Any comparable full kits?? 360 Watts

[Gatorbait]

gonna run them down the length over the passenger side. My thule will be above the drivers seat and I'm going to make a small wooden box for tools and stuff behind that.

[1der]

Cool. Keep in mind shadowing on the panels. Shade about 10% of a panel and the output drops by something like 85%i

[boywonder]

Gatorbait:

As Dave mentioned, you should consider connecting the van batteries to the house batteries with a separator. Keep in mind that a pair of panels like you are considering will output maybe 12A-14A max in direct sunlight. That means maybe 10-15 hrs to fully charge a fully discharged a house battery. Your alternator will put out around 125A, so 10X the amps......fully charge a battery in an hour to an hour and a half with the engine running.

Separators come unidirectional (only charge all batteries from the alternator) or bi-directional where the solar can charge the van battery as well as the house batts. If you are not worried about having solar charge the starting battery, consider a unidirectional separator.

A few brand names for solar controllers:

Blue Sky
Morningstar
Midnite solar
Samlex


Inverters:

Xantrex
Tripp Lite
Samlex

Separators:

Blue Sea
Sure Power

Search for the above; there is loads of info here........hours of entertainment.

There are many more brand name stuff........and I skipped solar panels......

[86Scotty]

Originally Posted by 1der

Cool. Keep in mind shadowing on the panels. Shade about 10% of a panel and the output drops by something like 85%i

What? Seriously?

[BroncoHauler]

Originally Posted by 86Scotty

What? Seriously?

See Jage's video in this thread.

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=7644


Herb

[daveb]

A lot depends on the panel design, the number of panels with respect to how they are hooked to the system and even the type of controller used but orientation matters as well with some panels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTDSPjDSrS8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNPJapaZlCU

Note that these were single panels.

[86Scotty]

Unbelievable! I had no idea. My roof box has been partially shading my panel since I installed it. I'll be moving it now and checking the results.

[Viva]

It's true that all panels are not exactly the same, but they still all are disproportionately affected by shade, as far as I know. I've seen just a thin wire (rigging) throw a shadow across a panel and the output drop significantly. Makes it a challenge to situate them - especially if they are not "alone" on the roof (not to mention shade from trees, etc.).

[daveb]

Yeah but you still need to figure that test mainly showed close shadowing and the longer distance shadow didn't reduce it as much. Anyway there is a reason to put more than one panel up. I Actually do ok in light cover or soft shadowing

[Gatorbait]

okay so I'm going to take everyone's advice and start piecing something together. Has anyone heard of altE panels?

Looking at this one.
http://www.altestore.com/store/Solar-Pa ... el/p10354/

Also, if I install the isolator and connect it to the stock alternator am I going to run into any issues using the stock alt to charge those house batteries? Obviously I'll try to use the panels as much as possible, but if I'm getting low on a cloudy day and I'm moving campsites, might as well charge em along the way.