[A/S] Re: portable solar power

["Maurice Riggins" <maurice.riggins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've heard of a guy with four panels on the roof of a long bed truck 
cap so he can park the truck in the sun and the trailer in the 
shade.  To do this with a long run of cable without going to a HUGE 
gauge wire to prevent excessive voltage drop, the panels would have 
to be wired in series for 48V(actually 4X17) at 4-5A rather than 12V
(actually 1X17) at 16-20A.  RV Solar Products makes a (expensive) 
converter (SB6024) that can take the output of 2, 3, or 4 panels in 
series and convert it down to charge 12V batteries.

If you were going to keep the tow vehicle hooked up to the trailer, 
you could get away with paralleling four panels if you ran 4AWG (for 
voltage drop reasons) the short distance to the trailer, where the 
solar controller would be mounted inside near the batteries to keep 
it out of the weather.

Hope this helps,
--
Maurice