Solar Charging?

[motoergosum]

Has anyone put together a solar charging kit for camping road trips? I have a Tacoma with an outlet in the back plus an Anker power bank that could be used to charge up the battery and top off via solar, but I'm curious if anyone has been directly solar charging their battery.

 

[brentonb]

I have put some thought into how to do this.
I would have a secondary battery charged of a dc/dc through the car as well as solar and then have an inverter to plug the bike charger into.

below are the links to the parts above
Battery

Home Page - Adventure Kings

www.4wdsupacentre.com.au

dcdc charger

Home Page - Adventure Kings

www.4wdsupacentre.com.au

solar blanket

Home Page - Adventure Kings

www.4wdsupacentre.com.au

inverter

Home Page - Adventure Kings

www.4wdsupacentre.com.au

I don't think you could go straight in with solar as you need to convert the solar through something (like a dc/dc) and then have it converted to the right type of power and then hope you have the right amount of sun that you don't get variations of power supply.

I would still want to have another battery in between and a "rubber band" for the supply

 

[motoergosum]

Should have specified I'm in the USA. I have an Anker portable power bank I could use as the battery. I'd just need a good solar panel. The one I have now is only intended for charging small devices.

 

[brentonb]

https://www.redarc.com.au/solar-panels

Australian company that I believe is available in the US.
This is the best of the best here in AUS for 4wd and touring, if it lasts out here it will do the job for you.

 

[Wombat Breath]

Should have specified I'm in the USA. I have an Anker portable power bank I could use as the battery. I'd just need a good solar panel. The one I have now is only intended for charging small devices.

Hi mate - here's a good comparison with actual numbers I saw recently....

 

[Litehiker]

I recently returned from an E-MTB powered antelope hunt in north central Nevada.
See my story above.
I used an Off Grid TREK 220 watt solar blanket to charge my BLUETTI lithium iron phosphate "solar" battery and everything went very well. IT charged my two bike batteries (17.5 Ahand 14 Ah) in about 90 minutes from 70 to 100%.
Also I kept a small cooler running all day off the BLUETTI with no loss of charge.

When I bought my 220 watt OGT solar blanket it was the highest power they sold. Now they sell a longer 300 watt blanket that I may buy to run a larger cooler all day - or not. They are Very spendy. That 300 watt blanket is about $2,000. US. The company is in Canada, eh?
My "story" to my wife was "Well, we can always use the solar blanket and battery for power outages to run refrigerators - and hair dryers." Seemed to work for me so far. So if you have the "disposable income" for this setup go for it. Me? I'm spending my daughters' inheritance.