Rhino-Rack Solar Panel install
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ต.ค. 2024
- After upgrading from a waeco cfx40 to a brass monkey 95l dual zone my batteries started copping a hiding, so to help them along a bit I’ve got myself an eBay 250w solar panel and a Victron 75/15. With a basic plan in my head I fit them both to the Prado and don’t have to worry about power anymore!
Thanks for watching! If you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comments and I’ll get back to you.
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The easiest way to gauge a nominal 12V solar panel's output; 1 square metre = approx 150W. The panel in your video looks around the size of most 100-120W panels, to be 250W it should be around 1.7 sq mtr. Next point - Solar Cells are graded A,B,C & D. Top quality panels use A grade, Cheap "Fleabay" panels are likely nearer D grade (regardless of claims). You get what you pay for :) With respect, it seems counter intuitive to use the best solar controller (Victron) and a cheap panel.
Agree, mite as well get a pwm to match the panel.
Those ebay panels you usually get 50% of the advertised watts. But they are the best bang for buck, will do the job no worries. Thxs for your videos.
Cheers mate! Seems to be keeping up just fine with the victron mppt doing all the smart/hard work. Can’t beat them!
To convert 250 Ebay Watts to real watts, you half the claimed panel size, then round down to the nearest common size.
It's disappointing that you can not find one single accessory to mount a solar panel onto a Rhino Rack! Like you, I'm currently designing and fabricating my own mounting system for a solar panel.
Yep! Wouldn’t be hard for rhino-rack to make a genuine bracket! As easy as it was to make the bracket I’d probably still buy a genuine if they had them
New subscriber here, hence why looking through your older videos. Hard mounted solar panel means you have to park the vehicle in the sun, which in turn heats up the inside of the vehicle where the fridge is trying to cool, doesn't seem efficient to me. I can understand the benefit of the hard panel when driving, but I would have thought a folding solar panel / blanket would be better for when parked up, that way the solar panel can be in the sun while the vehicle is in the shade. Anyhow, I'm enjoying your channel thus far, will continue to binge watch all the videos to get up-to-date!
Cheers for the support mate! 🍻🍻 Your right as the fridge used a lot of power like that and we were having to leave windows down a bit everywhere, but it came down to laziness and just having it hard mounted so I didn’t have to fluff around every time we stopped. We also found that when we had our small van we parked that under the shade and used the car solar with a solar blanket to keep the van fully charged the majority of time, also keeping our little van cool!
There's also no trees in WA.
Just caught your video, here did you get those channel nuts?
Awesome video mate. Like your build up on the Prado. 👍
Thanks mate! Means a lot! Just need these borders to fully open then I can start using it!
love the build mate, any chance you could do a video on how you did the rear light bar install/wiring up?
cheers👍
hey mate sorry for the delay but I have a short video on running my wiring to the rack here
th-cam.com/video/fiaL94vYNnY/w-d-xo.html
and the rear light bar is simply mounted to a couple of channel nuts in the rhino racks rear channel
Looks good man doing similar to mine. Rhino went on today.
Cheers mate! Rhino is a great system have been using it a lot more than I thought I would
Great video man! I am curious what type of battery are you using? AGM or lithium? battery inside bonnet or rear?
Cheers mate! I’m using an ac delco 97 a/h agm under the bonnet. Hasn’t had any problems as of yet. Will be going to a lithium setup in the back of the car once it does start to show problems
Thank you!
Hope it helps mate! Cheers 🍻
Could you still put things on top of the solar panel say if you were going on a trip and wanted to put a tent on the roof? I want to put a solar panel on my racks but don’t want to lose all my space to carry things
I don’t see why not, as long as it’s not going to shatter it in any way
Did you also need to install a smart shunt to see the current load on the battery and the current coming in from the victron?
I didn’t have to, as I was only monitoring voltage. But having used one now in our van I’d highly recommend them for all applications!
How is it holding up, any mods?
Still going great, has gone from the car to the caravan and back into the car. I’ve had this in series with a 120w panel of the same size and getting over 15a so I believe it to be around that size if not a little better. Definitely can’t complain for the price but no where near 250w
Hey, could you post a link to your rhino rack? Affiliate link welcome too!!!
Hey mate haven’t got a link for the rack but it is a 2128x1236 pioneer platform that I picked up from autobarn when on a big sale!
www.rhinorack.com/en-au/products/roof/roof-trays/pioneer-platforms/pioneer-platform-2128mm-x-1236mm-_52107
looks like a 100 watt panel not a 250 watt
Have seen around 170w out it and seems to be keeping up so can’t really complain.
Hey mate, do you have a link for the solar panel?
Unfortunately not mate the link on my eBay says the product is no longer available, but I believe it was the cheapest 250w panel with a 5 star rating. Being around $100 and from eBay I wasn’t expecting much but it performs great!
Hey mate where abouts did you get those channel nuts from?
Channel nuts are either genuine rhino-rack nuts or ezystrut nuts. Hope that helps mate
Autobarn is the cheapest store to stock them mate. $12 for a pack of 4