I originally had a 50w panel in my cargo tray and it was fine for a while, but I knew that I’d eventually want more “input” from the sun. This past winter I installed a diesel heater and wanted to make sure I had enough power to keep the fridge and the heater working for a few days.
After some research, I found that this compact Renogy 100w panel would fit down inside my cargo tray and I ordered it up. I also ordered the Renogy tilt brackets an 25’+ of Renogy wire.
When it all arrived, I went to town.
I started by removing the cargo box and painting it. I used marine grade fiberglass paint that I picked up at West marine.
I also ordered up new SS hardware from GoWesty in the process.
I had purchased the Renogy tilt kit, but decided to cut up the aluminum and make my own specific custom mounts. Even though the solar panel will fit down inside the cargo area, I chose to mount it up higher to allow me some storage space under the panel. There’s about 4” of storage space under it which allows me the freedom to keep my folding fire pit/bbq up there along with all the extra solar cord.
I’m using my original solar controller that seems to work perfect and it was cheap. Eventually I’ll upgrade to a fancier model with blue tooth monitoring, but for now this works perfect.
Since this picture, I’ve added a grounding block and a different 12v tent-style block for plugging things in. It’s a work in progress.
My battery setup is 3, 22ah golf cart batteries wired together to give me 66ah of run time. I’ve had these in for 3 years now and no problems.
Works great and the aux batteries stay pretty topped off most of the time. Feel free to post up your questions/comments or message me directly.
