Solar car battery trickle-charger

Per others’ suggestion, I need to grab a couple of these. Any recommendation on which one? Amazon, walmart, and HD all carry them.

Thanks!

I got a cheap one from HF and it works good. It charged a almost dead battery out in the field in a month. This was in upstate NY. It isn't water proof.  

I'm getting ready to buy another one from HF. Years ago we used one with 2 car batteries for electricity in our trailer when we were fighting with the power company. A little bit of caulking around the seems made it good for most raid and dew. 

I have the HF one on my dash of the truck.  And a Mil-Spec one on top of the RAV4.

Our motorhome came equipped with a rooftop 5 watt solar panel which is connected to the chassis battery with a controller for the purpose of keeping battery charged during storage and keeping up with parasitic drain. The chassis battery is a large Group 27. Newer model motorhomes of the same brand changed to a 15 watt panel. I talked to a factory tech and he said the 5 watt was marginal in all but the sunniest condition. Certainly don’t know a lot about solar charging but as long as the panel is hooked to a controller bigger should not be a problem.

i have looked on Amazon and they have a fairly large selection of solar panels and prices are good. I would go for one with good ratings. The controller is necessary but drives the price more then the solar array.

Yeah, I think it's hard to go wrong on these.  I have one I bought from a Chinese importer (no, not HF :) ).  It was cheap and the only issue I had was the leads pulling out when I yanked it off the car once (which I re-soldered).

Very simple product, just give an unregulated trickle of power, not much to go wrong.  Just make sure it has the type of connection you want.

Also, pay attention where you plug it in to depending on the car.  My Rx-8 often sits for a few weeks and would kill the battery after 2 or 3.  I got one of these with a cigarette lighter.  When it was sunny enough to work, the positive power going into the cigarette lighter made the car think that the key was switched to "on" since that circuit was now energized.   Turns out the little HF solar charger can't keep up with the stereo and blower motor.  Who knew?

:)

Thanks, y’all! HF FTW!!!

I've been using a small charger for a few years now and no problems. The current vehicle I'm using in on is a 2013 Ford F150 that sits for weeks and sometimes months without being run. I've never had a problem starting it over the past year+ that I've had it.

I plan on installing a larger 10 watt charger on the roof of my enclosed race car trailer to keep the battery inside charged up.  It's used to run my winch but I also plan on adding some LED interior lights and a 110V inverter along with another battery. I don't see where it should have a problem keeping the batteries charged up between uses.

Some of the car importers have these on the dashboard of the new cars at the docks , there were a bunch of VW ones that showed up a few years ago, 

I will look next time and see if any of the Japanese cars at the docks have them next time I am down that way

I've "built" a couple and they work great.  Most of the ready made stuff, didn't put out much juice when I was shopping.

Amazon 10W Solar Panel.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072B5P91B/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Battery Tender Solar Charge Controller.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Battery-Tender-021-1162-Solar-Charger-Controller/321887334904?epid=171154981&hash=item4af1faf1f8:g:OlQAAOSwuyNbGpkw:rk:3:pf:0

Cut one of these in two, to get a pair of male 12V cigarette plugs, I also removed their LED indicators.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N2LGW63/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

All in I'm about 1/2 the price of the ready made Battery Tender Solar Charger, and double the watts!

In reply to bigdaddylee82 :

Is the “building” of your custom charger as simple as it seems?

In reply to ebonyandivory :

If you've got something to cut and strip wire with, and a screw driver, it's pretty straight forward, just match the + and - to the appropriate terminals.

I just set the solar panel on the dash, so the wires were plenty long, if you plan to put the solar panel somewhere else, like outside, you'll probably need to extend the wires.

If you're like me, I've got a box of assorted wires, similar to Dr. Farnsworth's drawer, so extending the leads is just a simple.

In reply to bigdaddylee82 :

Ok, it’s a simple as I thought! I used to install my own car audio so I have ALL that stuff!