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Solar Panel for Overlanding

k3g

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With other brands just be advised that some have trouble recharging from the truck, for example if it's cloudy.
I use an Ecoflow Delta 2. I have 3x 50w panels on my roof tent, and for trips under a few days it's plenty. My D2 runs a camping fridge, and some lights when we're at camp. It's able to charge from the truck just fine.
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kopper

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Giving this a try, see how it works out over a summer. 3 x 100W mppt victron charge control, 2.5kWh (there is a second 100ah in there now if you're doing the math) 12vdc lithium iron phosphate and a 2kW inverter. so far I am getting about 4 miles of range per day under semi-good conditions (about half that on cloudy days), figured I could dump the solar battery surplus into the truck.

Rivian R1T R1S Solar Panel for Overlanding PXL_20240615_192005781


Rivian R1T R1S Solar Panel for Overlanding PXL_20240615_191947190


Rivian R1T R1S Solar Panel for Overlanding PXL_20240615_191954918
 
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Giving this a try, see how it works out over a summer. 3 x 100W mppt victron charge control, 2.5kWh (there is a second 100ah in there now if you're doing the math) 12vdc lithium iron phosphate and a 2kW inverter. so far I am getting about 4 miles of range per day under semi-good conditions (about half that on cloudy days), figured I could dump the solar battery surplus into the truck.
Nice setup! I'm trying my best to follow along here, so please correct me if I'm wrong somewhere... So you got 3x solar panels, each capable of producing 100w each, so thats 300w DC in total flowing into charge controller. The charge controller regulates charge to 2x LiFePo batteries (12.5v x 100ah = 1.2kWh (x2 batteries, so 2.4kWh)). Then the batteries discharges into the inverter capable of sending 2kW to CCS charging cable under ideal conditions. And per the pictures, you're getting 1.3kW charge rate and lasting about 2 hours until batteries deplete resulting in your ~4mi range, right?
 

DaveA

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kopper

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Nice setup! I'm trying my best to follow along here, so please correct me if I'm wrong somewhere... So you got 3x solar panels, each capable of producing 100w each, so thats 300w DC in total flowing into charge controller. The charge controller regulates charge to 2x LiFePo batteries (12.5v x 100ah = 1.2kWh (x2 batteries, so 2.4kWh)). Then the batteries discharges into the inverter capable of sending 2kW to CCS charging cable under ideal conditions. And per the pictures, you're getting 1.3kW charge rate and lasting about 2 hours until batteries deplete resulting in your ~4mi range, right?
Exactly right. I've noticed that 120vac charging is a bit more inefficient than anticipated. I should be able to recover over 4 miles (driving conservatively) in our neighborhood. I'm probably not accounting for mppt conversion losses either. still, cool experiment and it is great for camping.
 

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nomis

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I've seen this ad around. I need more details though. As far as I know, you need a battery or super capacitor of sorts that the solar panels can charge into, and then the batteries will discharge to charge the vehicle. Pretty sure the charging of batteries and discharging of batteries has to be separate processes, it can't charge and discharge in parallel.
 

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I believe, based on reading the website, that it has a battery.

"Battery Type: Lithium Iron Phosphate to buffer solar intermittency"
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