Retrofitting solar in a T1N Interstate

[Boxster1971]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

Correctamundo. We discussed this last night. I am partial to pieces of bicycle inner tube, but hubster fears that will be too thick. Experiments will be underway in the next several hours.

I have used bicycle inner tube material often on projects, but I've discovered it doesn't weather well when exposed to the elements and sunshine.


- - Mike
2013 Lounge EXT on 2012 Sprinter

[InterBlog]

Theyyyy'rrre uuuuupp! I walked into the house to get a celebratory glass of vino right after we got them secured, and the recording artist Seal was doing one of favorite songs ever, "Crazy", live on what I assume is the Super Bowl pre-game segment. Which I felt was coincidentally a propos because red-necking these things into place on top of a 9-foot-tall truck was definitely one of the craziest things we've ever done. Details to follow.

[InterBlog]

Details and pics:
http://interstateblog.blogspot.com/2...panels-in.html

[Boxster1971]

Nice job!


- - Mike
2013 Interstate Lounge EXT on 2012 Sprinter

[InterBlog]

Thanks! My husband finished the wiring last night. It works. It's charging the house battery like gangbusters.

I drove it about 15 miles after work today to test the handling. Coincidentally, Houston threw some of the most bizarre weather at us - sustained winds above 20 mph and gusts to 40 mph. At 40 mph, an Interstate is going to shake while at a dead stop. I have never driven in conditions like that so I don't have a "before" data point to compare to. The "after" was do-able, but it was a fight. Miscellaneous debris was blowing down the Gulf Freeway and it seemed to be traveling almost as fast as I was. I need a normal day for comparison purposes. My initial thought, though, is that the incredible side body square footages were far more of a problem than the solar panels.

[InterBlog]

Short-term performance update -

We managed to get a beach-side reservation at the last minute in Galveston Island State Park last night, but we didn't use the available hook-ups - the point was the quality of the venue because we wanted to test the solar system.

Took the Interstate out of storage around 9:30 a.m. yesterday - battery at 100%. Turned on fridge, lights, etc. to run.

It was heavily overcast yesterday - not a peek of sun. And it is winter so sun angle is low. Despite this, the battery was still at 99% when the "charging" light flipped off around 5 pm yesterday as the sun was going down.

We used lights, TV, fridge, Fantastic, water pump through the evening as we normally would. Battery was at 79% by morning. This was expected; when I would boondock pre-solar, it would fall to 70-75% the first night, because it would typically start drawing down earlier in the day. I might leave early morning and get to a boondock location by 1 pm to 2 pm timeframe - and it would draw down from that point. But yesterday it was 5 pm before it commenced.

Today the weather is worse - darker skies and absolutely pouring rain. We returned home but I left stuff running to simulate boondocking. Solar had recharged the battery to 92% by 1 pm. It's still recharging now.

From this I surmise it doesn't appear that there will be any boondocking limitations due to adverse weather. This was predicted in theory, but it's another thing to have it prove up in practice.