Solar panels and battery to get unlimited range ...

[Zantosh76]

I've been toying with the idea of how to get unlimited range, albeit slowly, in my CT.

I have concluded that a battery and foldable solar panels may be the way to go.

However, which ones?

• Bluetti
• Ecoflow
• Jackery

The idea is to have a battery+solar for longer off grid trips, of which there are fewwr as the days go by. I suppose on such a trip, I would charge up before the last leg to the remote outpost and once there, deploy the panels, plug it into the battery and plug the truck into the battery.

In theory, the charge would be a trickle but mostly we would be sitting around so this would not be a big deal.

Also the charge is to the battery that can power the truck at 50 amps so the battery capacity is the limitation. So if I charge the battery during the day then at night, in can get some charge back into the truck.

Thoughts?

Sponsored

 

[loki]

This is something similar? https://gosun.co/pages/ev-solar-charger

 

[Cyphertruck]

I've been toying with the idea of how to get unlimited range, albeit slowly, in my CT.

I have concluded that a battery and foldable solar panels may be the way to go.

However, which ones?

• Bluetti
• Ecoflow
• Jackery

The idea is to have a battery+solar for longer off grid trips, of which there are fewwr as the days go by. I suppose on such a trip, I would charge up before the last leg to the remote outpost and once there, deploy the panels, plug it into the battery and plug the truck into the battery.

In theory, the charge would be a trickle but mostly we would be sitting around so this would not be a big deal.

Also the charge is to the battery that can power the truck at 50 amps so the battery capacity is the limitation. So if I charge the battery during the day then at night, in can get some charge back into the truck.

Thoughts?

What battery will charge the truck at 50 amps? This could be functional for me at work. I park in the sun all day while working. Would be nice to shade the truck in solar panels while charging it.

 

[Crissa]

None of these are really good solutions unless you're going to sit somewhere for a week, It's not the speed they charge the truck, but that a portable unit will have about 3kWh total to give before being emoty and your truck has 123kWh of capacity.

The fact that you have to change the power from solar to battery to inverter to rectifier cuts into how much power you can get from these solutions. In addition, the truck is a truck, and consumes alot of power.

As it is, you could set up an Ecoflow to charge from solar panels, and then manually plug it in and discharge the Ecoflow into the truck overnight. You would have to initiate each charging cycle for the truck by plugging it in at night and then unplugging it when you'd want to use the truck.

The batteries mostly can end the charging cycle at a certain point, they just can't start it. And the truck won't operate with something plugged into the charger.

That's the limit of what you can do with off the shelf products today.

However, there are also solar carports which sit around with their own battery and you plug into them while you're at their location.

But all of these will suffer the problem of being a small bucket of kilowatt hours trying to fill your big tank of a battery.

The real best solution would be a modification that allowed you to plug in panels directly to a solar controller feeding 800v to your truck's battery. But that's a problem that has yet to have off the shelf solutions.

-Crissa

 

[TexasRaider]

A portable 400w Renogy panel (is $600 currently on Amazon.)
123kw / 0.4kw ~ 307 full sun hours ?
It’s do able, but still super expensive. Probably ,in today’s market, rounding up to $3000 with a mobile battery setup.

Maybe be able to get it lower on a special holiday deal or something? Would it be cheaper?

 

[Zantosh76]

You're right. It is an exercise in futility.

I guess the next best thing is to always rent a campsite or KOA with a 30 amp drop for RVs and so it may be a backup option.

 

[Kl777yl]

You'd be much further ahead to just buy the range extender pack. Anything solar would only be trickle charging at best....and that's when the sun shines. On the other hand, solar makes a lot of sense for things like RV's, but not for something with BIG motors. My 2 cents.

(FWIW, we're living off the grid with solar/batteries. We fill our X & S tanks with photons. We heat & cool with our system and have excess to sell back to the grid.)

 

[No-ICE]

Here is a suggestion to reduce phantom drain.

Place a flexible 100-200w solar panel on the CT 40 acre dash connected to a 48v MPPT solar controller with the out put going to the CT 48v battery.

Leave the system connected 24/7
Use the solar panel as a sun shade when parked
Now the 400/800v battery loses less power keeping the 48v battery charged

N.ICE

 

[Outdoors]

Yup. Got all of the above. Just have to come home each day. 100% off grid. Thankfully my circle includes enough to keep me busy for life. One car charges automatically after the battery bank is full for living, and we swap cars every 1.5 days. In a few years it will be two trucks.

I am with @Crissa. I don't see current off the shelf situations working even though I would likely be the person take 10Kwh out of my server racks to try. One loses too much in the movement or some call it a tax to make it work right now.

I think now the best route is to use batteries at camp, not use the truck after getting to where you want to go. Some I know use ECO flow Delta's to run tiny homes for weekend's. Why use range?

I also find my range at 20-30 mph is crazy if constant. If one can be slow, one can go far.

Peace.

 

[RoboTaxi]

You want the solar generator with the largest solar input available. I believe that’s the BLUETTI AC300 + B300 with 2400w of solar input.

 

[RoboTaxi]

You want the solar generator with the largest solar input available. I believe that’s the BLUETTI AC300 + B300 with 2400w of solar input.

then you gotta get a lot of panels and wait around this could work with boondock camping.

https://www.bluettipower.com/produc...MIzdH9y8XehgMVRlJ_AB1PlQDgEAQYASABEgK_E_D_BwE

 

[Zantosh76]

I've been toying with the idea of how to get unlimited range, albeit slowly, in my CT.

I have concluded that a battery and foldable solar panels may be the way to go.

However, which ones?

• Bluetti
• Ecoflow
• Jackery

The idea is to have a battery+solar for longer off grid trips, of which there are fewwr as the days go by. I suppose on such a trip, I would charge up before the last leg to the remote outpost and once there, deploy the panels, plug it into the battery and plug the truck into the battery.

In theory, the charge would be a trickle but mostly we would be sitting around so this would not be a big deal.

Also the charge is to the battery that can power the truck at 50 amps so the battery capacity is the limitation. So if I charge the battery during the day then at night, in can get some charge back into the truck.

Thoughts?

I found this.

https://kempower.com/america/solution/kempower-movable-charger/

 

[Crissa]

Ecoflow keeps getting better, but my system cost about $3k, yeah. But it can power my house for a day, so that's awesome.

I'm considering putting an inverter on my motorcycle, too, so it can help. It would also be nice to take it to the trail head to do some firebreak maintenance.

-Crissa

 

[rizvend]

I've been toying with the idea of how to get unlimited range, albeit slowly, in my CT.

I have concluded that a battery and foldable solar panels may be the way to go.

However, which ones?

• Bluetti
• Ecoflow
• Jackery

The idea is to have a battery+solar for longer off grid trips, of which there are fewwr as the days go by. I suppose on such a trip, I would charge up before the last leg to the remote outpost and once there, deploy the panels, plug it into the battery and plug the truck into the battery.

In theory, the charge would be a trickle but mostly we would be sitting around so this would not be a big deal.

Also the charge is to the battery that can power the truck at 50 amps so the battery capacity is the limitation. So if I charge the battery during the day then at night, in can get some charge back into the truck.

Thoughts?

Add Gosun...
https://gosun.co/products/ev-solar-...IQz7v2HgibQPoT_1lhjqSynNeRQF6d_oaAoOZEALw_wcB

 

[Darthamerica]

You're right. It is an exercise in futility.

I guess the next best thing is to always rent a campsite or KOA with a 30 amp drop for RVs and so it may be a backup option.

I wouldn’t say futile, I’d say future… distant future. PV panels aren’t efficient or large enough in vehicle applications to power mobility for most normal use cases.

Sponsored