Solar Panel charging system

[hebear1133]

So I need a little help. Im going on a yearly fishing trip with some buddies and instead of bringing up a 2 stroke or 4 stroke motor I bought an electric min kota prop last year that worked great for a day until it drained my battery. I have been thinking a different ways to charge or keep a charge on the battery with the long days of fishing. One way was to bring a suitcase gene to charge the battery at night but due to lack of funds im unable to buy one for this trip. The other idea was to buy a solar panel to trickle charge the battery to try and maintain a over the 3 or 4 days. Does anyone know how well or if this will even work?

This is the solar panel I was looking at

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brows....jsp?locale=en

[Xiph0id]

Not sure how much juice the 20 watt will put out compared to mine but my truck camper has a 5.5 and over the course of 7 days the battery starts to get low only running lights at night and a furnace fan. I suspect 20 watts won't quite be enough for a pig like trolling motor.

[dodgeboy1979]

you are fishing in the day and charging at night, solar won't give you a full charge on your battery, best is to get a 10amp charger and charge the battery up at night.

[camshaft]

Agreed. Bring a charger, generator, or simply the gas motor and all problems disappear.

[hillbillyreefer]

Hook the battery to your vehicle with booster cables and charge it that way. Easy peasy, you probably have everything you need already.

[cube]

What size of battery was drained in one day? The charger you’re looking at will only be putting in 1.6 amps under ideal conditions. So if your battery was a 100 ah battery it would take it about 60 hours under ideal conditions to charge it back up. Hence, you would probably need at least 3 or 4 of these solar panels hooked up concurrently. Generally it is just easier to use a small gas motor unless your close to a plug in source of electricity.

You could always buy one of those solar panels and test it. I hear Canadian Tire has a good return policy. Just remember a battery is not fully charged at 12 volts. It's fully charged at 12.7 volts and only has about 25% remaining when at 12 volts.

[dragon]

Why not buy a couple extra batteries?

[hebear1133]

I was just planning on having it plugged in all day while fishing to try and keep the charge up on it and only use the motor when needed. We are going up north to six lakes a few hours north of fort mac so wont have any place to plug it in. Just looking to maintain a charge not fully charge it every night otherwise I would just bring a honda 1000 suitcase gene just dont have the $1000 for the gene and limited space for extra gas and the 9.9 but looks like we will just have to squeeze it in. Thanks everyone

[Marsha]

all you will get is about 1/2 amp per hour if you have good weather. The motor is most likely drawing 5 to 15 per hour... you do the math.. it will make the battery last longer but I dought it will be worth it..

[javlin101]

Can you afford $600.00. Look at a Kipor GT1000 for $600.00. I had the 2000 few years back and it was very quiet and never had a problem with it. Should work perfect for what you need and has charging cables for a battery. Looks like it runs 7.5 amps on charge.

[Xiph0id]

I've always just paddled out there at six lakes.
I'd say the gas motor is the way to go.
Takes up almost as much room as a battery and elec trolling motor.

[Wild&Free]

I remember a post on this subject last summer. Some smart number crunchers pipped in and the general consensus was that the small CT solar panels over a day of pure sunshine will add 5-10 minutes of trolling time to the battery.

[dale7637]

Why not rent a 1000 w suitcase fron cat rental store?

[Tbutler]

Costco on the west side of edmonton has 2000w champion inverters for 510 inc tax you'll get about 8 hrs on about 3 lt of gas with half load.

[curtis_rak]

30watts of solar power will charge anywhere from 0.5 - 2amps during the day depending on the amount of sunlight. I have a deep-cycle in my truck camper that is configured this way and usually my batter is topped up every night.

Cost me about $250 to rig up with Cdn Tire panels.

[cube]

Originally Posted by curtis_rak

30watts of solar power will charge anywhere from 0.5 - 2amps during the day depending on the amount of sunlight. I have a deep-cycle in my truck camper that is configured this way and usually my batter is topped up every night.

Cost me about $250 to rig up with Cdn Tire panels.

Yep, and that is exactly the OP's problem. His small electric motor draws 50 amps. If you have one with a digital Maximzer and you only use your electric on setting 1 or 2 and if you have a perfectly sunny day and you use it only at the strongest sun of the day you would only need 3 or 4 of those 30 watt panels hooked up at the same time.

Like you said for campers like you who do not use their lights lots your solar panel or 2 is the perfect thing. I know I appreciate not having to hear the generators running form morning until night.

[curtis_rak]

You wont gain anything from solar charging while you are using the motor.
I was assuming you would be charging it while NOT using it.