Deep cycle 12 volt on a flatbed trailer, only used to run the winch.Will one of the small solar panels work as a maintainer? what size ? Thanks

IMO, no. Those are only good for offsetting the slight draw from a clock when a car sits and most of them aren’t weatherproof. Probably better off plugging it in to a battery tender if you want to make sure it’s fully charged when you go to use it.

quote:

Originally posted by joekool:
Deep cycle 12 volt on a flatbed trailer, only used to run the winch.Will one of the small solar panels work as a maintainer? what size ? Thanks

I have two 30 watt panels on the roof of my trailer, each is hooked through a battery tender solar charge controller.

One charges my trailer battery which runs the 12v lights, winch, radio, and computer. The other charges the race car. I rarely ever use a regular battery charger because the solar charger does such a good job.

I think a solar maintainer will work perfect in your situation. 5 or 10 watts should do the trick. The winch gets used infrequently and the maintainer will have a long time to keep the battery topped off.

I have 2 batteries in my trailer.

1 on the tongue to run the power jack and break away brake power. It gets charged from the tow vehicle since there is a 12V+ in a std Bargman 7 pin plug. I rarely charge it.

Other battery is inside in a marine box and I wired in an automatic charger that is powered any time the trailer is powered with 120v AC....generator or shore power...It runs my winch and some DC lights....


I also have an inverter to run laptop and weather station that runs off that inside battery...…



If you just hook up the tow vehicles 12V+ thru the trailer plug with a fuse to your trailer battery and a good common/ground that should work....

quote:

Originally posted by SCDIV1:

I also have an inverter to run laptop and weather station that runs off that inside battery...…

I’m not sure how your battery life is now, but you should look at getting the correct DC plugs for your laptop and weather station and powering them directly off the battery. The laptop and weather station run off of DC so the way you’re doing it now is converting DC to AC with the inverter, then the power supply for the devices is switching the AC back to DC. Those conversions waste energy.

You can look at a car charger that plugs in to a cigarette lighter jack for the laptop. The weather station probably has the DC voltage stamped right by the plug, so you’d just need to measure the plug then go online and find the right adapter cord, likely 12v to 5v.

quote:

Originally posted by 183N:

quote:

Originally posted by joekool:
Deep cycle 12 volt on a flatbed trailer, only used to run the winch.Will one of the small solar panels work as a maintainer? what size ? Thanks

I have two 30 watt panels on the roof of my trailer, each is hooked through a battery tender solar charge controller.

One charges my trailer battery which runs the 12v lights, winch, radio, and computer. The other charges the race car. I rarely ever use a regular battery charger because the solar charger does such a good job.

I think a solar maintainer will work perfect in your situation. 5 or 10 watts should do the trick. The winch gets used infrequently and the maintainer will have a long time to keep the battery topped off.

Where do you find your solar stuff? Links please

quote:

Originally posted by 183N:

quote:

Originally posted by SCDIV1:

I also have an inverter to run laptop and weather station that runs off that inside battery...…

I’m not sure how your battery life is now, but you should look at getting the correct DC plugs for your laptop and weather station and powering them directly off the battery. The laptop and weather station run off of DC so the way you’re doing it now is converting DC to AC with the inverter, then the power supply for the devices is switching the AC back to DC. Those conversions waste energy.

You can look at a car charger that plugs in to a cigarette lighter jack for the laptop. The weather station probably has the DC voltage stamped right by the plug, so you’d just need to measure the plug then go online and find the right adapter cord, likely 12v to 5v.

My 4KY Onan in the trailer is running most of the time. It's powering Motorhome thru its shore cord. Battery charging for racecar usually plus trailer battery charger. Maybe AC on in MH and fridge as well as MH DC converter all running. I also can run the MH's on board 4KY and power the trailer. I use the inverter to cut down on fuel usage. Power laptop, WS and Iphone.
Trailer generator gets used most.....MH generator has under 100 hours on it. They burn a lot of fuel and the inverter saves gas and wear and tear on generator. I do know the laptop and WS are Dc powered but as it is this all works trouble free for hours and hours....

I am fairly conservative compared to most....they run their generators non stop no matter what they are powering...


If we worried about wasting energy that much we'd never be drag racers !!! LOL

quote:

Originally posted by 329L:

Where do you find your solar stuff? Links please

The last time I looked around, eBay had good selection and prices for solar panels. Something like this: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0...2Fitm%2F132637094362

And here’s the charge controller: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0...2Fitm%2F321887334904

Harbor Freight