Solar panel install

Interesting install. I hope that tape holds up.

 

Lets take a step back and see the whole picture. I do not have a fancy yeti cooler that holds ice for days. My cooler will burn through 20lbs of ice in a day, especially in the truck, in the dead of summer. Thats about $4/day in ice. Plus the inconvenience of waking up earlier, emptying the old ice/water, driving to the store and buying and putting new ice in the fridge. In about 2 and a half months, i'll make my money back on ice alone. No beer either.

No aux battery. Just one Optima yellow top.

Yes. Fridge is made for 12v hookup.

Tape has already exceeded the wrap strength. It lifted a tiny portion of the wrap where the clear coat was messed up. I have zero doubts that the tape will hold. I'd estimate the pull strength is a true 30lbs per square inch. So its gonna take 100+lbs to lift a corner completely off the wrap.

 

updated first post with stats

 

Have to also see how the tape holds up after a hot summer in the desert.

 

I suspect Heat, wet, cold, cycles and flapping wind will kill the tape and OP will loose the panel... Which would royally suck.

 

I hope the extra strength of the tape can cover the heat cycling. Even if it looses 75% of its strength, i still feel like it should be strong enough. Be about 8lbs of pull per inch at 25% strength. Ultimately, time will tell.

 

You could test it with a heat gun before it peels on the road, at high speed, some hot day.

 

I could, but dont want to put a heatgun to the wrap. The side edges of the panel are under a small load since i forced it to contour the roof. I dont want the heat to react with the wrap, detact and stretch the vinyl. No going back from that.

 

Pretty neat.
You construct this setup more for weekend activities?

 

Thanks, yes its more of a weekend warrior. Mainly when I go camping/mountain biking trips. In summer, i only get about a day of power, then i need to fire the truck up and recharge the battery before night. Now i dont ever have to start the truck.

 

Pretty cool.

You could try to mount a roof rack bar with a wind deflector. That would probably cut down on the chances that you loose the solar panel even if the tape degrades a little.

Would there be a way to mount magnets to the panel? I have no idea what those panels are like, but the magnets they use for roof top emergency strobe lights are pretty burly.

 

Thats a good idea. Get some magnets from hard drives. They are thin and very strong. Epoxy the magnet to the bottom of the panel, then let it stick to the roof.

Or if you would rather put the magnet on top of the edges of the panels that might work too.

@5678ta I probably have some magnets from bad hard drives laying around somewhere. If you want to give it a try hit me up and I can send you some.

 

Kudos to you for going for it! I'm looking to do the same for my fridge and other accessories like camp lights which pull from the battery. My only concern was doing a solar panel off of a single battery. Everything I've read was using dual battery with solar so I've been waiting on it. This is the first I've come across solar on main battery. Have you any concerns bout that?

Whys everyone so fixated on the double sided tap

 

Also in for response to single battery setup. Like Chux said Seems like every setup I've seen the solar is hooked to an auxiliary batt not the main one.

 

Love the flexible panel. I may upgrade mine since my renogy panel doesn't fit under the cross bars of the prinsu.

If you could find a piece of wrap or something to put over the leading edge, it'll help keep the elements from getting under the panel and peeling it up when driving.

I have been running a single group 31 battery for a year now i think, fridge has been plugged in since it was purchased. Build thread has more exact dates. First few months was without solar. But solar has been installed and running to the main and only battery for 6 months or so. Longest I've left the truck was 3 days and had a fully charged battery when i went to start it.

 

Awesome news thank you!

 

I have my solar hooked to my SI-acr and it charges both batteries, as does the Alt.

 

The panel looks super cool. I didn't even think about a flexible panel for my future set up

 

I dont have much room to go upwards on my setup. Garage door is about 3" off the roof. Racks are not an option. Mounting magnets would be the same as double sided tape but another point for release. Its like a giant plastic sheet but it does have riveted holes. Search Amazon for Suaoki 100w and its the first result.

I appreciate the offer but i'll stick with the tape. If i were to do magnets. I would stick them to the bottom to have maximum strength. Then i'd be left with an air gap that would certainly be an issue. I'm trying to avoid gluing anything to the panels just in case i want/need to change it.

Having a URD supercharger, i dont have real estate under the hood for a second battery. I can barely fit the factory 27f in there as is. I dont think i'll have issues with only a single battery but we will find out. This setup is basically having a battery tender hooked up to the battery while i'm driving. The solar controller i have supposedly has a bunch of fail safes and monitored disconnects to prevent over charging, etc. Its the reason i went with a $100 controller vs a $15 unit.

The panel is really interesting. Feels/looks like just a thick plastic sheet with a couple wires coming off. With my quick test of the tape strength, you'll literally have to dig a knife in between the panel and the tape to separate them. Felt like i was gonna tear a windex bottle in half trying to separate it from a 1"x1" piece of tape. I left my truck for about 3 hours for a bike ride and came back to well over 13 volts. Even with the sun setting and barely hitting the panel, i was still at about 12.8 volts.

 

Subbed for the awesomeness this is.
Well done @5678ta that is slick.