Chris, as far as I know Matt @ offgridengineering is the only one who makes a plug & play harness for that switch, he's where I bought mine. It's likely the nicest looking loom in the whole truck.
And yes as you found I've run solar under the rack on a couple different vehicles now... it's probably not something I'd do again. My preferred setup these days is a panel on top of the rack, removable so that it can be positioned away from the truck if desired. Few bullet point reasons...
- the wattage loss from a bar running over the panel is significant. I used to scoff at that, until I actually measured it... then I learned a 100 watt panel will measure about 85 watts under ideal conditions. But wave your hand in front of it and it drops to around 60, stand in front of it and it drops even lower. So under a rack I'd say you top out at 60% of what your panel is rated to.
- panel angle to the sun is also a factor, and when I say ideal conditions it's really three parts; unobstructed, direct angle, and clean. So when you bolt a panel under the rack you're 0 for 3 on that... and after a year it's really crazy how much dirt collects on the panel, especially under the bars.
- most people want solar when out adventuring to help power their refrigerator. That makes a ton of sense, but consider that those are almost opposites from an environmental perspective. Solar panels like hot, direct sunlight, while fridges are more like dogs they'd prefer the shade with the window cracked. So if you hard mount your panel you can park in the shade and glean a tiny bit of solar benefit, but keep the fridge cool. Or you can park in the direct sun and get more solar, then make your fridge work harder... I'm not sure the power you would gain by parking in the direct sun is even enough to offset the additional power you're consuming by having a hot car. Next to impossible to measure that as there are so many other factors at play, but I think you get the point.. it feels like a Steven Wright joke.
So then enter Nakman's solar setup version 3.0. 110watt flex panel, bolted to a plastic grid panel, snapped to the roof rack. Most days this sits on the roof and I get decent performance, 2 out of 3 on my best practice test, though sometimes the sun is overhead and I can hit all three. If I need to haul a canoe, or lumber, ladder, or some other big item, I can snap this off the truck and put it inside in about 30 seconds. And if I need to park in the shade for a while, but desire to still squeeze the sun for some juice, then I can pop off the panel and attach the extension cord in about 2 minutes. Here are a few pictures... will be working on a video for this one also.
And yes as you found I've run solar under the rack on a couple different vehicles now... it's probably not something I'd do again. My preferred setup these days is a panel on top of the rack, removable so that it can be positioned away from the truck if desired. Few bullet point reasons...
- the wattage loss from a bar running over the panel is significant. I used to scoff at that, until I actually measured it... then I learned a 100 watt panel will measure about 85 watts under ideal conditions. But wave your hand in front of it and it drops to around 60, stand in front of it and it drops even lower. So under a rack I'd say you top out at 60% of what your panel is rated to.
- panel angle to the sun is also a factor, and when I say ideal conditions it's really three parts; unobstructed, direct angle, and clean. So when you bolt a panel under the rack you're 0 for 3 on that... and after a year it's really crazy how much dirt collects on the panel, especially under the bars.
- most people want solar when out adventuring to help power their refrigerator. That makes a ton of sense, but consider that those are almost opposites from an environmental perspective. Solar panels like hot, direct sunlight, while fridges are more like dogs they'd prefer the shade with the window cracked. So if you hard mount your panel you can park in the shade and glean a tiny bit of solar benefit, but keep the fridge cool. Or you can park in the direct sun and get more solar, then make your fridge work harder... I'm not sure the power you would gain by parking in the direct sun is even enough to offset the additional power you're consuming by having a hot car. Next to impossible to measure that as there are so many other factors at play, but I think you get the point.. it feels like a Steven Wright joke.
So then enter Nakman's solar setup version 3.0. 110watt flex panel, bolted to a plastic grid panel, snapped to the roof rack. Most days this sits on the roof and I get decent performance, 2 out of 3 on my best practice test, though sometimes the sun is overhead and I can hit all three. If I need to haul a canoe, or lumber, ladder, or some other big item, I can snap this off the truck and put it inside in about 30 seconds. And if I need to park in the shade for a while, but desire to still squeeze the sun for some juice, then I can pop off the panel and attach the extension cord in about 2 minutes. Here are a few pictures... will be working on a video for this one also.
) that will just be parked most of the time. I would love to leave the second battery in the truck and use the solar to maintain both bat-trees. Although I really like Tim's approach to a fixed/not fixed panel, I don't really want a roof rack to mount it to either. What I'm thinking is just installing some flexible panels on the roof so that it is still low profile and people can't really see them. Where I park my truck it is only going to get sunlight for the first half of the day so this may be a lost cause anyways. I'm just hoping I can see some real world numbers that will help me decide. 