Doghouse,

I use to drive an ambulance in St Pete (Wrinkle City) not commie russia back in 82/83. Paid 3.35 hr so maybe it was russia??

I had my apartmentt on Ulmerton Rd in Largo and worked filling hydrogen tube trailers and LOX for air products & chemicals before pinellas ambulance hired me. Parents lived in Reddington Shores.

Glad to hear we will soon see the rig w decals. All of your hard work is finally going to pay off. Did you order all of your solar stuff from an RV dealer or do the install yourself?

Steve,
I posted a link on my WWW to " The Thong of the Day" for you. Maybe next time you post a pic of your sister... they will come in handy. LOL.
Classic Rock 103 in Memphis is a great station to listen to online. :lol:

Greetings from "wrinkle city" where riding a motorcycle is an "actual" death defying feat.
I ordered to parts from RV solar the guy was really helpful, and I did the install myself (the RV people did the tanks/hot water tank/and a few other things).
I got the APU from a company called A-Trans I don't know how this is going to work, their customer service really rots (so don't buy one for yourself until I test mine out) it could be a flat out piece of junk.
The solar system is:
1.3 kyocera 130 watt panels mounted on the roof.
2.Go power charge controller.
3.2 Trojan l-16 batteries (almost 800ah of storage)
4.MS 3000 xantrex sine wave inverter/charger
I'm doing another draw test right now, I left some electronics on to see how long the unit will provide power. I'll let you know.
The truck is clean and looks OK, but won't win any beauty contests. I might have to chrome some things :lol: :lol:

Doghouse, there's a company out in CA testing solar systems for trucks on a government grant. They say that the primary obstacle is the need to keep the solar panel clean, as bugs and road grime can greatly diminish the capacity. Something to keep in mind as you're tooling down the road.

I'd love to see pics of your Solar system once its installed.

If I were putting together a system for a vehicle (RV or Truck) I'd go with amorphous thin film from Uni-solar. Less weigh with no frames and thin film does not loose as much output from heat as traditional modules.

Try not to go beyond 50% depth of discharge on your battery bank if you want it to last.

Try not to go beyond 50% depth of discharge on your battery bank if you want it to last.

The charge controller automatically shuts down the inverter (at 60%discharge), and then the inverter/charger automatically starts the genset.
That way the batteries never get that low, and a plus on the batteries is that they are rated for 500 to 900 deep cycles and are supposed to last 5 to 7 years.

As Far as keeping the panels clean from bugs, they are on the roof with an air foil in front of them to keep the bugs going up and over, and they also have a 1" gap between the roof and the panels for cooling (with a diverter vent that brings air from the sides of the truck, cleaner than front air).

I wanted to go with the amorphous thin film but I have limited expierience with that product. I have been using kyocera's for years and I have more faith in them. Also I can replace one panel in the event of damage, and just bolt another one in its place.

I like the alternative energy products, and a bonus with a flat roof is that you can't even see them on the truck,...unless you're on a bridge looking down.

So far the system has been running for 38 hrs and the battery pack is down to 79%, I estimate that the pack should last 50 to 60 hrs non-stop use. Next I will see how long my roof mount A/C will run on it,...probably only a few hrs, but thats what the genset is for anyway.

doghouse, nice setup!

I'm considering running 5 AGM group 31 batteries and trying to get it to run an a/c setup.

http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/09KLS71.html

Split setups are more efficient, and I like the idea of a cleaner install.

Batteries I'm considering:

http://www.odysseyfactory.com/specs.htm

95 Ah at a 10 hour rate, down to 10 volts.

http://www.kinetikaudio.com/hc2400.asp

Just states "128 ah"

The kinetiks look better but they do not provide full specs. I've emailed them for better specs.

What do you think?

I have a flashlight that you crank by hand and stays on for like 2 minutes!!!

It's good to save energy. Anybody ever talk to this guy?.... :D

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p...6/CAODQ3GX.jpg

I've got a flashlight you have to wack off to get it to light.
Allan,
I'm not to sure about the batteries that were on your links. I did a ton of research (when putting this system together) and the general consensus is that 6 volt batteries wire together to generate 12 volts and then wired to another set generate a longer usage time than any outright 12 volt I saw.
Now, this is old technology lead acid batteries, but for the price of one of the Kinetik's I can get 2 Trojan L-16 and have about 800ah @20 hrs.-w- up to 700 discharges in them.
I might add that they weigh 128lbs each, so your looking at a weight issue as well. I plan on adding 2 more L-16 as soon as I get a full weigh in with truck and trailer, I'd love to extend my non-genset time to 5 days non-stop, or 2 days with the A/C running along with everything else.
The split A/C system is really cool, I have one from Solusair,it came with the genset from A-Trans (again,..really bad customer service, I don't recommend this company until I have a chance to really use this genset), but the A/C will not be used for now, I'm using an RV style roof unit by Coleman.
The split unit is more powerful, but I may not need that much power, and it will just kill my batteries quicker,...so I'll use the roof unit for a few weeks to see how it is.
This whole unit is a smaller version of what I want to use to power my house,...when I finally move out of this city, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how efficient it really is.
The entire unit added about 750lbs to the truck, and is completely independent of the truck systems,(except for the genset that uses the trucks cooling system). and it charges the truck batteries also heats the engine in the winter.

Doghouse,

Can you explain to me how the amperage rating works on these batteries? I've looked at the coleman units myself and found a 12 volt unit that shows to have a 16 amp draw at full load. How long will an 800 amp/hr battery run that unit?

Also, is the factory alternator capable of charging another full set of batteries? I really like the rooftop rv units, but have always been confused about how many batteries would be required and whether the alternator could hold up doing that much work.

Thanks,

Arky