Solar top up trickle chargers

Anyone actually successfully using one of these at all? My L322 will be parked up for a week so would like to get one that is up to the job so to speak.
Cheers.

There are two main options -
A small panel with a diode.
Any size panel with a charge controller.

The panel with the diode was / is the cheapest option. Its also a bit rubbish. No real regulation. The only reason it won't completely cook your battery on a shiny day is just that its not big enough.

Charge controllers are way cheaper than they used to be, so, unless you want to buy at the rock bottom end of things, get one of those.

Be careful with 12/24 v autosensing ones though, as some will get upset if you leave them connected with the alternator charging.

We had a 20W panel with no regulator, wired across one of our Renault Trafic batteries. That kept it up for weeks on end and it lay on the dashboard.

If you go much higher than 20W then you'll need some sort of controller / regulator to stop too much charge on sunny days.

Peter

was recently given one of the cheap diode type solar panels, plugs into the obd2 socket , have to unplug it before starting the engine but isn’t any hardship

so far so good, but will be later fitting a T max split charge system

gstuart said:

was recently given one of the cheap diode type solar panels, plugs into the obd2 socket , have to unplug it before starting the engine but isn’t any hardship

so far so good, but will be later fitting a T max split charge system

Click to expand...

At £80 you need ya bumps feeling. My system was lass than £30 and looks a whole lot heavier duty.

Would this do the job?
Amazon product

Any opinions............