running the wiring? I would probably want something down the back of the cab and into the rear seat storage area..

 

I did a full panel on my roof rack. Really wondering what @ApacheComa used for his. The Goal Zero Boulder 50 is 21.75" wide where mine is 20.5" wide. I definitely don't have space for Rotopax on the roof. I have maybe 10" of open area left. I've got a 42" Plano case up there, so maybe his is thinner?

 

I ran it forward to the corner of the rack then into the windshield trim, down into the engine bay. It’s the easiest to run/hide.

 

Looking to install a 100w renogy on my prinsu and trickle power to my jackery 1000 in my bed. Looking for the best way to run the wires, my windshield trim is pretty much occupied by my lightbar and other lights. Was thinking of just running it down the back of the cab into the bed but that doesn't seem very clean to me, you guys got any thoughts?

 

Slightly off topic but has anyone used Redarc BCDC to control the charging and solar panels?

 

That's what I did. Tucked it into the back window seal and then popped it into the bed at the top. Not completely invisible but it does the trick.

 

yes

 

Did it work well? It's definitely one of the more expensive options. I like how it's a MPPT controller and battery balancer in one.