My set up on the road

What set up do I have on the road? Lets go through it in a fast way.

When sleeping in the car I pull out some black curtain. Thats makes it hard to see into the car (obviosly).

I have an extra leasure battery, 80 amps of 12v power. Tudor. I charge the battery from the car generator or the solar panel.

Lens mosquito? Ya, thats me. This is what the car looks like inside, car curtains and so on. A bit messy, but it is easy to move around some boxes so the bed gets "clean".

I have a book called "Experience Sweden". In this I can find interesting thing that I might "need" to check out.

Okay, so one thing you always need is water. I usually have about 15 liters so I can get by a couple of days without having to refill. Use it to drink, and brushing teeth and so on. I do not bath in it. I try to find a shower or take a bath in the see somewhere. Usually no problem in Sweden. There are always some lake or sea to use. I also have a "brassestol", do you call it "scissors chair"? The mattress you can also see a bit from.

This is when the solar panel is in use. I have a charger and controller connected to the leisure battery.

Well thats a litte tour of the setup. :)

Roadtrip 2014: Cows and time to leave Ängsö

Horsefly and cows.

Look at this badas fly. Observing and making a plan.. Plotting and figuring out which angle is the best way to attack..

Even though it earlier had a taste of this cows, it still was not full, never seem to get enough..

The cows whispered in my ears just how bad that fly was. Thug life. Smack down.

Well I survived and did not get stung this time. 1-0. Charing the auxillary battery so I can do my computer business. :)

Time to pack up and leave, to much people.. and to much horseflies. More later. Bye

Roadtrip 2014: Ängsö morning, installing solar power and relaxing

Still in Ängsö: Early morning and time for breakfast. Using favorite müsli in a cup, and then pouring water on it. Sounds pretty bad to use water instead of milk or processed sour milk but.., nah, it´s ok, I´m used to it. Along that goes some pretty fresh fruit like peach.

Breakfast-time! Dry food, a peach and water works when you don't have a fridge with you

Well. I do have a icebox with me, but don't use it for anything other than bed support you can see in the picture. You also see the depth of the mattress from Ikea. Time to connect the extra battery to the main power, (generator and solar power). I didn't have time to do it earlier (before heading out). I have some common tools with me. There is always more time when you´re out on the road somehow.

I´ve made this chipboard for the solar power, I have showed it to you earlier., That is.I have used on other road-trips.  Solar controller (and some switches I rarely use).

Solar Power i now connected, and charging. Yey! :) The led for the sun is shining! About 13.65 volt on the extra leisure battery. Normally about 12,7 volt when not charging it.

There were bugs flying all over the place.. I´m not so found of them.. (to put it nicely). They are brakes (broms in Swedish), probably not called brakes in your country, perhaps more like gadfly or horsefly in you language.. :) However, they were not attacking me! Very strange, there were like piece between us, they were just checking me out. Their stomach seemed full somehow. I was really glad for that!

Okey, so to recap, it is early morning, the sun is low,  and I've put the car in the shade of a tree (and a toilet house). Then using pretty long cables to put the solar panel in the sun. Works great to have a portable adjustable solar-panel. Totally recommend it.

Next I sat down in the car for a couple of hours writing on the computer while listening to some great podcast on the carstereo (earlier downloaded from the Internet, mp3 style). Free power from the sun. I really enjoy it! Quiet solitude. This is what I love. Relaxing and contemplating. After a while people started showing up to look at the caste nearby, and they probably thought I was a strange fellow.. with a bed in the car :-) (not normal for people moldered in a box)

Installing extra battery in the car

Well since I am about to go on at roadtrip I need extra power. The car battery just wont be enough when it rains and a lot of electrics (computer, charging mobile phone, camera and so on, at least that is my motivation for getting it) is used. I don't like to have to start the engine to charge the battery all the time, it´s bad for the environment.
This marine 80 amp 12 volt Tudor Exide (lead) battery was bough about a year ago. I keep it in the apartment on the winter so it wont get frozen. I continuously charge the battery with a ctek charger about every month since a battery like this gets damaged if it gets below a certain voltage.

The battery is connected to the car battery through a big switch. It can then be charge from the car alternator when the switch is on. I installed the battery cables earlier, you can read about it here.

Since I did the same thing on my previous car I didnt think it was a big thing. Here you read about previosly installation.

Well getting ready, now in the car, but not connected fully..

Testing Solar Power Panel On the Car

Hidihopp volks!

Today it was time to test my new solar panel and solar charge controller (regulator)! Working like a charm.

I have a 25 Watt solar panel that I have made a "fast connection" to. I then plugged my new Solar regulator to the car battery and the to the solar array panel (only one). Then I connected the load (in my case a fan) to the regulator. It works just fine! Yes!

Here are some pictures!



Connecting the carbattery to the regulator. This has to be done first! The regulator will not wort otherwise. Then connect the solar panel to the regulator. And lastly the load to the regulator.



This is my "fast connection" cable to the solar panel. Easy to disconnect. Using som Radio Controller connection I found in DealExtremes (China). And then I can use a long cable to the regulator, so that I can get the solar panel out in the sun and the car can be in the shadows. Bla bla.. :)



Solar panel out in the "wild"..




Ok, now to some testing. The green light is lit, the sun panel is charging my battery, great. The load is not enabled in the regulator and therefore the fan is not turning. The regulator load output can take up to 30 ampere current, no more.




Here I have enabled the ON for the load (fan) in the regulator and it works. The light for the sun panel charging is also lit so everything is working. The green battery light is also "green", meaning that the battery is fully charged. It will turn red when the battery needs charging. I have not tested this yet.




Testing another fan as a load. And here you can see that the solar panel is not charging. I put the solar panel inside so no sun could reach it!. Everything is working great!



What Solar Panels to buy?

Okey, so the last couple of days I have been thinking about getting ready for my next roadtripp. I need more power! I use the computer quite a lot and on my last roadtripp I could only use the computer for about 2 hours before I needet to run the car and recharge the battery. I only have one battery so far in the car. I planning on getting another one.


From the SW Exergon catalog: http://www.sunwind.se/media/48360/sunwind_katalog_2013.pdf




Ok, so back to tha solar panels. I am thinking about buying two SW25 panels (25 watts if you havent figured it out yet). They are quite affordable (and they are on sale right now, whey). They are small enough to be able to put back into the (small) car and not TAKE ALL available SPACE. I am thinking about using a roof carrier to put the panels on. And of course make it possible to remove them, when I am not using the solar panels. Put them away so the dont get stolen etc. I am also thinking about getting a charge controller, but more about that later.

I think the size is important. Atleast Until I can have them permanently on the car, they must be small enough.



SW25 is my choice. 643 x 282 x 35 mm.They have 18,5 (top voltage) going from them when the sun i shining. The more the better when the panels gets into some sort of shadow.



Another nice foldable solar panel is this one. But it is to expensive for my taste. The Weight is 2.45 kg.



Folding Solar Panel, Only 315 x 315 x 35 mm when folded. But 3000 swedish crones is expensive. Thats about 500 dollars.