Solar for kayak
 

Anyone currently using solar of any sorts on their yaks to keep the battery charged? Been thinking and researching different panels ( some small enough) to keep the live well and chartplotter charged for a full day. Any suggestions or comments????

I use Goal Zero charger for my phone and radio it works really well, it is a 12v charger so if i needed it, it would charge my battery

In my opinion the only time I see solar on a kayak practical is if you were lost at sea. Otherwise due to salt water environment and price of solar it would be better to just use the money and invest in a good LiFePo4 battery system if you are concerned about running out of battery or the weight of carrying a spare SLA battery otherwise the simple solution is to carry a spare SLA in a drybag

I'm not very electronic/battery savvy so I wasn't sure exactly how many watts/ma etc..... I needed to recharge the battery. I'm new to this but my thoughts is that I wouldn't get a full day out of using the live well and fish finder constantly. If I'm heading in the wrong direction please let me know. All of these battery charging terms have my head spinning and I definitely don't want to fry a new battery.

I asked OEX about Lipo's... They said a few guys were running those but they didn't have allot of info. i guess the weight of another battery isn't a big deal.

Ive thought about hooking up my tank solely to run on a solar panel from what I foud it would be feasible.

If you have any ideas please share. I'm interested but don't understand allot about what I need in regards to panel power output.

My suggestion is just get a little bit bigger 12 volt battery with more amp hours. Makes much more since when it comes to having fewer wires/parts and being cheaper. Batteries plus in San Diego is where I got mine. They are reasonable priced and pretty nice. The best way to go would be to buy one of the battery boxes that comes pre-wired and with a battery box from the online store attached to this website.

http://www.kayakfishingsupplies.com/...e-Power/Detail

so you want a shopping list? or better yet a solar bait tank ready to go?

the solar kit and pump wired up will run around $300. could go all the way to $700 depending on the equipment.

My boat has a 12v system running the livewell and fish finder/chartplotter. It's a 12v 10amp battery and I want to (I guess) have solar to ensure the battery stays charged for all day use. I don't want to have to put the live well on a timer and be able to leave the finder on all day as I'm moving from spot to spot. In this case I'm assuming I need some type of trickle charger to keep the already topped off battery at full capacity. I think?????? Or at least keep up with the discharge. Again I'm new to this so if I'm heading down the wrong path and this doesn't make since, I'm all ears.

I have that same battery box from OEX but how long will that keep the electronic running?

Save your money and headaches, just charge your batteries at home.

Your battery dies get a bigger battery or bring a spare. Dont screw around with solar, your bringing something complicated into an already complicated situation.

I have a 6 volt 10 amp battery and run a 500 gph bait pump continuously while I am out and I did 3 5-7 hour trips and it was still pumping as if it were fully charged. If you use math and stuff you should figure out that when you use a pump rated for 12 volt on a 6 volt system, it will draw twice the current. Which means a 6 volt 10 amp battery would last half as long as a 12 volt 10 amp battery. The guys at the battery shop agreed with my theory and the practice of taking it out a couple times backed it up, too. So, in other words, you should be good with that battery. If you are really worried about it, get a timer for your bait pump and turn your GPS/fish finder off when you are not using them. I agree with the other guys who posted and think it would be easier to put a backup battery in. This would probably help fight against battery memory and make your batteries have a longer life because you could fully discharge your battery and switch over to the full battery, then fully charge the dead one after the trip. This would ensure that you aren't just charging your batteries halfway up every time you go out.

That just doesn't sound right according to Ohm's Law.

V = I * R

Voltage = Current * Resistance


The resistance of the motor is a constant, so the only things that can change is volts and current which means that as voltage goes down so does current.

That means that a 6 volt 10 amp battery should last longer than a 12 volt 10 amp battery.

Eh, maybe it helps if you actually do the math...

This was my understanding as well.. Most of the pumps out there are "rated" for 12V, and around 2.5Amp draw, right? So, people have been advising using 6V battery to modestly decrease the water flow, and to prolong run time on the battery.

From your description, you are running BOTH your livewell and fishfinder off a single 12V10A battery? For way less than the cost of a complex solar set-up, you could get TWO 12V12A LiFePO4 batteries, that would weigh less also. I don't have this battery yet, but am considering buying it tomorrow.

http://www.amazon.com/Bioenno-Power-.../dp/B0083BMHPY

BWE member, GregAndrews (& others), here know a lot more about this. I'd look into this route, instead of solar. Good luck.

Greg turned me on to the LifePO4 batteries a few months ago, I was a little skeptical at first but I decided to take a chance. I've only had the battery for about two months and so far its but running flawless. I was on the last Islander trip and was able to run my HDS5 from about 6am to almost 8pm, it never skipped a beat. The PO4's aren't cheap but they are super light; the 12v 12ah weighs less than a 6v 12ah. I can't remember the exact cost of my battery but it was right around $170(includes tax/shipping/3year squaretrade warranty). Another thing to keep in mind abou these batteries is that you can charge them something like 1000 times before they start loosing their juice.

My kayak is set up to use a 32 Watt flexible solar panel for system charging.
THIS one in fact. Got it some 10 years ago locally at a solar place that no longer exists, and it has been on every fishing kayak I've ever owned.

The main reason I'm set up for it is Baja trips. Everybody here has been saying to "just Charge every night at home" or "carry a spare" which is all fine and good for 99% of your needs. But in my past I was into expedition style trips, where I'd paddle out and not return to the truck for as long as a week (but the norm was 2-3 days). Space and weight is at a premium on these style trips, so carrying a spare meant leaving something else behind.

Haven't done one of those trips in a long while, one of my favorites was to paddle out of the Old Mill and camp way out on a little sand spit at the mouth of the bay on the point, where halibut WSB and yellowtail were within reach for sunrise hookups...

I still use it from time to time though. When my battery starts getting old it will not keep the finder running a whole day, so to stretch its full potential I plug the panel in and I'm good. Then I can spend the 30 or so bucks to replace it at my leisure.

Maybe I'll do one or two more expeditions before I get too old here, we'll see...

The best place I have found for LiFePo4 batteries is batteryspace, there prices are good and theres a 5% off coupon you can use. They have all the LiFePo4 SLA replacement batteries, all the stuff to build you own pack and anything else you want. I am no way affiliated with this company they are just who I have found to be one of the best priced quality battery suppliers after countless days of research on these batteries.