Solar Chargers/Power

There are no set limits but every pound of your personal crap you carry is one pound less of paying cargo you can carry.


As to the solar panels we had an International 4800 that saw infrequent use. If it sat over a week it needed a jump start. We bought a solar trickle charger at tractor supply and hooked it up to the truck. It would keep the battery up indefinitely. We let it sit over month one time with the solar panel and it fired right up.

 

I used one in my pickup at the terminal when I was OTR for weeks on end.

For the Semi, anything smaller than 50 square feet of photo cells would be like adding a few D cell batteries to the system.

Mikeeee

 

Was the starting problem with or without cutting the main power to the cab while it sat for weeks?

Mikeeee

 

It did not have a main power cut off that I was aware of. It was a 4WD truck that wasn't even road legal. We hauled it to job sites and just used it in the field. That is why it sat so much. The batteries were old which surely didn't help but the panel did the trick. We actually bought it on the recommendation of the driver that hauled the thing around for us at the time. He got tired of having to jump start it every time he picked it up after our jobs if he didn't get there a few days after we finished. He hauled a lot of farm equipment and said the farmers used them all the time.

 

If one works on a passenger car, then a couple few would probably help using the multiple outlets on a semi. But I don't see the need. If your truck will not start on a cold winter morning when you were not consuming large amounts of electricity while the truck was not running after only one night, then you need to check your batteries, battery bars and cable connections.

If you are concerned about the truck sitting for days and it will not start, the main power cutoff should be all that is needed. If the truck dies after a few days with the power cut off, again check for electric power train issues.

Mikeeee

 

I use large solar panels and I have never seen any other truckers use panels. I used to just cut the power off buy now we have refrigerators so instead of taking out all of the food I leave it in there and leave the power on.

 

Haha wtf? I don't think anyone will ever be able to fit so many solar panels on their truck for it to be overweight. I have panels that put out 20 total amps with a controller under full sunshine that is not a small trickle charge.

 

Is this what you had in mind?
http://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckingindustryforum/threads/solar-panel.315065/

 

He had been sitting for a full week, with the fridge still running.
But why would anyone need to do that?
What food in there, after a full week, would you want to keep and eat?

He also failed to mention the cost of that setup.