Use my 100W Solar to Trickle Charge the Car Battery?

[Photorectoby]

I have a 100W panel on the roof of my minivan that charges an EcoFlow River Pro battery through one of those XT60i connectors. I travel internationally and am sometimes away from my van for weeks. I would love to use the solar panel to trickle charge the van (Honda Odyssey) battery. Based on my research I need an MPPT controller (thinking 30AMP for future use in a bigger van with more batteries) My question - can I buy one of these XT60 connectors and strip the one end to insert into the charge controller? That would be easier than switching the longer cables I have running from the solar panel inside the card. Anything else I need to be thinking about? I am worried this might be more complicated than I think - I had a local garage bring in a direct line from the car battery to an inverter (i know it has a fuse at the battery) and I was just planning on wiring the MPPT battery out to the connection on the inverter.

Reading this post makes me think I need to worry about a ground?

Appreciate any advice you can provide.
Thanks,
Toby

 

[Rednecktek]

With a 100w panel you can easily just wire in a PWM controller to the main battery and wire the XT60 plug to the solar input. Plug in the panel and walk away.

I have a 50w panel glued to the roof of my truck to try to keep the battery charged up when I'm overseas for months. I just stuck a PWM controller behind the rear seat and brought the wires down through the back wall under the window. Works well if you're not parking under trees for months in the PNW.

 

[Bop]

With a 100w panel you can easily just wire in a PWM controller to the main battery and wire the XT60 plug to the solar input. Plug in the panel and walk away.

I have a 50w panel glued to the roof of my truck to try to keep the battery charged up when I'm overseas for months. I just stuck a PWM controller behind the rear seat and brought the wires down through the back wall under the window. Works well if you're not parking under trees for months in the PNW.

Check the Voc on the panel- there are many 100w panels around that have a 30v or higher Voc- these will not work well either directly wired to the battery (NEVER do this, but many people try) or through a PWM charge controller (a 32v 100w panel running through a PWM into a 12v automotive battery will never put out more than about 37 watts!!!)
Many panels designed for 'solar generators' are in the 100w range and are over 30v...

Just something to be aware of...

 

[polskipower]

Although this doesn't exactly answer your question specifically, I'll add here that I use a Battery Tender model 0211162 solar charge controller with a 12X18" small solar panel (edit: I looked up the panel I'm using and it's a 5W panel, so the lowest possible input power) to continuously maintain charge in a single 12V lead acid battery that I have mounted inside a trailer tongue toolbox to power a winch. This unit cost me $24 on Amazon and has been operating flawlessly for 4 years now with the same cheap lead acid 12V battery, and other than occasionally cleaning the panel (which is mounted on the hinged top of the tool box), I've never had an issue. (Yes, the battery is in a marine battery box and I cut louvres into the tool box to vent it). Anyway, not the same situation, but I wanted to add this because it may just be simplest and cheapest to do something similar. (This unit is a 5-45W charge controller so it does need a smaller output panel, but maybe a separate little panel is better?)