Solar Charger for 5er

[4x4FF]

Hi All,

My 5th wheel currently has 2 6V GC2 batteries in it in series. I usually keep it stored at a remote location with no access to power. I recently installed a Ground Control 3.0 leveling system and ever since after it sits for a period of time the batteries go dead. I am wanting to put a small solar charger on it just to help keep the batteries up a bit. I am NOT looking to power the 5er with solar, just trickle charge the batteries a bit because sometimes it is stored for 6 months or so.

My question is, will an 8 to 10 watt charger be ok to hook up across the 6V batteries that are wired in series? In other words hooked to the positive on one battery and the negative of the other? Is this a big enough charger to make a difference? I understand it depends on the way its pointed and amount of sunlight but beyond that do you think it will work ok?

[Searching_Ut]

I doubt you would get the results you're looking for with a panel that small. Your deep discharge batteries will self discharge a little more than the multi purpose batteries do, it varies with age of batteries and storage conditions such as temperature. A 10 watt panel might keep up with this, barely, and only if the batteries are totally isolated from all parasitic type draws.


The above said, it sounds like you have a small parasitic draw but there is no way to say how big a draw it is without more information. Any way you can put an ammeter in the circuit to determine if there is a parasitic draw on your batteries or not?

[vsheetz]

Put a 100w on it and a quality PWM controller. Yes, directly connected to the batteries.

[keymastr]

I have a 10 watt on mine and it keeps my 2 GC2s powered up even in the winter, however I always keep my battery switch off so there are no parasitic draws. I also live in the desert so plenty of sunshine.