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New Member - solar trickle charger question |
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BlackeShepe 
Newbie 
Joined: 12 Apr 2025 Location: California Online Status: Offline Posts: 2 |
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 Topic: New Member - solar trickle charger questionPosted: 15 Apr 2025 at 9:42am |
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Hello there,
I'm a new owner of a used (2024) 171C I'm thinking I should use a solar trickle charger to keep the battery up when I'm not on shore power and it's just waiting for our next adventure... Does anyone use something like this? My driveway spot where I keep it, it would be in the shade of the Pod but it's plenty bright enough to keep a charge on it as long as we're not running the lights all the time. (We use similar ones to keep the charge on our maintenance vehicles when they aren't used daily)
Edited by BlackeShepe - 16 Apr 2025 at 9:16am |
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Bill and Tina J
2024 R-171C, 2018 Chevy Silverado 1500 Somewhere in (hot) California 30 miles from Hell, CA (Google it) Been a long time since we trailer camped. |
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GlueGuy
Senior Member 
Joined: 15 May 2017 Location: N. California Online Status: Offline Posts: 2702 |
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Posted: 15 Apr 2025 at 11:26am |
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Not knowing how much shade you're talking about, and knowing how many watts your solar charger might put out, it's difficult to hazard a guess about how well it might do.
That said, trickle charging a battery that does not have much load seems like a light lift. You might consider putting the panels on the rood of the Rpod to eliminate the shade issue. How far are you from Blythe? |
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bp
2017 R-Pod 179 Hood River 2015 Ford F150 SuperCrew 4WD 3.5L Ecoboost |
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gpokluda
Senior Member
Joined: 11 Nov 2018 Location: NM Online Status: Offline Posts: 392 |
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Posted: 16 Apr 2025 at 8:56am |
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We used a portable 130watt panel to keep our Rpod battery charged. We skipped using the Zamp port and just wired the fused pigtail that came with our panel directly to the battery. We also installed a battery cutoff so there would be no parasitic drain from any electronics in the camper. You could probably get by with a basic 100watt panel, just make sure it is secured from wind or theft.
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Gpokluda
2017 Rpod 179(sold 2023) 2022 Escape 5.0TA 2022 Ford F150 4X4 3.5EB Kawasaki KLR650 |
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jato
Senior Member
Joined: 23 Feb 2012 Location: Kewadin, MI Online Status: Offline Posts: 3324 |
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Posted: 16 Apr 2025 at 9:32am |
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Another option is to simply unhook the ground (-) cable from the battery when not in use. This is what I have done for the past 14 years with our 177.
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God's pod
'11 model 177 '17 Ford F-150 4WD 3.5 Ecoboost Jim and Diane by beautiful Torch Lake "...and you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free." |
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StephenH
podders Helping podders - pHp
Joined: 29 Nov 2015 Location: Wake Forest, NC Online Status: Offline Posts: 6417 |
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Posted: 16 Apr 2025 at 1:15pm |
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Or, add a battery cut-off switch.
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StephenH
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,... ouR escaPOD mods Former RPod 179 Current Cherokee Grey Wolf 24 JS |
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