Will it WORK? Harbor Freight $14 99 Solar Battery Charger
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- Опубликовано: 26 авг 2024
- In todays video we try out the Harbor Freight 1.5 Watt Solar Charger on the Moritz Dump Trailer. I wanted to see if it actually works
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Good afternoon everyone. 82º in Kansas City. Congratulations to Eva on passing the driving test. I’ll be picking Elizabeth later for the weekend. Stay safe, be humble & kind and have a day.
Have a good weekend Phil!
Hi Mike , just something to think about as a retired equipment tech. As a recommendation always contact negative last & disconnect neg first. Way of preventing accidentally shorting out power . Nothing can work untill it has a ground. IE undoing The post clamp you touch frame with wrench sparks . Neg off no sparks.
Love seeing the Huntsman smile . Hope you all stay safe and happy 👌 🇨🇦 Craig.
I was a little concerned about that aluminum plate he was sticking back down in there LOL
If you do negative first you may end up with capacitors in your computer holding a charge that they can't drain to ground. You may even have some amount of electricity flowing backwards trying to balance with the positive side of the battery.
Disconnect positive first.
I have that panel on my boat, the problem is it doesn't have a diode that prevents it from discharging the battery when there is no sun. I installed an inline diode and it works great.
Mike, I am adding a trolling motor to my pontoon boat tomorrow, and I am heading to Harbor Freight to pick one of these up for my battery for it. I dont always get out to it and being in Texas I get a lot of sun this time of year, so I will give it a true Texas test. Thanks so much for the video.
I am doing the same
Hi Mike, there's not much I buy at harbor freight, but the 45watt solar kit Lasted several years to run lights and charge phones off grid until we upgraded to a 580 watt system at my mom's cabin. Surprised me for sure!
I have similar solar system for my battery that open and closes my gate. Works great. Very informative clip...
Thank you for the review! You may want to park in a sunnier spot? Missed you today at 8am but glad you published! Marcus from Chesapeake VA.
Marcus!
Only a few others have mentioned it, but its worth repeating. Check to make sure your truck is wired to charge the trailer battery while driving. When the trailer is plugged into your truck and the truck is running it should charge the battery. The trailer is not designed to run the pump from the battery alone. The battery is just a capacitor of sorts so it doesn't pull so much from your vehicle when dumping. If you are using the trailer for an hour or two with it plugged into the truck, the battery should stay charged. That is, if your trailer plug is wired correctly.
Always such a great smile from Hunter. You are such lucky people to have that.
Wire it permanently and mount it on the top rail of the dump trailer on the angle instead of flat 2 self tapping screws instead of the suction cups . Have one on my boat for the trolling motor works awesome
I have used one of these to maintain the battery on my lawn mower for years.
Good Morning, HuntMan!!! Great to see your smiling faces this morning! We installed one of those solar chargers on one of our aux fire vehicles because the guy never starts or drives it.. Works perfectly! Best Wishes! Be careful, stay safe and always remember to be humble and kind, My Friends!
Just got one for a car I don't drive much. We had one on a 12v battery on a golf cart for the radio years ago (only thing that charged that separate 12v battery). It was always charged up and ready to go unless you used the radio for multiple days in a row.
I bought one of these. It was putting out 19 or so volts. I’ll be picking up a controller soon to avoid overcharging.
I've had pretty good luck with Harbor Freight. The only thing that has gone belly up was an electric pressure washer which lasted 6 yrs before the motor burnt up. I used it alot. The Braun 20v Lithium drill I got is really powerful.
I need to get one of those for my dump trailer. Harbor Freight here I come. Nice video
Hi Mike, trailer battery should be fully charged while towing . Check to make sure that when the trailer is plugged in to your truck that the trailer battery is being charged by your trucks alternator . Where you baught the trailer should be able to help you with diagnostic and wiring .
It's pronounced "morts" a company out of Mansfield, Ohio. They make great trailers. Have a friend here has a new one and it came with the solar charger.
Saw that Sweet Kershaw pocket knife at 2:46. Made me smile!
Yes sir! Thanks Fred I must have a dozen Bench Mades that i never ever use for some reason. That Kershaw is my EDC
@@OutdoorsWithTheMorgans,
Benchmade is the epitome of knives, my Son has some, I don’t have any but I have hundreds of all types of knives.
You can’t touch those OSO Sweet Kershaw knives on EBay for what I paid for them now. All over 20 bucks now.
I would be paranoid about a $100 dollar pocket knife as an every day carry. So satisfying that you like that knife.
These are small, low power, amorphous silicon panels, they produce very low peak current but can produce some current even in the shade. This is because they have a higher internal resistance, but the liberated electrons stay liberated longer and so they have more time to wander through the load (charge the battery) before they are able to be lost and recombine in the cells instead of driving the load. They are SLOW at charging the batteries and are really only meant to maintain them or to slow the self discharge of lead acid batteries. They are not even optimized for the cells they use, they often produce 22 volts and just rely on having such a low current that the 12 volt battery will effectively act like a dead short as far as the panel is concerned since the battery could fully absorb power from a large number of these panels working together. Thus the voltage is limited by the voltage of the battery. I am going to put a DC-DC buck converter on on old one of these I found and see if that can turn some of the extra voltage into more current and get closer to the maximum power point these panels can generate.
I bought a solar tender for my dump trailer and hooked a 30 watt panel to it . On that one with a low watt panel of you charge the battery up and then put the tender on it , it will keep it fully charged. Any battery that sets around without being used for long periods of time needs a tender . Good purchase, will extend the life of the battery .
I put one of those solar panels on all my trailer tongues to keep the electric brake battery topped off. Works well. I also have a second one on my flatbed trailer on the deep cycle for the winch. It won't charge it back up (well, maybe in a month) but it does a good job of keeping it from draining while the trailer sits for long periods. I permanently mounted mine to the side of the tongue box and hardwired it to the battery.
At 1.5 watts it's more of a maintainer. I've known several folks that use these for atv, rv, etc where it's not used for a week or more. Most people I know hardwire to the terminals and mount the connector so that it can be detached when using the vehicle and hook it back up when done. No need for the clamps.
Hi Mike and Hunter.
I have one of the solar chargers on one of my tractors. It is on my cab door up high and plugs into the cigarette litter.
Had it for 2 two years and it keeps the battery up.
Keep up the great videos.
Stay safe and always be kind.
Have a day
Have you tested it to see if there's voltage coming through? What happens if you overcharge the battery, is there a switching mechanism
@@-whackd The panel apparently has a built in charge controller to prevent overcharging or back drawing from the battery.
The Huntman had a smile on his face that would make anyone smile. He gets that from his momma. Hahaha. Stay well, stay safe and yall HAVE A DAY
I had the EXACT same thought come to mind!
These work great I use solar to maintain all of my batteries. A suggestion on that charger take the rubber plugs off the back unscrew and open it up peal the silicon away from the led bulb and clip one of the legs, this seems to be a small thing but it really helps with the charge current.
I have one of the early orange version and it has worked flawlessly for over 20 years so I really recomend it.
Those Solar panel chargers work just like the plug in type battery tenders, you leave them on during storage to keep your battery from going dead.
I find these more of a battery maintainer rather than a charger... I use it on a car I don't drive much and it keeps the battery topped up giving you a strong start.
Mike, those chargers do work well but they're more of a maintainer than they are a charger. I always put my batteries on the regular charger and get them to 100% and then the solar panels will maintain them.
Mike, this is just for your general information file.... when hooking up a battery to a car, truck, dump trailer or maybe jumping from one to another with jumper cables.... Always hook the positive first as if it is not grounded, then no sparks. You take a wrench and tighten a cable and its on the positive and the wrench hits metal, a flash of sparks. When tightening a negative cable and that wrench touches metal.. no sparks because negative to negative is not a short. I saw you hook the negative first and then the positive... of course there was no spark because you didn't bump the negative so no short possible. In that situation your fairly safe yes but get in a habit to do it the right way in all situations as in say installing a battery, that would be critical to tighten the positive first as the neg is not touching anything and so its safe.. then hook the negative and if a wrench touches metal, there will be no short.... I hope that people learn this. Its how people ruin a alternator. I hope that this doesn't upset you
Or hook the battery up to the truck alternator
That's what I would like to 'bypass' on my mower. My zero-turn mower has had alternator issues forever. I've replaced it twice. An it apparently needs a new one for this season. It just doesn't charge at all it seems. It sits on a lil battery maintainer all winter and between cuts. My father believes buying a new alternator and new 12v battery every year, is the solution.
I have one for my motorcycle and another for my old jeep that only runs about 5 times a year around the yard. Plows snow and moves stuff around with small trailer. Is more a maintainer than a charger. Trick is to hook it up as soon as you are done with vehicle and it will keep battery up to full, if battery is dead as might be the case after you use your trailer you should charge it with charger than put maintainer on.
Good morning Mike and Hunter, thanks for sharing about the Harbor Freight Solar battery charger, going to give one of those a try for sure. Might prolong my mower battery! Thanks again, Fred. 🙏🏻🙏🏻👍👍👏🏻👏🏻👋👋
I have used that same panel for lawn tractors and other equipment I don’t run all the time. It always worked great. Just don’t leave it on the painted surface.
I need one for camping on the island and charging the trolling motor battery!
Will not work for you.
@@realairplane261 thanks, good to know
Check out Jackery power systems with a solar charge. Pricey but you will get what you pay for when buying solar. I have a 6kw system that runs our complete home 8 months of the year. The excess power returns to the grid for a minimal return. We do not store our power.
Hey Mike! I have the 14' version of your trailer. Love it! Believe it or not, I bought it from Bennett because of your recommendation so thank you! That battery is the one and only frustration I have run into. When I want to use it, I don't want to have to charge it and I never can think far enough ahead to be ready. I think that solar charger is a PERFECT solution. Thanks again for great advice!
Hey Mike , That’s good , I’m gonna go pick one up for my bobcat , Polaris , and dump trailer that’s a good deal , my bobcat mt100 sat for 4 weeks and didn’t have in charger then needed to use it for a job and it died lol , this is a solution I was looking for !
Good to see Hunter in these videos. Keep up the excellent videos, Mike.
Mike, Rex here and I think this charger will be ideal. It should keep your battery ready to go at any given time! I’m a fan! I bought one of the lights from Harbor Freight, the one Melissa bought you for the new building! Good video!
I will get one I don’t use my dump trailer a lot.Very nice review.Have good weekend everyone.
I need one of these for my boat.
I think I got a half amp out of my little harbor freight 14.99, That was probably peak power and in Central California in the summer. That said, I always bring it with when I'm camping so that the door opening and other things like that don't completely drain the battery if I'm out for a while. It's worth it to me, and I imagine what the trailer that's not being frequently used that's not a bad idea either.
Idea fo u, replace clips w terminal ends connected to battery, clip wire run-through wall in grommet, disconnect the plug when using otherwise leave i go
Good idea to use on dump trailer. Won't overheat the battery either. I will get one for our dump trailer too. Thanks for the test.
Mike cut the clamps off and hard wire it to the battery! Like you said at the beginning it is a trickle charger. It only maintains a fully charged battery. Even after you use your trailer in dump mode it will still require a charge because it is a trickle charge and maintainer
Solar panels are a great back up but if you got a dedicated charge circuit wired into to the truck that would mean the battery was being charged from the alternator the whole time you were coupled, then all the solar panel would do is maintain the charge. Take truck and trailer to local auto electrician and they will fix it in a jiffy.
Mike, You may need more than one. 1.5 watts at 12v is only .125 amps not a lot. I would be advised to hook up a charge controller to prevent over charging. Which will result in lower battery life
1.5 watts will barely keep up with self discharge. No way you could hurt a group 27 or 29 battery with this toy.
Bought one from harbor. Use it to maintain battery on my x mark mower. It keeps battery charged. Mounted solar panel on side of shop which gets about 5 hours of sunlight a day. Added 15 foot of cable to go thru cable port to reach h mower. It does pretty good and I cut once every 2 weeks and have no problem starting mower.. Stay safe and hello to the family. See you on the next video!!!.
You were correct with the first pronunciation. We have a Moritz family family in our scout unit
Great Info Mike seams you would have to be patient and some time to get full charge.
We run cable off tow vehicle battery to the back. 👍👊
Mike, if you run a hot wire from your battery in your truck with a 20 amp fuse back to the trailer +12 volt you can charge as you drive. I charge my boat battery that way.
Just ensure it has a cutoff to prevent overcharging.
How?
@@deathuponusalll most quality chargers have a built in cutoff.
I have had a solar charger on my dump trailer for about 7 months. The battery is always charged when I use the dump bed. I would recommend one.
Gordon, how many watts.
My trailer I hooked up the 12 power supply on the 7 way to the battery that way when I have it hooked up to the truck it’s charging just like a camper does
like other say it is mainly to maintain the charge so once charge your battery should stay more or less fully charge
The panel is amorphous by the way, it‘s the same type used on those emergency radios/flashlights or calculators. Their advantage is, that they work very well in overcast conditions although they otherwise have a relatively bad efficiency. There is another variant with conventional cells and although, the peak wattage is higher, poly/mono solar cells really only perform well under direct sunlight.
Anyways, thanks for the review (I‘m thinking of using this panel with a LiFePo4 for use with a standalone CB radio receiver and LTE/5G router). This panel is often marketed as a charger at many Chinese sellers, although traditional sellers state it‘s mainly for keeping the battery from discharging.
good idea for battery...thanks 4 video. be kind.
Thanks been thinking about getting a solar battery charger for my pontoon but they get pricey and wasnt sure what one to buy but now that you reviewed this one i believe i will buy a couple of them and still save money! Thanks for the review!!
Thank You for sharing. you gave me the info i was looking for. my situation is i have a polaris ranger with a 12volt battery and it sits for weeks, sometimes months at a time. i now know 1.5w. charger should be plenty for me.
I bought an used car that the previous owner hot wired an amplifier. Last summer after playing some music I noticed that the amplifier fan ran for about 1 1/2 hours after I shut the car down. Needless to say, I wired in an 5 watt battery trickle charger and the battery has read in the 90% range ever since.
I have bought this solar charger a few years ago to put in my mustang to help keep my battery up in power. I found out sitting in my front window and having it plugged in the cigarette light socket worked but it did melt the ABS plastic so bad it twisted the plastic off some of the panel tearing the wire off one end of the panel. the ABS plastic can't handle the heat of direct sun in the summer . I wrote to Harbor Freight 3 times about this problem but they just ignore the problem. Now I'm in California and it can get hot here. but they shouldn't advertise leaving the panel in the window to keep the car charged if it can't handle the heat. I still have the solar panels but with out the ABS plastic on them .had to peal the rest of it off. Not sure what i can use to put back on the panel that the sun won't melt of cause a fire.maybe some high temp rubber will work.
Nice review! I use something similar (2w northern tool) for my diesel fuel transfer tank. I have pumped a few hundred gallons so far with out putting a charger to the battery so I would say it’s doing it’s job!
Thanks for sharing your your reviews, I’m going to buy one for my tractors.
I have one of those on my generator shed to maintain the battery. If you want to charge the battery buy a bigger solar panel. What you have will probably maintain the battery. I like them on a tractor too in winter to keep the battery up.
my 2014 big tex gooseneck dump trailer has a 110 plug on it - you plug it in and overnight you are back to a full charge...if you have electricity available close by, it is much quicker and hassle free...
Thanks Mike. That’s good to know. I might have to pick one up. 👍👍👍❤️
The 7 way plug from your truck to the trailer should have a 12v out you can hook the the battery to charge the battery while driving.
Everyone says that quite often but when you run 10 minutes down the road to the stone yard and back it doesn't charge much
Correct I have 2 dump trailers and the 7 pin middle I believe is the charging function never have to mess with charging them.
The 12v pin is on the outside and not the center pin. It is straight across from the ground pin.
In the instructions it does mention a controller of some type , i was wondering if it would overcharge without it ?
If you are going to use the alligator clips, don't clamp them to the threaded bolt. It will work better clamped to the lead base the bolt goes into or to the automotive posts. I work in the battery business and this makes a difference in conductivity.
I learned this the hard way lol. The battery drain was minor on my Jeep but it’s was just enough where the solar panel couldn’t catch up. I had to remove the battery entirely from the Jeep and connect the alligator clips directly to it so it could charge enough to start the engine. My Jeep drains the battery slowly for some reason but I keep the solar panel in the dash just in case of emergencies so it’s well worth the $14.
Thanks I am.getting one of these
I dry camp in my class A and hope this will keep the chassis battery topped.off
Phil here from NE Indiana. If you park the trailer in the same spot every time then maybe you could mount the panel on a pole for better sun light. Run a wire to the trailer. But if you park the trailer all over the place then that won't work for you. Bad idea. I'm sure you'll figure something out to get it to work for you. Let us know what you come up with.
There should be a charge wire coming from the truck. Is it hooked up? Many times it is not. If you hook it up, it should charge the battery between hauling loads.
I had a similar problem with the winch on my trailer... i ran 2 leads from the vehicle battery to an anderson plug then to the winch battery... charges whilst driving... win win lol
Howdy from the western Ozarks. Sitting in the shade trying to dry out from my sweat-soaked trip up the 1/4-mile driveway with a pole saw. And back, tossing the limbs out into the forest. It’s hot today. The logger is waiting for parts to fix his slider, so while he’s becalmed, I’m going to have him use his skid loader to fix our two eroded stream crossings. He said he’d be here this evening, so I’m not able to shut down and shower yet.
Anyway, if you want that to maintain the battery, then it needs a charge controller. We used solar panels with a lot of our dataloggers we deployed in off-grid locations. Our panels were usually 90W with the controller (and not cheap), but they’ve worked really well for years.
I always wondered if those would work
Can you plug into your trailer outlet on the bumper while you are towing
Good idea here. Also using one or two of those deep cycle batteries might be a good idea too.
One of my truck 7 pin contacts is a 12v for charging RV batteries is transit when the engine is running. I would bet that the dump trailer battery can be charged from the truck.
Based on my reading of comments, it does NOT appear the unit has a regulator to avoid an overcharge. While it is unlikely, Harbor Freight does carry a regulator that would work in conjunction with this unit.
It works but better have time on your hands is right! I use this solar charging strip just to maintain! Even two might not work for your trailer, is there enough room in trailer box for two batteries, then connect two to bigger panel!
At least you know you're going in the right direction up not down. Flat tires and dead batteries are the job before the job.
Hello hunter! From Piqua Ohio!
TELL THE HUNT MAN I SAID HELLO! HE ALWAYS HAS A GREAT 👍 SMILE!
6 or 7 hours seems like a lot... most people have a misconception about good sunlight hours. "Peak sunlight hours" is the technical term and in your area, a good day (a really good day) would net you like 4.5 hours of good sunlight, and probably most days closer to 3.
I still purchase an occasional "tool" from Harbour freight, some work fine for a long time and some don't work at alll, they are D.O.A. Thanks thought, this was a good test, I may get one. The only thing I really ever got from china that lasted more than a week was Covid. Thanks for the review and testing.
Mike. You should also be able to charge through the plug when it’s hooked to the truck. That’s the way mine is set up using the 7 point plug.
I got one it's ok for small jobs but it's ok
Hi Mike! This isn't a new idea. Back in 07-09 Volkswagen batteries for.the diesels weren't charged enough when they were supposed to come off the boat to turn the motor over. The cars had sat to long in the German staging yards. VW solved it by affixing a solar panel.to.the inside of the windshield and plugging in to the OBD2 connector. Glad this worked for you! 👍 P.S. During dealer.prep of the car the panels were thrown away....
Have 2 of them one on Tractor and one on my generator works great on both..never had to use jump box
Mike, I sold battery's For over 20 years.you need at 2 to 4 amps to charge your battery that 1.5 amp.witt take a very long time to charge.
I used 3 of those in parallel to keep the battery on my RV from going dead.
You might do well to put that charger on full time. It will trickle charge anyway so it won't hurt to leave it alone. You can unhook it the day you use it and if you get a stretch of continuous sun, guaranteed it will give you what you want.
Come on what about the charger there windy
Easier to just tie into the circuit that charges the battery for the breakaway system when you're hooked up to the truck. Works great for the winch battery on my car hauler.
My god what a trailer!!!!
I had a plow truck I didn't drive very often and had one of those plugged into the cigarette lighter and left it up on the dash when I wasn't using the truck and it always kept the battery topped off.
I did the same thing on my camp trailer. But I added a second battery which worked great.
You just reminded me that I was suppose to get one of these for the farm/wood truck that sits outside and gets used maybe 2-3x a year.
Hi mike thanks for the information have a day love from TEXAS
Just curious, does the battery charge off of the 7 pin plug like the batteries in an RV?
I was wondering the same thing
I bought 2 of these to maintain a couple of vehicles. Thankfully I also bought the extra protection warranty. Neither did anything in the hot 95°summer ☀️. In fact they actually melted. 😆 Got my $ back n bought 2 new batteries instead. Lesson learned.