Putting the panel in the luggage rack seems a sweet idea until one
realizes that the best place to park ain't necessarily the best place to
site the panel. And there is normally no one best site for the panel --
when I camp I'm shifting the panel around the campsite as needed to
track the sun and avoid the shade. Gives me something to do. But by
doing so I can generally top off the house battery by noon, then all the
power after that is free.

--
Jack "Rocket j Squirrel" Elliott
1984 Westfalia, auto trans,
Bend, Ore.

On 10/15/2014 04:04 PM, J B wrote:
> Sort of my fault with the way I was parked. With the pop-top up and
> the angle of the sun, it didn't hit my panel in the luggage rack at
> all. One of the drawbacks of not having a moveable panel I
> guess.....
>
> -----Original Message----- From: "Rocket J Squirrel"
> [camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM] Date: 10/15/2014 06:45 PM To:
> vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Re: Lake Piru
>
> Why was your solar panel in the shade for the whole weekend?
>
> -- Jack "Rocket j Squirrel" Elliott 1984 Westfalia, auto trans, Bend,
> Ore.
>
> On 10/15/2014 02:50 PM, J B wrote:
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> Our last camping trip for a while, we went to Lake Piru. Our 80W
>> solar panel was in the shade for the whole weekend and hardly
>> charged my 50Ah house battery which had me looking at other
>> options. I still want to keep it in the location under the drivers
>> seat and have been reading about putting 4x22Ah batteries in
>> parallel for a total of 88Ah. Does anyone here have any experience
>> with this type of set-up??? Or other options under the drivers seat
>> having more than 50Ah?
>>
>> Also feel free to check out my updated blog of Lake Piru.
>>
>> http://1981vwcamper.blogspot.com/
>>
>> Thanks - John.
>>