Would this have enough juice? (Solar-tending)

Hey guys. I recently came upon a solar kit from Harbor Freight as my little bro decided he didn't want it. I'm considering mounting the panel to my tool box and running a battery inside.

Here's what I mocked up in my head:

The deep cycle that I picked up is good for 35 amp hours and I'm curious whether or not it would have enough juice to jump my truck if I ran into trouble. The plan is to just have this thing as a battery backup and possibly hook up a little baby power inverter or something to use this to power small electronics.

Thoughts?

 

Why not just get an emergency battery jump starter, they hold a charge for like 6-9 months, sometimes more.

$109 Duracell Power DRLJS20 Black Universal 12V 1100 Amp Lithium Ion Emergency Jump Starter

https://www.amazon.com/Duracell-DRL...ttery+jump&dpPl=1&dpID=413JkB86gVL&ref=plSrch

 

What size panel, harbor freight's arent real efficient. But hell, free is great. I've toyed with the idea of buying the kit for my pop up camper.

 

Deep cycles are tricky, and it all depends on the type of battery you get. Is it a true deep cycle, designed for electric motors and the like? Those are great for driving an inverter, but not for jumping a dead truck.

The plates are thicker on a deep cycle, meaning great storage capacity but not-so-great for rapid power draws such as turning over a cold engine.

On the other hand, running a marine/RV battery is a hybrid of sorts. It doesn't store quite the amp hours of a true deep cycle, but contains just enough cranking amps to start an engine. That's likely what you want.

Check out some threads on RV solar setups to gain knowledge on battery choice, and match one to your needs.

Cool project idea!

 

Small solar panels are only good at keeping a charged battery charged. They are not that great at recharging a battery. Your better off charging the second battery from the alternator when the truck is running.

 

You’ll need a bigger array.

Just get one of these it’s the cheapest insurance you can get for jump starting, small and compact. Read the reviews, people rave about it. You can also use it as a power source. Not sure if you can recharge it via solar, though.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NOCO-GB40-...c-50c6-4cfe-85d7-769fe0bf1ab4&epid=1057495199

 

Copy cat

 

Oops didn’t read the whole thread

 

lol no worries, great minds think a like. I’ve had one for years and never failed me or anyone I helped jump.

 

@Grossomotto okay dudes, I get that it probably makes more sense to have a purpose-built jumper charged up, but I could tend one of those with this system right? Is it even worth it to have a small 25watt solar setup?

 

Yeah I have a small one like this for an emergency that’ll recharge cell phone and small items. A 25 watt may recharge one of those jump starters, but could take all day or longer.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Foldable-2...m=302280002096&_trksid=p2056116.c100935.m2460

Honestly I think you’ll need quite a lot more than 25 watts to recharge a full size car battery plus you need full sunshine, cloudy and rainy days they really don’t work.

Solar can be great if done correctly and the right size. But, I like gas generators and rechargeable lith ion batteries.

 

That’s the thing, I won’t say I have a lot of experience with solar but typically they push really low amps. I looked into it for my wood shop but it’s completely unrealistic. Amps is what is important with starting a car, that’s why you can’t use typical AA or D cell type batteries. I know because it was a physics question last semester. Same is true of solar, the amps are way off.

Most of the jump starters can be recharged with 12v/ 120v solar, 12v car or 120v house electric.