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beaups

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I was looking at a 500 watt system, but not just for camping. If I spend 6 hours at the beach 3 times a week, that really starts adding up. Parked in the driveway on sunny days would help too. Planning to use this Jeep for all my short hops around town. We only have one public level 2 station and I dont want to add to my current power bill.
Home solar is a different animal, the thread is about mobile charging. It's not going to be efficient to lug around a huge solar array. The weight impact to economy alone is likely enough to negate any gains. Even with a 500w setup you are looking at something around 2 miles of range achieved from a "full" day of charging in ideal conditions. That's like 12oz of fuel.
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Home solar is a different animal, the thread is about mobile charging. It's not going to be efficient to lug around a huge solar array. The weight impact to economy alone is likely enough to negate any gains. Even with a 500w setup you are looking at something around 2 miles of range achieved from a "full" day of charging in ideal conditions. That's like 12oz of fuel.
Was thinking of rack-mounting the panels to the Jeep semi-permanent. Ideally, bypass the 120v input and putting the DC directly in before the charge controller. Would, obviously, need more info than Jetp is currently supplying to put it all together. And I know it will void the warranty, etc.... Why are you hell-bent on burning gas instead of using the 4xe capabilities? If I lose 2mpg because of the weight, but I'm running all electric, who cares?
 

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Was thinking of rack-mounting the panels to the Jeep semi-permanent. Ideally, bypass the 120v input and putting the DC directly in before the charge controller. Would, obviously, need more info than Jetp is currently supplying to put it all together. And I know it will void the warranty, etc.... Why are you hell-bent on burning gas instead of using the 4xe capabilities? If I lose 2mpg because of the weight, but I'm running all electric, who cares?
I'm not hell-bent on anything. But consuming more fuel (or electricity) in order to recharge with less capacity then you spent hauling around said equipment is a net loss in range/efficiency/etc. E.g if you roof mount panels, you are going to get more of an efficiency hit due to the weight and drag than you will gain back in charging. So what is the point?
 

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I'm not hell-bent on anything. But consuming more fuel (or electricity) in order to recharge with less capacity then you spent hauling around said equipment is a net loss in range/efficiency/etc. E.g if you roof mount panels, you are going to get more of an efficiency hit due to the weight and drag than you will gain back in charging. So what is the point?
I guess my point is that I would need to see the math to be convinced. A 500 watt portable array is not that heavy. 6 hours of full sun would provide almost 3kWh of energy. Let's say 6.5 or 7 hours and you get roughly a 20% charge. That's 5 miles. I'm 3 miles from the beach and I dont drive like a lead-footed idiot so my round trip is almost covered. Then I park in the sun in the driveway during the next day and get even more charge. Maybe Solarwizard can chime in here since it was his post I originally responded to.
 

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I guess my point is that I would need to see the math to be convinced. A 500 watt portable array is not that heavy. 6 hours of full sun would provide almost 3kWh of energy. Let's say 6.5 or 7 hours and you get roughly a 20% charge. That's 5 miles. I'm 3 miles from the beach and I dont drive like a lead-footed idiot so my round trip is almost covered. Then I park in the sun in the driveway during the next day and get even more charge. Maybe Solarwizard can chime in here since it was his post I originally responded to.
There's no region in the USA that I'm aware of that gets 6.5 to 7 hours of PSH. If you've done solar research, you'll see that it's very region and season dependent, and the average is either side of 5PSH in the US. And that doesn't take into account trees/angles/etc.

At 5 PSH * 500W panel that's perfectly positioned and assuming 0 charging loss = 2.5KWH/day. The wrangler 4XE uses 1.45KWH/mile. That means means if everything goes well, you'll get 1.72 miles of range.

edit: looks like Arizona gets 7-7.5PSH. Tennessee gets 4-4.5 and Florida gets 5.5ish.
 

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Why not solar panels? Sure, it takes a while to recharge at Level 1, but you could get a partial charge parked in the sun for several hours every day.
to get what would equate to actual level 1 charging out of an an appropriate charge controller would require 4 top of the line residential size panels with an inverter plus a smart ev charger. Not only would that occupy the vast majority of your Jeep storage area but you’re carrying about 200lbs of weight. depending on time of year, latitude, and sun energy, youll get anywhere from 0-6 hours a day of production and anywhere from 0- 6kWh and it’s gonna royally piss of the jeeps system due to the variation Of production.

in short don’t do this. 80lbs of gas will obviously take you far far further and be available at all times and just a tiny bit of space. I’ve been in the solar business for a decade and a half. If you want solar, batteries and or a charger installed at your home or business, go for it and if you need assistance I’m happy to help You get that done virtually anywhere in the US
 
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I'm glad all I'm getting this for is horsepower and torque lol.
 

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There's no region in the USA that I'm aware of that gets 6.5 to 7 hours of PSH. If you've done solar research, you'll see that it's very region and season dependent, and the average is either side of 5PSH in the US. And that doesn't take into account trees/angles/etc.

At 5 PSH * 500W panel that's perfectly positioned and assuming 0 charging loss = 2.5KWH/day. The wrangler 4XE uses 1.45KWH/mile. That means means if everything goes well, you'll get 1.72 miles of range.

edit: looks like Arizona gets 7-7.5PSH. Tennessee gets 4-4.5 and Florida gets 5.5ish.
That Florida number is an average since we actually get rain, but it's higher than AZ on a sunny day since we are further south. Good to know the kwh per mile. I must admit that I was off a decimal trying to do math in my head. I had the 4xe battery at 1.7kwh so things were charging quite a bit faster in my fantasy system. Thanks for the correction. I was thinking it was too good to be true which is why I dont have solar on my home. I actually got the math right on that calculation.
to get what would equate to actual level 1 charging out of an an appropriate charge controller would require 4 top of the line residential size panels with an inverter plus a smart ev charger. Not only would that occupy the vast majority of your Jeep storage area but you’re carrying about 200lbs of weight. depending on time of year, latitude, and sun energy, youll get anywhere from 0-6 hours a day of production and anywhere from 0- 6kWh and it’s gonna royally piss of the jeeps system due to the variation Of production.

in short don’t do this. 80lbs of gas will obviously take you far far further and be available at all times and just a tiny bit of space. I’ve been in the solar business for a decade and a half. If you want solar, batteries and or a charger installed at your home or business, go for it and if you need assistance I’m happy to help You get that done virtually anywhere in the US
I'm not concerned about the weight since I would not be running a hard top. I would think that would be a close trade-off in weight. Aerodynamics wouldn't be a concern because it's a brick with 4 wheels anyway and I'd be doing slow city speeds. My plan was to rack-mount the panels onto the rollbars. I never run my Jeeps with any sort of top. Wouldn't need the inverter or charge controller since that's built into the vehicle. Right? Maybe a voltage converter to match the DC input side? Just throwing out ideas. Most new RVs have solar panels they're lugging around all the time. When gas hit $10 a gallon in a few years because of carbon tax, it might make sense.
 

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I'm glad all I'm getting this for is horsepower and torque lol.
That's what originally caught my eye. Was looking at the 392 then saw the price tag. All that torque at 0rpm will be amazing.
 

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. My plan was to rack-mount the panels onto the rollbars. I never run my Jeeps with any sort of top. Wouldn't need the inverter or charge controller since that's built into the vehicle. Right?

no. The Jeep needs to see 110v or 220v depending on the input range of the Jeep. You can’t get either of those out of panels no matter the way they’re wired though. I haven’t heard anything about DC fast charging here but even if that was an option, you’re talking about a massive amount of amperage. You also don’t have the amount of surface area on the Jeep to accomplish the 4 panel setup I mentioned and flat mounted would further reduce production even if you did .

Maybe a voltage converter to match the DC input side? Just throwing out ideas. Most new RVs have solar panels they're lugging around all the time. When gas hit $10 a gallon in a few years because of carbon tax, it might make sense.
RVs have on board charge controllers and those are working with 48v batteries on good setups or 12v on rudimentary ones, which is then converter to other voltages depending on application


quite frankly if using solar panels to charge the Jeep was in any way viable, the mopar catalog would be offering it and it’d be in every single press release about it
 

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RVs have on board charge controllers and those are working with 48v batteries on good setups or 12v on rudimentary ones, which is then converter to other voltages depending on application


quite frankly if using solar panels to charge the Jeep was in any way viable, the mopar catalog would be offering it and it’d be in every single press release about it
Damn. Now I gotta figure out how to make my own gasoline.

So I actually got out a calculator and found out that it only costs $2 to charge it fully at home. We pay $0.12 per kwh incl. taxes. I would guess it probably only runs down to around where 16kwh gives a full charge. Might take a while to pay off those solar panels at that rate.
 
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I was looking at a 500 watt system, but not just for camping. If I spend 6 hours at the beach 3 times a week, that really starts adding up. Parked in the driveway on sunny days would help too. Planning to use this Jeep for all my short hops around town. We only have one public level 2 station and I dont want to add to my current power bill.
Might be worth checking with your electric utility provider. Ours will give a $1,000 rebate for buying the vehicle and installing a level 2 charger.
 

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Damn. Now I gotta figure out how to make my own gasoline.

So I actually got out a calculator and found out that it only costs $2 to charge it fully at home. We pay $0.12 per kwh incl. taxes. I would guess it probably only runs down to around where 16kwh gives a full charge. Might take a while to pay off those solar panels at that rate.

If you’re in Florida there are some other incentives to going so. TN doesn’t have 💩
 

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Might be worth checking with your electric utility provider. Ours will give a $1,000 rebate for buying the vehicle and installing a level 2 charger.
Thanks. Unfortunately, ours doesn't offer anything.
 

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If you’re in Florida there are some other incentives to going so. TN doesn’t have 💩
Thanks. Most of those offers are in South Flirida. Our power company doesn't offer anything.
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