Solar chargers for pulling truck

[pornstar dancin]

Looking to see if anyone has experience with solar chargers on a strictly pulling/drag truck. Looking for an alternative to hauling a charger and generator to pulls.
Truck is filled block with no alternator. Hydraulic steering eats up a lot of battery.

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[2004LB7]

what kind of AH are you looking to replenish in how short of a time?

 

[gmduramax]

I’ll have to see what brand I have for my trailer. We have a battery for the winch and it always stays charged and it will actually charge the battery when it’s dead. But I don’t think you can get a big enough solar panel for what you need.

I would just hook an inverter up in the tow rig with a battery charger with a connection on it somewhere outside. That way you’ll just need small cables to charge the pull truck.

 

[ikeG]

We ran two xs power 14v batteries with no trouble. Only charged at home between events. Could easily do 2 hooks a night without recharging

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[pornstar dancin]

what kind of AH are you looking to replenish in how short of a time?

Not sure of the AH I'm looking to replenish. I have a completely new setup with filled block this year. It's all new to me but looking to just trickle charge the truck throughout the week while it's on the trailer

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[pornstar dancin]

We ran two xs power 14v batteries with no trouble. Only charged at home between events. Could easily do 2 hooks a night without recharging

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Would 2 agm/deep cycle batteries be enough you think or should I put a 3rd on the truck

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[ikeG]

Possibly. The point of running the 14v is that they are still above 12v when low on charge. Keeps ecm happy. Maybe run 3 12v, dedicate one to ecm and 2 others to the pump.

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[2004LB7]

instead of trying to do multiple lead acid batteries to keep the voltage up, consider some lithium iron phosphate (lifepo4) cells. 4x cells would run 12 volts discharged and 14.4 volts charged. they also maintain their voltage pretty consistently throughout most of the discharge cycle so you don't need to have a large bank to keep the voltage up. also they handle high current well and can bulk charge much faster then lead acid can if you need to top off between runs.

something like this

 

[2004LB7]

for solar charging, I would look at some 100w panels from this guys site. (no affiliation, just find him giving great reviews and information) https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/solar-panels.html

100w panel will probably give you about 5 amps of charge current each. so to replenish say, 20 ah, it would take about 5 hours on a lead acid battery and maybe 4 hours on lifepo4

the great thing about lifepo4 is you can throw a set of jumper cables on them and bulk charge them to about 95% in a fraction of the time of lead acid

 

[pornstar dancin]

Is there any concern with leaving a small solar panel trickle charging and over charging or voltage regulating

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[2004LB7]

if you don't exceed the maximum voltage of the pack, you will be fine. if the voltage of the charger and pack are the same no current will flow. if you find a solar charger specifically for lithium it will take care of all that for you