Quote:
Originally Posted by Raisins78
95W panel.
75AH Odyssey battery in the factory engine bay spot.
no second battery, no Arkpack etc.
Runs my Engel, 4-5 camp lights and more, all night without a problem.
Volt meter reads approx 12.3 -12.5 by sunrise.
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I run a similar set up in my 97 ZG Limited with:
136 Amp Alternator (standard fit on these), modified Battery Temp. Sensor ( see my posts in Deezelweezel's big thread on Batteries and Charging in "Expert Tips"
140 Watt Solar Panel with regulator put up when stopping in a place for at least a day or longer.
55 Amp/Hour Optima Blue Top (Marine Dual-Purpose) in standard position in engine bay.
The setup above lets me run a 20 year old (!) Engel fridge, some LED lights, water tank pump (intermittantly), laptop/ TV say 4-8 hours an evening/night, DVD player (say2-4 hours), recharge phone, GPS etc. From a resting voltage of 12.8V at stopping and setting up camp in the bush by morning it's gone down to between about 12.3V and 12.4V .
I never have the solar charging or connected the same as the engine is running and the alternator is charging, if I want to quickly re-charge the battery when say, I'm not going to be moving from that camp spot that day, I'll re-charge it with the alternator. I find that running the engine from dead cold at idle for a minimum of say 20 minutes up to say 40 minutes brings it back to nearer to full charge again. At one time I had an Inductive pick-up Ammeter put on it and it was putting out a max. of 80Amps at idle!!... no wonder it recharges the Optima so quickly, especially since Optimas have such a low internal resistance and they are designed to recharge quickly.
I'm not saying that my set up is the best possible, but just by using a good battery like an Optima or Odyssey and with a small modification you can get a simple, reliable, workable system for very little cost or effort..
If I ever decide to use the Jeep for longer expeditions I would seriously increase the size/number of solar panels. Probably still a portable set-up, as the roof is used for too much other gear. I've got another full-on expedition vehicle (Land Rover 2a 109" ex-Army Enginners Corps) which is already pretty well set up with 2 x 140 Watt panels, but, talk about THAT brand on here is verboten.
