Any input on a solar charger/maintainer for our camping trips? I plan on running a few things with my inverter I installed in the back of my rig and didn't want to strain the battery too much. I'm installing a volt gauge in the back to watch the level of charge I have.I do understand this won't run my electronics but I'm still interested in some input.

A dual battery set up may be my next project.

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You can add a solar charge regulator for cheap. It will keep it from overcharging the battery. It will overcharge if you don't use one.
Harborfreight

What are you planning on running and for how long? "A few things"?

Are you running things off the starter battery? If you haven't upgraded to an AGM battery or similar, then it's bad to deep cycle it, so it's best to only run small loads and/or for a short time.

In my experience the alternator is not great at recharging a deeply discharged battery (it will charge it, just maybe not 100%), so it would be best to have a good regulator for your solar panels that charges the battery to 100%, and/or buy a charger to top it up when you get home. The longer you leave the battery discharged before you charge it, the more you will shorten its life.

Solar is fairly expensive for the amount of energy you get. Depending on what you're powering and how long you plan on camping it might be cheaper to get a dual battery and charge it at home or at campsites with RV hookups.

I tried piecing a system together on my own, but ultimately settled on this Renogy suitcase unit. It's stupid simple and works great.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I just got the new 100w Renogy suitcase and will be trying it out next week. I plan on using it to top off my 4Runner if hanging around camp, my Goal Zero Yeti 400, and probably lending some juice to my brother for his trailer battery.

I generally shy away from actually running much of anything beyond a phone charger off my truck. My "dual battery" setup consists of a Harbor Freight jumpstarter I keep in the back. I have a male-male cable that keeps it plugged into the rear power port all the time so it stays charged. When I hit camp, that's my power supply for charging the kids electronics (it has a built-in USB port) or a small water pump for washing dishes. It also has a small LED lantern built in. So far I haven't killed it on weekend trips and have had to use it to jump another camper's vehicle after they left the switch on all night to charge their phone (DOH!!).

The only "flaw" in my setup is that there's nothing to prevent the truck from running the jumpstarter down if I were to leave some high-draw appliance connected. I've looked into a couple of charge-controller type setups and could easily put something together but have just been lazy.

I've got a 60W panel on the roof of my storage shed out back running to a cheap charge controller and an old car battery. It's just something to tinker with. Whatever you get just make sure to disconnect the panel from the charge controller before you unhook the battery. The controller uses the battery as a load and without it the controller can fry unless it has some kind of big shunt or auto-disconnect.

Lot of variables here Caleb, let's start with what you plan on charging with a single battery...

I have a small solar setup inside the 4Runner which I put together as part of my camping emergency/recovery/communications kit. I just figured its good to have plus I wanted to learn about solar stuff so I did these projects.

It consists of a 60 watt folding panel that fits where the OEM subwoofer would go if I had one.

In hopes to increase the overall performance, quality, and efficiency of the setup I decide to spend a little extra money on a good quality made in USA MPPT solar charge controller. The ham radio forums also report these to be "radio quiet" so that became a selling point for me in addition to the performance over PWM.

https://genasun.com/all-products/sol...ge-controller/

Both items stay in the truck at all times and the solar charge controller was wired into the truck so all I need to do is deploy a panel and not worry about any wiring except for plugging in the panel using a Anderson quick disconnect.




It worked out really well and I decided to make something a little more portable so I put together something inside a 30 cal ammo can that works either either my 50 watt Renogy or my folding panel.

This also has its own Genasun MPPT charge controller with a fused LVD so I can leave low drain (5A or less) items running unattended without worrying about damaging my battery.

My design includes USB charging ports, and Anderson Powerpole quick disconnects for power (red/black) and solar panel connections (white/black)






Many uses... comes in very handy.

The main thing I use it for these days is for my tent...
In tent power for my mattress pump and phone charging and I just have a wire stringing out to a panel on the floor or hanging on my tents roof.

Also used for:
Lighting
Emergency Radio Communications
Charging phones
Charging lithium 18650 flashlight batteries.

I use it around the house quite a bit so it was a worth while project.






Closing notes is I found a 50-60 watt panel to be easy to manage and a good size, both physically and in capacity for most of my needs, even higher amperage intermittent loads like a Viair 400P air pump which I can easily run off my 17Ah SLA APC battery.

I have dual batt setup and the 100w Renogy solar panel. It's not cheap, but the panel will keep up with my fridge amperage draw and still charge my deep cycle house batt, on a sunny day of course. @Liquidmantis you should be happy with yours.
I think a roll up/fold up flexible panel might be more practical for space and bouncing around on trails, and you can lay it out anywhere the length of your charging cable will allow. This is the only drawback of the Renogy fold up, because you need a relatively flat surface to set it up, and you have to pack it accordingly to protect it from bouncing on the trails, but the smart charge controller is top notch and I'm happy with its performance. A friend who lives in NY state, says they don't like extreme cold, so be careful of that. They will get brittle and crack.
Also, I agree with @m85476585 , your start battery will not last long with this type of current draw. Most stock alternators aren't designed to replenish a deeply discharged battery multiple times either, which could drastically reduce the life of the unit. They aren't cheap.
But, its pretty damn cool to have self sufficient power out on camping trips so its worth the investment to do it right IMHO. Good Luck! @TowMeOut hey neighbor!
P.S. Nice setup @Bumbo . Ammo box is a great idea!

The more I read, the more likely I'll get a dual battery set-up. Maybe something along the lines of what @Bumbo has...that looks really cool!

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Thanks

I have a dual battery setup as well... it's a really nice mod and when done right (with a good ACR and LVD) gives you a lot of convenience and worry free luxury. Even with solar, you still need to store that energy somewhere. I enjoy having the capacity and the separation from the battery that starts the truck.

The solar is just a different type of tool to me... I kinda did all this stuff around the same time so I forgot what really came first, but after using the dual battery setup solar turned into something I wanted in the truck as part of my recovery kit. I love my 60 watt folding panel as it tucks away out of sight and out of the way.

To be honest I rarely use solar when camping because it's just another thing to setup and deal with. There are times I do set it up, like when I have active loads and I don't want to run the truck over the course of multiple days. It can save you a good deal of gas, but I generally drive the truck enough to not need it.

One of the main reasons I built and bought all this solar stuff was just because I wanted some solar stuff to tinker with. Its been fun and educational. I also thought it was just a smart thing to own for general emergency preparedness so I didn't mind the investment.

Here is what it looks like under the hood, at least in my V6 4th Gen.


I know it sounds a little ridiculous but these days I just "plug my tent into my truck" before going to bed. Anderson quick disconnects are your friend. I basically have DC power outlets inside and outside in various convenient locations. If I can't do this I would use my ammo can battery pack.


If you want to go down the road of building a setup, I high recommend you check out the Blue Sea ACR and LVD (Low Voltage Disconnect)

I did a write up on the ACR here.
Blue Sea ACR - Automatic Charging Relays

Here is the LVD I used.
https://www.bluesea.com/products/763...age_Disconnect


Sorry for the long winded post, but I do enjoy tinkering with all this electrical stuff so I wanted to share.

@Bumbo Definitely like your ingenuity! The (edit: forgot about your 30 Cal Ammo box) and quick disconnect for the tent is brilliant! Love me some Blue Seas as well. I had this unit (ML-ACR 7622) on my Ocean/Bay boat and was very impressed with it, so I put one in the Runner. It also has low voltage lock out when in Auto, has a switch mounted in the cab or a manual switch on the unit, and when I lock both batteries together for winching, this unit is rated at 500 amps to handle the load. All of my heavy Amp main Wafer Fuses (also in pic) and switching components are Blue Seas. I also put good cable in the system, including upgraded Starter/Alternator/Ground cables, it's all Marine or Welding grade.



Your idea for Solar Recovery is spot on as I have already made use of it. My high dollar aftermarket high output Alt. took a dump on a trail ride (lesson learned on aftermarket), so I nursed it back to camp with batteries isolated, which killed a cell in the starting battery so it wouldn't hold a charge more than a few hours. With the Solar panel I was able to run my fridge and keep both batteries from discharging completely by switching back and forth for a couple hours.



I needed cell signal for a parts store search, so I drove into town on the starting battery, which gave out. Out of 10 parts stores and 3 dealers in an hours radius, no one had one in stock. So now even both batteries wont start the truck and I'm stuck in town. Get out my little NOCO, start the truck and both batteries have enough to get me back to camp and hook the solar back up.



Luckily I was able to get my Tacoma buddy to bring my stock alternator from the house 3 hrs away. The whole scenario took a day and a half and the Solar panel was a big part of it coming together. I could have walked in to town at any time, so I wasn't stranded in wilderness, but the system as a whole saved me a lot of aggravation.

I really do like that start isolation feature... I did a pretty detailed write up on the smaller blue sea acr if anyone missed that link above.

@4RunnerAquasport I gave up that feature for aux battery priority but your example is exactly why it is there.

I wouldn't mind buying one of those noco genius jump start packs. Its a good product and a huge upgrade from the older style which are much larger in size.

I don't daily drive my 4Runner... so I do use the noco genius 7.2 amp charger/maintainer to keep my packs in good condition and the electronics like the fridge running during pre-trip prep.

It would be nice to use solar but my HOA wont let me put a panel on my roof.

Hey guys I understand solar power maintainer is a trickle charger, is that enough to supply a Dual Dashcam setup? I have it hardwired to my 2014 4Runner with 11.2V protection.

If I add a 10Watt Solar panel to be placed over my windscreen, will I be able to prolong my dash cam recording?

Most likely yes... I can't see a dash cam using that much power, and as long as the panel isn't starved of sunlight it would probably help a lot.

The best thing to do would be to measure how much power it actually uses and plan accordingly. It's pretty easy, can accomplish with a basic multi-meter (inline current reading)