Solar Trickle chargers

[cleve]

Anyone use a solar trickle charger? Ideally one with cigarette connector for ease.

We have previously used a 4.5w one from maplin which seemed to work well to keep the leisure battery topped up enough to wild camp for a few nights but we seem to keep breaking the wires that come with it!

Ideally we would like something to plug into the tailgate socket so we can use suction cups to mount to the side window. Doesn't need to be huge, just enough to help top up the battery between ehu sites and keep the compressor fridge running for a little longer than without.

Any recommendations appreciated.

 

[MattBW]

In my opinion the small ones (we use one to keep a rarely used van's starter battery alive) don't give enough charge to be useful on a leisure setup. They are good for vehicles sat still for prelonged periods that don't have alarms or other drains but will make no notificable difference to a leisure battery with a fridge.

You really would need at least an 80w panel to usefully extend your fridge use, with a little more say 120w - 150w you could maybe use it indefinitely in the right lighting conditions. To be useful for a fridge sadly it will need to be quite large.

Worth checking if using a 12v socket charging is recommended too? Im not sure on this one.

 

[WelshGas]

In my opinion the small ones (we use one to keep a rarely used van's starter battery alive) don't give enough charge to be useful on a leisure setup. They are good for vehicles sat still for prelonged periods that don't have alarms or other drains but will make no notificable difference to a leisure battery with a fridge.

You really would need at least an 80w panel to usefully extend your fridge use, with a little more say 120w - 150w you could maybe use it indefinitely in the right lighting conditions. To be useful for a fridge sadly it will need to be quite large.

Worth checking if using a 12v socket charging is recommended too? Im not sure on this one.

VW don't recommend using the 12v socket for charging but I don't know why as they are connected to the Leisure battery directly via a fused +tve.

 

[Loz]

VW don't recommend using the 12v socket for charging but I don't know why as they are connected to the Leisure battery directly via a fused +tve.

Covering their ar$es I expect.
Plus you would need to know which Cigar sockets are permanently connected as opposed to those only connected with the ignition is on and therefore no use for charging when parked up.

I used a solar trickle charger to keep the starter battery topped up on our previous Land Cruiser expedition vehicle and simply added a dedicated din socket with its own fuse to the end of the dashboard and plugged the solar charger into it and put the panel on the dashboard like a sun shield.

 

[WelshGas]

Well on my vehicle I have no Ignition Only sockets and only the Cup Holder Cigarette Lighter socket is run from the Engine Battery.
Mind you the vehicle never stands still long enough for charging the engine battery to be a problem. In fact, the longest it has not been used was 2 weeks when we were in California. The Leisure Batteries were 100% on our return due to the Solar Panel.