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Hi all. New to the forum, so I am hoping that this is the most appropriate area for this question.
Dad has a 2007 F350 diesel. The truck has a pretty high draw that we haven't tracked down yet, and the truck isn't used frequently, so we are fighting dead batteries from time to time. He has a Coleman 20W panel that he plugs into the cigarette lighter, and it doesn't seem to help. Did some poking around this week... I doubt that I waited until all of the computers had "gone to sleep", but I was seeing about 0.3A draw with the truck off. I checked the solar panel where we had it propped up in the rear window - voltage but no amps. If I put the panel outside the truck facing intense, mid-day sunshine, I was only able to see 0.17A. But inside the truck, the windows are too tinted, so I was only able to generate a current with the panel on the dash facing up through the windshield, and even then, it was only 0.03A.
We can put new batteries in the truck again, but that is a band-aid. My brother and I will poke around to see if we can find the drain, but from what I have read, these trucks tend to draw enough that they are hard on batteries anyway. Where dad has to park the truck has no electrical. So options are battery shut offs under the hood, or (hopefully) a solar solution...
Can anyone suggest a solar panel/system that would provide about 0.5A? I think that level of current during the day would more-or-less break even on the draw, even if it stays close to the 0.3A that I saw. And - is there a panel that would perform well enough to keep it in the cab? I'm guessing that the rear tinted windows are just too much, but maybe its just this panel? I will insist that he gets a regular on this panel to ensure that he doesn't over-charge. But I'm hoping to find something that we can mount on the rear deck and leave installed to permanently offset the drain.
Also - I would intend to wire this direct to the batteries. Do you think we're losing much power by going back into the cigarette lighter socket? Its handy because it all stays in-cab, and I have confirmed that the plug is not switched, so it does allow us to feed power back into the system..
That panel he has is rated 20 watts, and short-circuit current 1.3A, but based on the physical measurements that I made, I cannot image a sunny enough day to achieve either of those specs. That makes me leery of trying to find an alternative that works based only on the specifications.
Thanks in advance!
danr
Saskatoon, Canada
Dad has a 2007 F350 diesel. The truck has a pretty high draw that we haven't tracked down yet, and the truck isn't used frequently, so we are fighting dead batteries from time to time. He has a Coleman 20W panel that he plugs into the cigarette lighter, and it doesn't seem to help. Did some poking around this week... I doubt that I waited until all of the computers had "gone to sleep", but I was seeing about 0.3A draw with the truck off. I checked the solar panel where we had it propped up in the rear window - voltage but no amps. If I put the panel outside the truck facing intense, mid-day sunshine, I was only able to see 0.17A. But inside the truck, the windows are too tinted, so I was only able to generate a current with the panel on the dash facing up through the windshield, and even then, it was only 0.03A.
We can put new batteries in the truck again, but that is a band-aid. My brother and I will poke around to see if we can find the drain, but from what I have read, these trucks tend to draw enough that they are hard on batteries anyway. Where dad has to park the truck has no electrical. So options are battery shut offs under the hood, or (hopefully) a solar solution...
Can anyone suggest a solar panel/system that would provide about 0.5A? I think that level of current during the day would more-or-less break even on the draw, even if it stays close to the 0.3A that I saw. And - is there a panel that would perform well enough to keep it in the cab? I'm guessing that the rear tinted windows are just too much, but maybe its just this panel? I will insist that he gets a regular on this panel to ensure that he doesn't over-charge. But I'm hoping to find something that we can mount on the rear deck and leave installed to permanently offset the drain.
Also - I would intend to wire this direct to the batteries. Do you think we're losing much power by going back into the cigarette lighter socket? Its handy because it all stays in-cab, and I have confirmed that the plug is not switched, so it does allow us to feed power back into the system..
That panel he has is rated 20 watts, and short-circuit current 1.3A, but based on the physical measurements that I made, I cannot image a sunny enough day to achieve either of those specs. That makes me leery of trying to find an alternative that works based only on the specifications.
Thanks in advance!
danr
Saskatoon, Canada
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