I haven’t been driving my truck a lot the last long and cold winter and I guess that’s why my batterie died. Now the battery was not even four years old and I didn’t really want to replace it already but I had to. So I decided to do something to increase the lifespan of the new battery.
I mouted 3 12V epoxy resin solar cells on the truck bed cover. I used silicone to glew them on securely. The cells are only a few millimeters thick so I can still open the bak flip cover without damaging the cells. I installed a charging regulator right next to the new battery which keeps the current from flowing backwards and avoids an overcharging of the battery.
The new battery that I got is a 100Amp hours car battery from Battery Industry Germany (BIG). It was the biggest battery that I could find that would fit into the spot.
The maximum output of the cells is 0.4A. So whenever the batterie is not fully charged or for example the radio is used with the engine off the solar cells will fill the battery right back up and provide a good maintenance charge.
this is where i bought the cells: http://www.ebay.de/itm/3x-12V-100mA-1-2W-150x70mm-Solarmodul-Solarzelle-Monokristallin-vergossen-/370704767825?pt=Bauteile&hash=item564fb9db51
this is where i bought the batter: http://www.batterie-industrie-germany.de/
Post time: Jan-19-2017