15W Solar Battery Tender

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thenomad

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Joined
Oct 24, 2016
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19
Location
Middletown, Ohio-USA
  Ok, so because of my TT being parked across the alley from my garage I am forced by the city to use a solar battery tender. Their contention is if a cord is running to it, even for a battery tender, it appears as a residence. Not sure how they arrive at this but that is what they say. So I purchased the large 15 watt solar unit. The panel itself weighs just over 8 lb and I need to mount it somehow to the TT. Mounting on the roof is not an option as when the snow falls it will be covered and useless.
 
  My idea is to just mount it on the side and at least get some sun. Where parked the street side gets most of the sun as it faces south. Is it possible to mount it to the studs/structure under the outer skin? Should I fab some sort of brackets for removal when towing so it doesn't fall off? Is the substructure strong enough to support it?

  Any help would be appreciated, I am new to this and am wanting to keep the house battery charged at all times.

  Additional info; the tender does have it's own controller with overcharge protection. I use Battery Tender on my motorcycles and never had any issues so I trust the brand.
 
A tiny solar panel at less than optimum angle in the weak winter sun? Lots of luck. Overcharge will be the least of your concerns, since at best that panel is going to produce about 1 amp.
 
How about propping it up on the inside of the window? If you're facing south, it might work.
 
Gary RV Roamer said:
A tiny solar panel at less than optimum angle in the weak winter sun? Lots of luck. Overcharge will be the least of your concerns, since at best that panel is going to produce about 1 amp.
Click to expand...
Doing the math it is more like !.25 amps. But that is not the point. Am just looking for help in figuring out mounting not to be made to feel like an idiot for my choice in product. I am not going off grid and have no reason to mount some giant panel and tilt on my roof. This is a 40" panel which should be sufficient for maintaining.
 
I wouldn't mount a solar panel to the side of my RV. Its 90 degree angle wouldn't be very good for generating power. There's no silver bullet answer here - if it's going to get snowed on, and you won't be able to get to it to wipe it off, mounting it inefficiently wouldn't do your battery much good. Placing it inside the RV next to a window probably won't work either. If part of the window's frame shaded 1 or 2 cells, the panel's output would fall to zero. If ft were me, I'd probably pull the battery out and put it on a charger elsewhere.

Kev
 
Kevin Means said:
I wouldn't mount a solar panel to the side of my RV. Its 90 degree angle wouldn't be very good for generating power. There's no silver bullet answer here - if it's going to get snowed on, and you won't be able to get to it to wipe it off, mounting it inefficiently wouldn't do your battery much good. Placing it inside the RV next to a window probably won't work either. If part of the window's frame shaded 1 or 2 cells, the panel's output would fall to zero. If ft were me, I'd probably pull the battery out and put it on a charger elsewhere.

Kev
Click to expand...
Thanks for the advice. It isn't so much a big deal removing the battery. It is just the fact of the times between uses will need some type of maintaining and, as I stated, my locality has nothing better to do than waste time by bothering me over a battery tender.

  I always camp with full hookups, even though I am new to the self contained unit. I am from the popup world and a lot of this is new to me. Maybe just return the solar unit, buy a good charger that will equalize and leave it in the basement or at worst in the unheated garage.
 
If that is an unpaved alley, I'd lay in a line so quick.  :-X
 
Doing the math it is more like !.25 amps
Click to expand...

You need 13.3v-14.4v to do any charging, and most solar panels generate about 15v-16v (peak) so that they have enough juice to actually deliver an adequate charge voltage. I doubt if you will ever see over 1A from a 15 watt panel, and that would be at high noon on a clear day in July.

Kevin gave you the best advice: forget the solar, pull the battery out and put it on a trickle charger in the house or garage.
 
thenomad said:
  Ok, so because of my TT being parked across the alley from my garage I am forced by the city to use a solar battery tender. Their contention is if a cord is running to it, even for a battery tender, it appears as a residence. Not sure how they arrive at this but that is what they say. So I purchased the large 15 watt solar unit. The panel itself weighs just over 8 lb and I need to mount it somehow to the TT. Mounting on the roof is not an option as when the snow falls it will be covered and useless.
 
  My idea is to just mount it on the side and at least get some sun. Where parked the street side gets most of the sun as it faces south. Is it possible to mount it to the studs/structure under the outer skin? Should I fab some sort of brackets for removal when towing so it doesn't fall off? Is the substructure strong enough to support it?

Any help would be appreciated, I am new to this and am wanting to keep the house battery charged at all times.

Additional info; the tender does have it's own controller with overcharge protection. I use Battery Tender on my motorcycles and never had any issues so I trust the brand.
Click to expand...
If you do NOT want to remove the batteries, another option is a lot more solar and add in a solar controller. That way you can add as much solar as you want and the solar controller will prevent any overcharging.

That's what I do with my RV. I have  60 watts solar and a controller for the house batteries, and a 20 watt solar and controller for the engine battery. This has worked well for me over the years.

-Don-  Reno, NV
 
Gary RV Roamer said:
You need 13.3v-14.4v to do any charging, and most solar panels generate about 15v-16v (peak) so that they have enough juice to actually deliver an adequate charge voltage. I doubt if you will ever see over 1A from a 15 watt panel, and that would be at high noon on a clear day in July.

Kevin gave you the best advice: forget the solar, pull the battery out and put it on a trickle charger in the house or garage.
Click to expand...
Solar is going back. For right now I just plugged the TT in to my garage until the city says something. then I'll pull it and hook it to a charger in the basement. The way the specs on the solar read it would maintain it fine, but I really don't want it on my roof and anywhere else would be defeating the purpose.

  like I have said, I am new to the whole TT scene as I have only had a popup or a tent. I hope I wasn't offensive to you, just felt really dumb.
 
DonTom said:
If you do NOT want to remove the batteries, another option is a lot more solar and add in a solar controller. That way you can add as much solar as you want and the solar controller will prevent any overcharging.

That's what I do with my RV. I have  60 watts solar and a controller for the house batteries, and a 20 watt solar and controller for the engine battery. This has worked well for me over the years.

-Don-  Reno, NV
Click to expand...
That may be an option down the road, just not sure about mounting all those panels on the roof where the Ohio snow can cover them and render them useless anyway. Or a spring hailstorm breaking one. Not likely that we will camp over the winter but it is possible.
 
It's not like snow for a few days on it would hurt anything, right?
Sweep it off once a month, or whenever you get 'round to it.  The result might be better than the trickle you might get installing it vertical.
 
How about something like this. I don't know if they work or if they're junk. Just put it on your dash and plug it into the cigarette lighter socket:

https://www.amazon.com/Wagan-2017-Powered-Battery-Charger/dp/B000VHT9GS
 
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