Solar Trickle Charger

[rScotty]

I was looking at our tractor today & wondering what to get it for Xmas....
Something inexpensive but useful would do it.
And not too large of a project.

Why not put a solar charger up there on top of the canopy? There's lots of unused space, and then the battery would always be fully charged - which would probably make it last longer too.

I bet lots of people have already done that for their tractor.
Any hints? Or is it time to just get on Amazon and start ordering parts?
rScotty

 

[nyone]

You could also be boiling off the liquid in it making the life shorter.

For about the last 2 months my tractor has been just taking the garbage out my 700' driveway 1x a week. I dont warm it up and yesterday it was 6*f, it started just fine. It lives in a open shed.

 

[sandman2234]

The drawback to using solar, in most cases, is that the smaller solar panels don't have the ability to float or lower the charge as the battery level reaches full. An overcharge situation happens and then you are frying the battery.
I bought several of the small solar panels, and use them around here to keep batteries topped off, but most of them are in multiple battery setups, not single batteries. The chance of frying multiple batteries using a small solar panel is less than frying a single battery.
David from jax
I have one of them in my company semi truck, which has an APU to keep the batteries charged due to the high rate of discharge due to all the electronics' onboard. The solar panel slows down how often the APU has to come on when I am home for several days at a time. The APU is loud enough to bother a couple of my neighbors, although they haven't complained. I just asked if they could hear it in their house. Since the APU starts up on it's own whenever the batteries get discharged, it might be 3am and I don't want them to have to listen to it when it should be quiet around here.
David

 

[RJK54870]

We use a 20W solar panel with regulator to keep our pontoon lift battery charged. The regulator prevents overcharging. Something similar to this: 20w-24v Boat Lift Solar Charging Kit

 

[Fallon]

BatteryMINDer SCC-180 12-V, 16 Amp, 180-Watt Solar Battery Charger/Maintainer/Desulfator - Designed for Cars, Trucks, Motorcycles, ATV, Boat, RV, etc. Amazon.com
On my hydraulic tilting deck trailer. Panel that came with mine didn't fit or was only 5w if I recall. Put a 20 watt Renology panel on. Keeps the battery topped up & I never plug the trailer into shore power.

Panel mounted on the trailer toolbox makes the gas struts to weak to hold it open. But haven't bothered to change them in 5 odd years.

 

[deserteagle71]

BatteryMINDer SCC-180 12-V, 16 Amp, 180-Watt Solar Battery Charger/Maintainer/Desulfator - Designed for Cars, Trucks, Motorcycles, ATV, Boat, RV, etc. Amazon.com
On my hydraulic tilting deck trailer. Panel that came with mine didn't fit or was only 5w if I recall. Put a 20 watt Renology panel on. Keeps the battery topped up & I never plug the trailer into shore power.

Panel mounted on the trailer toolbox makes the gas struts to weak to hold it open. But haven't bothered to change them in 5 odd years.

^This!

I bought something similar many years ago from Northern Tool. It came with a 15w solar panel. I mounted the solar panel on the roof of my pole barn and this little charger maintainer has kept the battery in my welder and other equipment topped off without problem for years. It is a MAINTAINER, not just a charger, so it WILL NOT overcharge or boil out a battery.

 

[ultrarunner]

Have two… one for the gate and one for a covered horse pen to provide lighting.

Both work well.

The lighting was sourced from Northern and it’s the last thing I ever ordered as it took months to get and I called to cancelled and was told it shipped that morning.

 

[BlueKnife]

I was looking at our tractor today & wondering what to get it for Xmas....
Something inexpensive but useful would do it.
And not too large of a project.

Why not put a solar charger up there on top of the canopy? There's lots of unused space, and then the battery would always be fully charged - which would probably make it last longer too.

I bet lots of people have already done that for their tractor.
Any hints? Or is it time to just get on Amazon and start ordering parts?
rScotty

Do you store your tractor indoors? If not, do you get much snow? Either one is going to prevent the charger from working when it's needed the most. There's a good reason you don't typically see solar panels mounted horizontally, especially if they're going to be used in winter.

 

[bmaverick]

I was looking at our tractor today & wondering what to get it for Xmas....
Something inexpensive but useful would do it.
And not too large of a project.

Why not put a solar charger up there on top of the canopy? There's lots of unused space, and then the battery would always be fully charged - which would probably make it last longer too.

I bet lots of people have already done that for their tractor.
Any hints? Or is it time to just get on Amazon and start ordering parts?
rScotty

For a YANMAR, this works just perfectly!

https://www.harborfreight.com/15-watt-solar-battery-maintainer-64251.html

 

[Too many Kubotas]

By now I have at least eight solar chargers from Amazon, mostly 10 W but recently got a couple of 15 W ones, too.

They're called "Sun Energise" (yes, wrong spelling) and easily recognizable by their green borders. Usually $55 or so for the 10W version.
The built in charge control seems to work great, and the indicator light is helpful.

Also have two 5W Renogy units (no control on those) that have kept two batteries for fuel pumps charged for the past five or six years now.