[Shop-talk] Solar car battery chargers

[Fred Katz]

Be careful of using those solar chargers without a regulator. A friend of mine
used a 1.8 watt on his F-150 truck, had a new battery just a few months old.
After sitting in the sun for several months, it killed his battery.
Over-charged it. He got a free replacement battery, but is now more careful by
disconnecting the solar charger after a couple days use. I use a 5 watt solar
charger, got it from HF on sale for $30, and don't leave it connected more
than a day at a time.

Fred

On Oct 11, 2010, at 6:31 AM, Scott Hall <scott.hall.personal at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Because the truck is moving out of the shop, so I can have the room it's
taking up, and because i know some of you are not just EEs, but actually apply
it as well.
>
> I'd like to use a solar trickle charger on my F250 (diesel) to maintain the
batteries over long period of un-use.  I was about to buy the $30 trickle
charger off Amazon
(http://www.amazon.com/Wagan-2017-Solar-Battery-Charger/dp/B000VHT9GS), but I
wonder if the truck having two batteries means anything (like if I should get
a bigger charger).  Then it occurred to me that $30 might not buy a lot of
charger, so I thought I'd throw it out to the list.  Anybody keeping something
with more than one battery topped up with a solar charger?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Scott
> _______________________________________________