Solar Panel

[davek]

Hi all, noticed that because my van, t6, 2017, is parked on the drive most of the time, especially the last month, for obvious reasons, after about a week the battery goes flat and won't start the engine! I have given it a good discharge and recharge with my ctec, this defo helped keep the battery usable for longer. I was thinking maybe a small dash solar panel would keep the battery topped up. If so, could I plug it into the ciggy lighter and trickle charge it that way? or is it best to just charge it, say, monthly with my ctec? Battery is a 70 amper!

 

[JasonW]

Providing you plug it into a permanent 12v socket then a 20/25W solar trickle charger left in the front window should help maintain battery charge...

every so often though always worth giving it a proper charge with the CTEK

 

[Pete C]

A dash solar panel will help, but 1 week is poor. Ours lasts 5 weeks at least. What do you have connected that could be drawing current ?

Pete

 

[davek]

Nothing drawing current when van parked up, only VW alarm, bought a ctec charger and gave it a proper 8 stage charge and so far indicator says it has gone from 13.2v to 12v in a week, which was better than before I did a charge. From experience I know when indicator shows 11v or less van won,t start, I also own a touran and have never had to charge battery on that!

 

[davek]

Thanks Jasonw, do you need a regulator with that?

 

[Neil Nicholls]

1 week is a joke. There must be a problem there.
I've left mine for 3 weeks before, and my Crafter often gets left a month or more, and starts up no problem.

 

[davek]

Can anyone recommend a decent cheapish dashboard mounted solar trickle charger, I,ll try that first, and suck it and see from there on in!

 

[JasonW]

What battery model is it @davek ….?

Some people have had issues with a certain type.

 

[davek]

Yea, good call, it does appear there was issues around 2017 with certain batteries fitted to VW,s, i'll check in the morning, just saying bonjour to a nice bottle of red at the minute, thanks for the feedback

 

[Phil_G]

I'd suggest you dont waste money one those little 10w panels, they dont make 10w even in ideal conditions, if you're set on solar I'd suggest getting a slightly larger one that will be genuinely useful for camping, shed battery charging etc, say a 30 or 40w. They're much smaller than they used to be in ye olden days, a 30w mono would sit on the dash ok. You really ought to have a controller for anything over 20w but they're cheap as chips on ebay. Without a controller you'd need to keep checking the voltage and disconnect when it was floating around 14v, which with a low power panel isnt going to happen quickly. You can use the dash cig lighter socket for trickle charging.
Cheers
Phil

 

[davek]

Thanks Phil, great info, I have seen the controllers on ebay etc, and was thinking maybe a 25/30w as suggested earlier on this thread with a controller for piece of mind. gonna check which battery I have fitted in the engine bay today, I know its a 70 amp hour, is that the size VW fit to these vans?

 

[Stay Frosty]

Search "Moll" for info on batteries made from cheese.

 

[davek]

will do, thanks

 

[Ads_Essex]

To be fair, my Varta isn’t great. But I’ve not helped this by allowing it to discharge four or so times.

We both commute by train and have use of a Focus to do the errands, so the van doesn’t get used for a week or two at a time.

For instance, we used the van on Saturday 4th and parked it up with 12.37v
(last charged 29th where it sat with 12.56v until the 4th).
Went in and out of it a few times during the week (have power-latching and step-lights) and on starting it yesterday it was at 11.73v.
I reckon a solar panel and a new battery will be on the way once lockdown is finished.

 

[oldiebut goodie]

I have just changed my solar panel controller for one that has an additional feed for the starter battery - it is only 1 amp but has made all the difference to the state of charge of the starter, up from around 11.5v to 12.7. I did get a message from my tracker at 4 o'clock in the morning to say there was a problem when the battery dropped too low. ( It could have waited until I had got up though! )

 

[davek]

Just been out and checked the battery in my 67 van, Oh No, I mean Oh Yes its a …...……...……….Mmmooollll, can I get this swapped out for a non made of cheese battery under warranty, and did I read earlier you can do this through ringing VW assist and pleading poverty/insanity etc. Ps, battery reading 11.7v now

 

[hoggle]

I bought this to keep my batteries charged in between using the Van. It was recommended to me by @Dellmassive.
50W solar panel charger 12v, folding kit motorhome, caravan, campervan, car, van, boat, yacht camping, caravanning, motorhome 12V system: Amazon.co.uk: Car & Motorbike

 

[davek]

Thanks for that, looks a nice bit of kit!

 

[widu13]

Just to show that simply plugging in a panel into the cig socket works quite well. The below voltage graph is from a 20 year old 15w Exide panel propped up inside on the dash. Happy enough with that.