Looking to get a solar panel to feed my upcoming Diehard Platinum Battery. Want to run Rigid D2s at night, maybe a fridge, etc, and then during the day, get the battery juiced up with a solar panel. Just curious if anyone has a setup, and if so, what kind, etc. Thanks!

 

I run a 50 watt panel on my van. Its about as large as you'd have with a JK. Its not a lot of power. In 10 hours it would put maybe 40 amps into the Diehard. That's less than 500 watts total. Each D2 uses 28 watts per hour. You'd need to look at the fridge to see how much power it needs. The panel is probably a Kyocera and the charge controller is Morningstar.

For some good reading and quality solar parts, go to amsolar.com

 

This is slightly smartassish, but if you run a lot of highway miles, you could invest in a turbine. I guess that would work as well

 

If I'm driving the alternator is doing the charging, thus, rendering the turbine useless. This is for the parking situations. I will probably just get a 30W GoalZero panel and call it a day.

 

I've found the solar panels for traveling don't privide enough juice, and the panels that do are too fragile to go offroading with when stored, so I went with dual batteries for the camping fridge and lights. Also the spare battery will always give reassurasing back-up.

My set-up is the Engel 12volt fridge with Benchmark's dual tray and yellow top Optimas. I've left the fridge on for 3 days while Jeep was parked (didn't start the engine) and second battery still had life.