Solar trickle charger

[Old Young Man]

Has anyone permanently mounted a solar agm trickle charger? Searched question and didn’t find. Don’t drive mine enough to charge and know I will have problems later. Mounting something like this may keep trouble away without have to plug and unplug. Thought of mounting between grill and bumper, or inside on dash.

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[22EcoDs]

I don't think you'd get enough output from that small of a panel. I'm looking to do a 100w panel on my back half of the roof.

 

[Old Young Man]

I would think a 4 or 5 watt would handle the parasitic load , but I am not familiar with modern vehicles, and certainly not an electric or electronic tech. Most say they must be disconnected before starting.

 

[Radio Guy]

My truck doesn't get driven much and I keep a solar panel and charge controller on it most of the time. I originally had a short cable with quick disconnect Anderson Power Poles from the battery to the front grille to connect my 60w panel and charge controller at the front of the truck but have since made up a trailer plug to Anderson Power Pole since the rear of the truck gets more sun.

Before permanently connecting a charge controller in the vehicle I would want to know how much current it might draw just sitting there with no panel connected. Maybe none but maybe not. I would rather attach a small controller to the back of my solar panel and unplug that from the trailer light connector and set the whole thing aside when I drive away.

I've been using this type of charger on several projects and they have proven to be reliable despite there very cheap price. https://www.ebay.com/itm/3645326354...mqIjrS/8du3Cy9DbHTBO7MoQ==|tkp:Bk9SR8iX24HoYg

 

[chorky]

jeep-wrangler-tj-lj-2003-2006-only-80-watt-hood-solar-panel

 

[813 Fabrication & Design]

I have the Cascadia4x4 30W hood panel mounted on my JT and my Wife's JLU just for this reason. It does seem to help. I am not sure exactly how much but will be adding a bluetooth monitor as I am curious. When the really cold temps hit last winter it killed her battery with only 3000 miles on it. We don't drive enough every day to keep the batteries topped off.

https://www.cascadia4x4.com/collect...-watt-hood-solar-panel?variant=35469971554456

 

[CrazyCooter]

I have the Cascadia4x4 30W hood panel mounted on my JT and my Wife's JLU just for this reason. It does seem to help. I am not sure exactly how much but will be adding a bluetooth monitor as I am curious. When the really cold temps hit last winter it killed her battery with only 3000 miles on it. We don't drive enough every day to keep the batteries topped off.

https://www.cascadia4x4.com/collect...-watt-hood-solar-panel?variant=35469971554456

This panel doesn't do much of anything especially for the cost. Peak output I saw was 9w on 2 different panels I tested when cold and tilted toward the sun, but that quickly drops to 3-4 watts as the panel warms up. Flat on a hood even less output.

The charge controller will likely draw more than this POS panel could put back into the battery even in the summer months. Only thing it's good for is lightening your wallet.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I have the Cascadia4x4 30W hood panel mounted on my JT and my Wife's JLU just for this reason. It does seem to help. I am not sure exactly how much but will be adding a bluetooth monitor as I am curious. When the really cold temps hit last winter it killed her battery with only 3000 miles on it. We don't drive enough every day to keep the batteries topped off.

https://www.cascadia4x4.com/collect...-watt-hood-solar-panel?variant=35469971554456

I got into it the other day with an expert on 4xe and supposedly Jeep systems in general. Someone was complaining about the 12v batteries in the 4xe and I said that the systems in those operate similar to the gasser Jeeps and he jumped me and said "it's charging any time the ignition switch is on" and I said - so what? Mine charges any time the engine is running - do 4xe owners go out and turn the switch on to charge the battery daily? He wasn't happy I was contradicting him as he knows all there is about Jeeps. He showed how he monitored with JSCAN and the IBS was showing charge levels and so on and "Jeep has done a good job keeping these batteries topped off any time they are driven". I showed how mine was driven for an hour, and the batteries were sitting at 12.35 volts, 55% charged and that's a good job? An hour and that's the best? I suggested the IBS was lying, that JSCAN isn't telling the whole story. I finally left the discussion as he was so off-base on batteries.
If a battery charger set on 20 amps shoving 14.7 volts at the battery can't charge it to 100% in 2 hours, how is driving 30 minutes with 14.5 volts going to charge the battery?
I put a charger on mine yesterday as I've not been putting miles on it enough to keep the batteries topped off.
Sitting at 12.35 volts according to the charger (verified with Fluke meter), my charger said 54% state of charge (I should have launched JSCAN and read the IBS - bet it would have been wrong)
Anyway, 2 hours later I went out and it was up to 90%
An hour later it was at 95%
An hour after that - 95%
another hour it was 100% charged.
(Granted a good charger slow charges the last 10% or so but still it took a while to get up to 90%)
If a battery charger takes over an hour to take a 12.35 volt battery to full charge and it's doing so at a pressure of 14.7 volts, how will driving your Jeep 30 minutes take a 12.3x volt battery to 100%?
But he swore it would. Said Jeep did a good job of topping the batteries off every time you drove. Got mad that I disagreed.
I need to go check the voltage on my wife's 12v battery - betcha a beer it's under 12.5 volts and she drove it around yesterday shopping in town.
But the 4xe charges the 12v battery any time the ignition is on.
Yeah, so what? My JT charges the 12v battery any time my engine is running?
My wife doesn't go out and hit that big round button to put it in ready mode just to charge the battery any more than I go out and start mine to charge the battery. Acted like it was a special feature or something. No, it mirrors any other vehicle. Big deal.

The problem with batteries is not necessarily going down in voltage - it's going down and sitting that way for a period of time.
Granted "cycling" isn't good - don't constantly take them down to 12.3, then back, then back down to 12.3, and then back up and so on. That's cycling - and once you get down to the 12.3 and below range, you are cutting into risky territory.
Try to keep them above that. Don't use them as deep cycle batteries - don't draw them down to 12 and then say hey, it's all good it still started so I'm fine. No, you just shortened the life of that battery a little bit.

If you don't have a garage, a solar tender isn't a bad idea - if it's got good electronic controls and operates like any other. But it's going to take a decent panel that's bigger than a pack of cigarettes to matter.
I would think a panel that actually put out 15 watts would work (not what it's rated for, but REAL, actual, output). So many panels say "50 watts" but on a decent day may make 40 watts at best, you have to watch out.
15 watts, figuring 13 volts+ float would give you roughly 1 amp and one of my battery tenders is a 1 amp device that will actually over hours take a battery from 12 up to full charge. So i'd think a solar panel that really did put out a real 15 watts would fit the bill.

The controller posted by radio guy is interesting but it's for deep cycle - a disconnect of 10.7 volts is going to leave you stranded. but if it's used only for charging and not to control a load....... I'd never even think of taking a cranking battery down to 10.7 volts.

 

[Radio Guy]

The controller posted by radio guy is interesting but it's for deep cycle - a disconnect of 10.7 volts is going to leave you stranded. but if it's used only for charging and not to control a load....... I'd never even think of taking a cranking battery down to 10.7 volts.

The controller I posted has several different types of batteries you can program but the low voltage cutoff will never be used as this setup gets connected when I park for long periods and the battery should have a reasonable state of charge when I park. If I were going to run a bunch of ham radios in the truck for a week while parked and only rely on the solar charger to save my battery that would be different. If I do that I have a 200w foldable panel and I take extra 100AH deep cycle batteries with me just for the radios and never use the vehicle electrical system.

The controller I posted seems to be a very good general purpose unit and I have one between 400w of solar panels on my garage and 440AH of golf cart batteries under the ham radio bench. That has been working great for a couple of years. I also have one in my travel trailer and a few for portable use. If one breaks its like $13 and I wont feel bad compared to spending $100 or more on a solar charger that doesn't do anything more than my $13 model.

 

[staying_tuned]

Cascadia 85w hood panel on ours with the auto-trickle (and 12v out) controller they include in the system. Had it (still on the truck) for nearly 2 years and never once had an issue with it. In our case when not trickle charging the truck battery it was constantly charging our EcoFlow delta battery block which in turn fed our fridge/freezer combo.

 

[Old Young Man]

Cascadia 85w hood panel on ours with the auto-trickle (and 12v out) controller they include in the system. Had it (still on the truck) for nearly 2 years and never once had an issue with it. In our case when not trickle charging the truck battery it was constantly charging our EcoFlow delta battery block which in turn fed our fridge/freezer combo.

Thanks, I am researching not doing anything until out of warranty. Unsure of what watts I need, not looking to use any 12 volt accessories, just keep up with the draw when it sits. If I need electric just toss the gen in the bed. Want a permanent mount, hope not even a disconnect when using truck if possible, or a disconnect by a relay to automate that.

 

[Lost1wing]

I got into it the other day with an expert on 4xe and supposedly Jeep systems in general. Someone was complaining about the 12v batteries in the 4xe and I said that the systems in those operate similar to the gasser Jeeps and he jumped me and said "it's charging any time the ignition switch is on" and I said - so what? Mine charges any time the engine is running - do 4xe owners go out and turn the switch on to charge the battery daily? He wasn't happy I was contradicting him as he knows all there is about Jeeps. He showed how he monitored with JSCAN and the IBS was showing charge levels and so on and "Jeep has done a good job keeping these batteries topped off any time they are driven". I showed how mine was driven for an hour, and the batteries were sitting at 12.35 volts, 55% charged and that's a good job? An hour and that's the best? I suggested the IBS was lying, that JSCAN isn't telling the whole story. I finally left the discussion as he was so off-base on batteries.
If a battery charger set on 20 amps shoving 14.7 volts at the battery can't charge it to 100% in 2 hours, how is driving 30 minutes with 14.5 volts going to charge the battery?
I put a charger on mine yesterday as I've not been putting miles on it enough to keep the batteries topped off.
Sitting at 12.35 volts according to the charger (verified with Fluke meter), my charger said 54% state of charge (I should have launched JSCAN and read the IBS - bet it would have been wrong)
Anyway, 2 hours later I went out and it was up to 90%
An hour later it was at 95%
An hour after that - 95%
another hour it was 100% charged.
(Granted a good charger slow charges the last 10% or so but still it took a while to get up to 90%)
If a battery charger takes over an hour to take a 12.35 volt battery to full charge and it's doing so at a pressure of 14.7 volts, how will driving your Jeep 30 minutes take a 12.3x volt battery to 100%?
But he swore it would. Said Jeep did a good job of topping the batteries off every time you drove. Got mad that I disagreed.
I need to go check the voltage on my wife's 12v battery - betcha a beer it's under 12.5 volts and she drove it around yesterday shopping in town.
But the 4xe charges the 12v battery any time the ignition is on.
Yeah, so what? My JT charges the 12v battery any time my engine is running?
My wife doesn't go out and hit that big round button to put it in ready mode just to charge the battery any more than I go out and start mine to charge the battery. Acted like it was a special feature or something. No, it mirrors any other vehicle. Big deal.

The problem with batteries is not necessarily going down in voltage - it's going down and sitting that way for a period of time.
Granted "cycling" isn't good - don't constantly take them down to 12.3, then back, then back down to 12.3, and then back up and so on. That's cycling - and once you get down to the 12.3 and below range, you are cutting into risky territory.
Try to keep them above that. Don't use them as deep cycle batteries - don't draw them down to 12 and then say hey, it's all good it still started so I'm fine. No, you just shortened the life of that battery a little bit.

If you don't have a garage, a solar tender isn't a bad idea - if it's got good electronic controls and operates like any other. But it's going to take a decent panel that's bigger than a pack of cigarettes to matter.
I would think a panel that actually put out 15 watts would work (not what it's rated for, but REAL, actual, output). So many panels say "50 watts" but on a decent day may make 40 watts at best, you have to watch out.
15 watts, figuring 13 volts+ float would give you roughly 1 amp and one of my battery tenders is a 1 amp device that will actually over hours take a battery from 12 up to full charge. So i'd think a solar panel that really did put out a real 15 watts would fit the bill.

The controller posted by radio guy is interesting but it's for deep cycle - a disconnect of 10.7 volts is going to leave you stranded. but if it's used only for charging and not to control a load....... I'd never even think of taking a cranking battery down to 10.7 volts.

I'll bet you a beer and lose just to sit down and have a beer with you!

 

[Animal]

I keep having ads pop up for lensun solar, they have a 90w and 50w hood panel for the JT, a 40w for the Mojave and 30w for Rubi. Been wondering how it compares to the cascadia for this purpose.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I'll bet you a beer and lose just to sit down and have a beer with you!

It was close - she drove it a total of close to an hour yesterday. I checked the battery voltage today (after being told the 4xe did a real good job of replenishing the battery when you drove it) and found the voltage to be Just UNDER 12.5 volts. Almost lost that one LOL. Micronta digital had it at 12.47 volts
I put the charger on it and the charger said "12.5" but it's only to the tenth volt so likely rounded. And it was 2 hours before it was at 98%.
So I'm going to wire in a permanent pigtail for my wife's JLU and when it gets plugged in to the level 2 charger, I'll plug in a tender as well. We'll see if I can't make that 12v battery last a bit longer. No bets on that because we well know of the extremely high quality, best of the best out there, Jeep labeled batteries.

I'll bet you a beer and lose just to sit down and have a beer with you!

My place is usually a mess by the standards or many, but always welcome.
My wife has more than once said that her friends are all less than 30 minutes away while mine are states away (and most of them I've never met!)
We're not far off I80 and I35. I can get to the east mixmaster where they diverge and 80 continues east while 35 veers back north in about 25 minutes. I can get to 80 faster.

I keep having ads pop up for lensun solar, they have a 90w and 50w hood panel for the JT, a 40w for the Mojave and 30w for Rubi. Been wondering how it compares to the cascadia for this purpose.

I don't yet own the controller that @Radio Guy mentions (I was curios enough to order one and see if it would work with my 20 or 50 watt panels) but figure that for simply keeping batteries charged when out away from outlets and chargers, you don't need a huge panel - a 30 would work fine for that sort of thing.
I wonder if the controller he posted would work with my Goal Zero panels.......... maybe will try to find out.
https://www.goalzero.com/products/nomad-50-solar-panel
https://www.goalzero.com/products/nomad-20-solar-panel

I figure over time - many months or a couple of years even, piece together the parts to deal with whatever I decide to do.

 

[Radio Guy]

It was close - she drove it a total of close to an hour yesterday. I checked the battery voltage today (after being told the 4xe did a real good job of replenishing the battery when you drove it) and found the voltage to be Just UNDER 12.5 volts. Almost lost that one LOL. Micronta digital had it at 12.47 volts
I put the charger on it and the charger said "12.5" but it's only to the tenth volt so likely rounded. And it was 2 hours before it was at 98%.
So I'm going to wire in a permanent pigtail for my wife's JLU and when it gets plugged in to the level 2 charger, I'll plug in a tender as well. We'll see if I can't make that 12v battery last a bit longer. No bets on that because we well know of the extremely high quality, best of the best out there, Jeep labeled batteries.



My place is usually a mess by the standards or many, but always welcome.
My wife has more than once said that her friends are all less than 30 minutes away while mine are states away (and most of them I've never met!)
We're not far off I80 and I35. I can get to the east mixmaster where they diverge and 80 continues east while 35 veers back north in about 25 minutes. I can get to 80 faster.


I don't yet own the controller that @Radio Guy mentions (I was curios enough to order one and see if it would work with my 20 or 50 watt panels) but figure that for simply keeping batteries charged when out away from outlets and chargers, you don't need a huge panel - a 30 would work fine for that sort of thing.
I wonder if the controller he posted would work with my Goal Zero panels.......... maybe will try to find out.
https://www.goalzero.com/products/nomad-50-solar-panel
https://www.goalzero.com/products/nomad-20-solar-panel

I figure over time - many months or a couple of years even, piece together the parts to deal with whatever I decide to do.

The $13 Fleabay charger should work fine with the goalzero panels. It will handle up to 30A of charge current and will auto select between 12V and 24V systems. It does that by sensing battery voltage but I have accidently fooled it by having it connected to a solar panel producing about 21v where it thought it was connected to a 24V system then when I connected the 12V battery it tried to charge it like it was a 24V battery getting up to about 15V before I noticed a problem. Lesson there is connect to battery first, then connect solar panel, that way it will sense the correct battery type then charge accordingly.

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