crazy idea for power to a bronco

[89Bronco58]

i had this crazy idea for my truck i wanted to get everyones opinion on, i like most ppl have a sound system in my truck, and also offroad brite lights, going offroad you sometimes are at low rpm's for along time and even tho your battery does get charged fine, in my truck id like to have a little more juice to the battery to power everything, i know that this idea would only work during the day but **** its a good idea i think. ok so here it is, i bought this auto cool thing that u hang in your window on hot days and solar power hits the solar panel and powers the liuttle fan that keeps fresh cooler air circulating in your car, so what if i got many or one big solar panel and mounted it on my roof or something and ran the posotive and negative wires to the battery so when its daytime you can have some extra power for everything, i think this would work, whats everyone think? i figure its a way to get free power basically

 

[Yardape]

Thats a great idea. I dont know how much amperage it will charge at, so I really dont know how much of an advantage that would be. Post your results it would be good to know.

 

[Seabronc]

1. Your battery doesn't or at least shouldn't be supplying the current to the truck equipment when the engine is running. If it is, then your alternator is too small. Once the truck is running the alternator should supply the electrical demand including recharging the battery if it has less than a full charge. The function of the battery is to start the truck and supply any load that is on when the truck is not running.

2. They make a trickle charger just for that reason and it can be found in catalogs like JCWhitney. You do not hook the array directly up to the battery. It requires a controller.

Here are some links : http://www.powerstream.com/pv-control.htm http://www.batteries.com/solar-charger/index.html http://www.siliconsolar.com/12-volt-solar-...ry-chargers.php

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/sto...tery%20chargers

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