Club 80-90 Forums

saw this at Marlins yesterday, and wondered if it would be suitable to strap to the roof, so I could have extended camping stays with out the need of day trips out and about to charge the leisure battery?
I just use the leisure battery for led interior lights and the stereo, but may be using it to run a portable DVD player/screen too, any thoughts?

cheers Ben

i have just bought a 40watt one from ebay for 80 quid.it came with a digital regulator that you can set to stop charging at certain voltages and stuff.
i went to maplins the next day for some connectors and was well pissed off that this was on sale.i had a look on their site and the ones i saw were around 300 quid for a 40 watt one but i didnt scroll down the page far enough to see this one on offer.
the one i got i havnt seen it go much over 1 amp and its rating is 2.8 amps..but then again we aint had the weather for it to work at its best.

it did charge up me battery from 70% to 97% from 6 at night till 10 in the morning..so i guess it was working but later on that day it said the battery was at 85% ..its all greek to me

also i noticed that the pack says it includes the blocking diode and the charge regulator..i thought the charge regulator stopped power loss back through the panel ..maybe this is why im loosing charge

cheers dude, sounds like it may be a good one to go for, I'll get back down there at the weekend and try and grab one:-)

Check that the solar panel is waterproof, some are only suitable for resting on your dashboard.

Good point louey, especially as I was thinking of bonding it to my pop-top

weldore wrote:also i noticed that the pack says it includes the blocking diode and the charge regulator..i thought the charge regulator stopped power loss back through the panel ..maybe this is why im loosing charge

The blocking diode would stop the battery feeding back to the solar panel & the charge regulator shuts off the supply to the battery when & if the battery feeds back sufficient voltage to it( the regulator). If you are loosing charge then either something else is drawing current from the battery or the battery is failing.

in the intruction book that came with my regulator it says it has built in protection to stop it from feeding back..i went out to it the other day and it was back to 97% charge..so it seems to be doing the job.
ill check it again today see how its doing ...on a day like today i might even get an amp out of it ..dunno why im laughing for the price i should be