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Charging an EV off grid for weeks at a time - What's possible? What's the most efficient?

BearSF

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Jun 13, 2022
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Greetings.

I am planning, within maybe a year or so, to drop a chunk of change on an EV truck and to install a camper from a lightweight custom topper shell (ie, not a slide-in), with a bed in a cab-over format.

As part of this, I will of course need to charge the EV, since I will live off its power abilities, for example to cook, cool, and to work remotely. Since I will be based in the Arizona area for much of the year, it has great sun, and maybe even the potential for some wind energy.

While I could just drive to towns and find a charger, I'd greatly prefer to use the solar and possibly some wind energy to put power back into the truck, even if it's only a mile or two worth per day. It's worth it to me if I plan to be parked for up to 14 to 21 days at a time, limited mainly by my fresh water supply.

Any solar system I construct will need to have the guts contained inside the camper, and the panels would preferably be mounted on top of it, with maybe some on the sides or even on the ground if it could all be hooked together.

How many panels could I fit onto the top and sides of a truck about the size of a Ford F-150, with a camper about this big? How much power could I reasonably generate? I couldn't find dimensions online, but a good example camper shell is the OVRLND pop top camper. Weight is obviously at a premium here, so the lighter, the better. I have a weight budget of about 100 pounds in this stage of the build.
 
have a weight budget of about 100 pounds in this stage of the build.
I’m not sure what that is referring to but in any dimension I can put my mind to that ain’t enough. The batteries will weigh at least that. The top will be over that. The panels will be heavier in sum.
How many panels could I fit onto the top
Guessing at 60” x 144” and monocrystaline panels 800-900W of solar - or wildhat guessing 5000Wh- maybe- daily. In optimal conditions. And that’s optimistic even in Arizona with panels flat.
But that’s a wildhat guess.
possibly some wind energy
Your money will be better spent elsewhere. Wind can be a good thing but there’s too many reasons why “no!” in your situation other than a visual statement.
You can probably buy another 1000W of solar for the money, or 200Ah of LiFePo (roughly).
plan to be parked for up to 14 to 21 days at a time, limited mainly by my fresh water supply
2.5-5gals/day to shower and do dishes if you plan low-consumption well. So 14 days is 350-500# of water storage.
for example to cook, cool, and to work remotely.
Cooling is going to take more than you’d think, electrically. And without a bunch of ground deploy panels it ain’t gonna happen if charging the vehicle battery, too.

This should be enough to get you thinking in the right direction. Thinking will define reasonable goals- right now you mostly have wishes. Goals get stuff done, wishes get you to buy stuff that probably won’t work out.
 
There are few newer models of Awnings appearing BUT this one is getting Major Attention and these are not like other models that have been available. This particular sector has a Fire under it's backside & innovations are coming left & right. At least these have passed through the most rigorous of testing.

 
Those solar awnings look awesome but are very expensive. If you are a couple years away from buying your electric truck, the market is going to change dramatically within that time frame and any advice you get will be outdated BUT for the sake of discussion, lets talk about what is availalble now.

F150 Lightning with a camper would allow you to do all sorts of off grid camping for several days with the built in inverter. Trying to charge the truck with solar panels would be super expensive, heavy, and take up alot of space. That being said, you could buy several light weight flexible suitcase solar panels like Dokio sells on Amazon and buy the largest portable inverter generator you can find and it would add a few miles per day. Tons of videos on youtube of people charging various EV's like this.

I assume you need the entire setup to be portable? If it were me, I'll buy a small travel trailer with decent boondocking abilities and forget the bed camper. My wife an I can boondock for 4-5 days before the black tank fills up. If it was just me, I could easily double that. Water becomes the bigger issue, not power.
 
If it were me, I'll buy a small travel trailer with decent boondocking abilities and forget the bed camper.
A used high-roof shorter cargo trailer converted to SOA and built up would be ideal for that. Buy an older but newish camper (pocket change wrecks usually) and you can rob stove, sink, panel, shorepower cable, shower, etc
 
As having level 1 charged my Tesla from the Rv and separately, run AC in the RV hours on end both off solar, IMO, your expectations are not realistic.

Details of my build are in my signature block.

Can’t you only tow an RV less than 100 miles off an electric vehicle?
 
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