So far on road trips, I have been making sure that I unplug my cheap 12v cooler whenever I am stopped for long periods of time in one location. I have been plugging it into the 12v outlet in the cargo area and it will run the primary battery down within a day if I don’t remember to unplug it.
Recently, a friend of mine gifted me a 100-watt Renogy flexible panel and I have been weighing out how to make use of this panel in my travels.
My friend is currently using a Renogy 200 Watt power station in his CRV and uses a small MPPT solar controller to charge the lithium battery on short weekend trips.
He doesn’t have enough room to leave the panel on his roof while traveling, so he uses magnets to hold things in place temporarily.
The Yukon has a lot more real estate on the roof, so I decided to try for something that I can leave up there, but not permanently mount anything. I came up with a solution using magnets with M6 bolts and nuts, along with some eye nuts for a bit of a safety backup.
I positioned the panel as close to the rear of the roof as possible and put a magnet at each of the six grommet locations:
I have ordered some stainless steel eye nuts that will serve the purpose of a tie down in case the magnets are not holding the panel at highway speeds, and will also prevent the M6 nuts from vibrating loose (there are also lock washers on each).
I have ordered an EcoFlow River 2 power station that should arrive this week along with an MC4 to XT60 cable that will allow me to plug the solar panel directly into the EcoRiver.
I will update the post once the parts have all been assembled.
You have generous friends! =-)