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Battery Tender Solar Charger

PAToyota

Red Skull Member
Joined
May 27, 2020
Member Number
1545
Messages
1,182
Loc
South Central Pennsylvania, USA
Is anyone using one of these: Solar Panels

I've got a couple Battery Tender products for the motorcycle, skidsteer, and mini-ex to keep the batteries topped off despite infrequent use.

One of the ongoing issues with the GM diesels is the two batteries "fighting" each other. Seems about four years is tops for a battery in either of them.

I was thinking about adding a solar "tender" to them to keep them juiced up. I'm not sure if the 5W version would be enough or if I should go up to the 17W version.

Other option would be a dual battery isolator so that they're disconnected when the vehicle isn't running.

021-1173.BatteryTender.02.RightSide.jpg
 
I Have a solar charger mounted on the hood of a CUCV. It came on truck, was told it was off a HMMV . It seems to keep batteries charged as truck sits for month or more at times.
 
Have a small panel from the same company as makes the smart chargers, seems to be too small of wattage to do any good.
 
Will go get pics and specs of the one I have.
 
I Have a solar charger mounted on the hood of a CUCV. It came on truck, was told it was off a HMMV . It seems to keep batteries charged as truck sits for month or more at times.

My two diesels get regular use, but the dual batteries working against each other seems to be the issue. My thought is that keeping them fully charged would help the situation.

Heck, I typically use the 2A setting on my battery charger when I need to recharge something, so 5A during daylight hours should be more than enough if it is doing that every day.
 
My two diesels get regular use, but the dual batteries working against each other seems to be the issue. My thought is that keeping them fully charged would help the situation.

Heck, I typically use the 2A setting on my battery charger when I need to recharge something, so 5A during daylight hours should be more than enough if it is doing that every day.
5 amp at 12volts = 60 watts, closer to 75 at topped off battery levels.

between a 5w and a 20w panel, i'd suggest 20w
 
I have a 5w panel and it wont keep any of my batteries in use charged.

It might work on the little battery that the garage door uses as backup for when the power is out.
 
I threw one of the HF 25w ones on top of my forklift because the battery kept randomly dying. It's started perfectly every time since I put it up there 5 or 6 months ago.


I've bought a bunch of these for work. We use GPS survey equipment and the base stations stay out in the field for months at a time. You either need to take them down every night to charge them, or swap out car batteries as they die. I started sticking these on them and they're more than enough to keep the batteries topped off unless we have like a week straight of overcast skies.
 
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