I am moving the 100-watt Renology panel from my old truck cap over to the new one. Once I do that I plan to order a second panel of the same specs to mount right behind that one. I believe I have enough room on the truck cap to do that, and the existing panel has served me well that 8 years I have had it mounted to the truck for my needs.
At first I was hesitant to stay with the same set up as frankly those 100-watt Renology panels are overpriced on a per watt basis when some 450 watt residential panels can be had for a similiar prices. But the 100-watt Renology I’ve had has proven to be quite reliable and fits well. A second panel will be easier to mount too, as it will be flatter on the roof bend. And using two panels over one one panel has a major advantage with partial shading, which often is an issue with camping in woods. The new panel only adds 13.1 lbs to the roof is well within the caps’ design capacity with two panels and the kayak on the roof.
Indeed if I had good sunshine, the 100 watt panel would be more then sufficient to almost always be topped off as my lead-acid battery storage is pretty limited – and with remote start the SuperDuty is easy enough to start up to top off the batteries. Plus with the 6.8L engine, I am not worried about excessive idle causing premature wear when plenty of people leave their SuperDuty trucks idling all day – that’s part of the reason why the first generation 7.3L had lifter issues.
Almost tempted to order that second panel and install both at once, but I want to get the cap and measure out first before I start mounting the panels. I might also need to get another aluminum strip for mounting the second panel across. But it’s a summer project. I am also not sure if my existing PWM solar controller can handle two panels at maximum output, but I figure if necessary I’ll swap out for a MPPT controller should I have issues with the old one burning up or failing.
