Rocksnsalt
Solar Enthusiast
I think you may mean the Ford Transit build that STO produces. Congrats in advance to your friend.
Yes, I kind of agree, it may not make sense to ad solar. Unless the massive alternator fails.
OR if I do ever end up getting one and want to run AC in the day while parked out in 100f+ heat in moab or wherever it may make sense to have some solar help to extend battery use, so as not to have to start the vehicle and burn fuel sooner. 400-600 watts isn’t huge in comparison, but it’s something.
I really don’t have use for the deck as I my ninja skills have diminished somewhat lately and I don’t feel the need to get up 9.5 ft -10ft (after tire and suspension upgrades) on top of it. My current sprinter 4x4 is in that realm, no thanks on getting up top. So imagine if you arrived the night before to a warm location, set up camp, ran the ac some overnight, made coffee and breakfast using the electric system, the fridge has been cycling a bit more than normal of course during this time. Now it’s 8am, ambient temp is warming up, going for a hike or mtb ride. But your gf wants to just chill or maybe has some editing or other office /studio work to do for a while.
So the ac may be on relatively early in the day.
Once you’ve set up camp in some places you don’t always want to pick everything up to go for a drive to charge the system. And idling these modern diesels is not good for them.
So there it is, reasons/scenario one may want to add solar even IF they have a STO Volta or similar system.
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