I've heard that the way that solar deals with overvoltage conditions (short circuit) and the way that wind deals with it (loaded circuit) makes using a solar controller for wind a non-starter. With a turbine, overvoltage is caused by the blades spinning too fast (often at the equipment's peril) so the solution is to fully load it to slow down the blades.

(not sure if the explanation is fully accurate, that's my rough memory of what the guys at Arizona Wind & Sun told me)

All that said - I'm interested in hearing more about your wind setup, Kim. I've considered the same, as we are often camping in windy areas here along the northwest coasts. Does your turbine mount to the car, or is it freestanding?

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of David Beierl
Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2011 3:35 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: me too (solar)

At 06:05 PM 6/28/2011, Kim Brennan wrote:
>My Westy (Syncro) already has an external jack for a wind turbine. I 
>have to alter the wiring slightly to add a switch, so that if Turbine 
>powered I go (more less) direct to the battery (turbine is designed to 
>charge batteries directly and is self limiting) but if Panel powered, I 
>go through a Solar battery charge controller (I have a "rinky dink" 21 
>amp one, which should be plenty for the single panel.)

I wouldn't be surprised if you could run the turbine right into the controller and not worry about switching (I also wouldn't be surprised if you could not...).

What's "rinky dink" about using a twenty amp controller for a ten amp panel?  You could run two, nu?

Yours,
David