Bambi on Solar
August 10th, 2009
Been working on a suitable rack system for the Solar powered Bambi. Gary, the owner, went and bought a Thule rack for his van, and we adapted a set of Yakima adapters to mount the solar panels. Other than drilling 16 Stainless Steel brackets, it went pretty well. I forgot how tough Stainless Steel can be. But, now the Bambi can camp in the shade, while the tow vehicle carries the solar panels, in the hot sun. I figured with 10GA extension cords, a 50ft distance could be ok without noticeable loss in power. We’re using 2ea. 85W panels.
Here the two panels, uside down, as we mounted them on the Thule rack. For you diy’ers. this could work on a factory rack also.
Stainless brackets with quick turn adaptors. Should make mounting the panels a painless affair.
The panels as they will sit on the roof of the tow vehicle.
Sorry for the blurry picture. The charge controller is mounted in a group 31 battery box. The box will hold the wiring, so it;s easy to keep organized. The output of the charge controller will go into the trailer connector, and straight to the batteries.
A different view of the finished panel installation. This should work like a charm on a hot SoCal day. Or, anywhere else, solong that there is sunlight!
Today’s temps: mid 80’s
Today’s tunes: FM Radio ( lot of commercials…)
