DIY Solar Powered Lawn Care Trailer | Full Build & Wiring
Vložit
- čas přidán 5. 06. 2024
- Full build of my DIY solar powered lawn care trailer. I show wiring, solar racking, mounting the inverter & battery, plus a sneak peak at what is on the horizon for SOLARPUNKs (you people).
Affiliate & Amazon Associate links below:
Amazon Solarpunk Trailer list (tools/equipment): amzn.to/3yR0ylU
Rich Solar 200W 24V Panels: richsolar.com/collections/rv-...
EG4 Server Rack Battery: signaturesolar.com/eg4-lifepo...
EG4 3000 EHV-48V: signaturesolar.com/eg4-3kw-of...
As an amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
You are responsible for your own safety, this is intended as entertainment only, consult a qualified expert, or better yet don't do anything and stay inside and watch cat videos, that's safer... - Zábava
While you wait for something awesome I'm working to bring you punks, grab your inverter and battery supplies from Signature Solar (affiliate link): signaturesolar.com/?ref=SOLARPUNK and then drop your email in the box on my new website solarpunkit.com/ Punk!
.
.
.
SOON™
Your initial marker diagram is honestly the simplest and best clear explanation I have seen yet. Kudos for that
You did a very good job going over this topic.
Hey thank you! I tried my best to be clear, concise, and offer useful info. It’s hard to include everything you can think of but also not waste people’s time with rambling. Although it helps that this eg4 system is pretty simple.
Thank you so much for not playing any crappy montage music during your video. At least I'm 13 minutes and 42 seconds in and I haven't heard any obnoxiously loud music.
There’s 20 seconds of music towards the end at the “mowtage” haha. Fair warning.
Same, I don’t need to hear the bass drop for every instructional video. Lol
Cool idea having all electric lawn care. I’m sure there’s a niche market for this throughout the country.
It's required by law now in California.
The sale of small equipment engines is banned now you can't even buy a gas pressure washer now.
Niche? It will work virtually everywhere.
Yea I was like 🤔🤦🏾♂️@@twooey8232
One of my mowing crews runs all electric mowers, trimmers and blowers. It’s an up charge. Mostly old folk communities or daycares pay for it. We charge overnight in trailer and with a 10000 watt Honda generator while driving. Plan on buying more for next season.
That's awesome Tye! What mowers and equipment are you running? How does your crew like it? Is the maintenance for your electric equipment trailer indeed less than your gas trailers? I've heard of a few people doing it like that with a generator between jobs and honestly I think it's a great middle-ground even though it seems silly to charge the battery equipment with a gas/diesel generator. I think a lot of people are missing the point with the electric vs gas lawn care debate. Sure, the emissions from gas lawn care are really bad and I would love if we could solve that asap, but most homeowners aren't complaining about that fact, they just hate the noise of the gas stuff (namely blowers). But as a lawn care professional it's currently cost prohibitive and difficult to run all-electric in every scenario, so we have to find some solution that's feasible and cost effective. Thanks for sharing!
Hard habit to break is parking the job trailer in the shade! I still forget with my solar golf cart and park it in the shade!
I'm not a Internet expert but I have messed around with car electronics. They use flexible wiring for exactly the reason you stated. Vibrations. Plus car wiring is all over the place and using metal for that would be a pain.
Yeah I’m used to ships/marine which is always flexible wiring but there’s this weird middle ground trying to use stuff from Home Depot/Lowe’s and also have it function for mobile applications. It’s definitely more RV but idk, I ran into trouble trying to find the perfect solution for every scenario with this build.
@@solarpunksteve pretty interesting discussion here from you two. I'd expect in the trailer it doesn't move around much but if I were you I would put just some wire in a dummy outlet on a hard conduit and screw it into the wall, check back on it in a few years and see if it did do anything
@@solarpunksteve I'm pretty sure the main reason they don't use flexible wiring in more applications is cause it is more expensive. in homes that don't move and you are rarely adjusting the wire they don't need flexible wiring. cars have a ton of vibrations and it's common to have to adjust or fix the wiring. plus it makes it more DIY friendly. easier to splice into and what not.
But overall as long as the gauge is up to spec I don't think it matter which one you use.
Love all of your This Old Tony references. He's one of my favorite channels.
Mine too!
What a great installation, lve done this a couple of times in the past with great results, please please make sure you secure this trailer as some will steal it in a minute, l lost my first one like this, also it easily would make a great weekender. Jeffrey Smart from UK.
Put another 1 or 2 panels on the back as an overhang and you have sun shade that makes power.
Some advice from some who has installed thousands of panels a year. For anything over a thin roof like yours, space them up higher for an air gap. Less than 4 inches of air will hold a lot of heat. 6 inches plus can actually reduce you interior heat like parking under a car cover. Could lift the panels another 3 or 4 inches, put your fan back in (or ac unit) and have a cooler trailer.
Excellent points about the height. This was very much a prototype and I was unsure how it was going to work. Version 2.0 is much improved so I’m excited to share that hopefully soon. I can’t go too high as it makes it hard for it to be aerodynamic, not to mention trees and stuff in all the neighborhoods I service.
As for your idea for panels on the back, I like it but it would be impractical for my use case, however I think it would be perfect for a camper style setup.
Do people ever use heat sinks for moving heat from underneath a solar panel?
Great video. I've thought lawn care companies should switch to electric for a long time. Makes it even better when charging is free and always available on the go. Nice setup and install. Only thing I would change is that 2-pole 30A breaker, the fact that the neutral is connected to the breaker on a 120V circuit isn't right!
I thought of a trailer like this days ago, seems I’m not the only one.
Well, you wanted comments from the peanut gallery, so..... Your entire install is very good, there is only 2 things I would do different, in mobile applications, I tend to avoid solid wire like the plague, there will always be movement inside a trailer, all the outlets you wired with solid 14 gauge (fortunately in conduit) pull that out and use stranded THHN. Then add an external "shore power" plug for grid feed when parked in the garage for a cleaner install. That's all I'm criticizing, I think every other aspect of your install is very high caliber and designed with safety in mind.
Excellent critiques and I 100% agree. The trailer I helped build for my friend recently I actually put these both into practice. One question though, is it simply the vibrations over time that hardens the solid copper wire? Or is there some other reason that solid copper shouldn’t be used in a mobile environment?
I see your company growing into building small off grid RV systems 👍💪💪
That was a well edited video. Enjoyed every joke and helpful tip.
I don’t fit either group you spoke about at the end. I just love watching novel ideas created in front of me to watch and take in. Education never stops!
Great video! Maybe Will Prowse can weigh in. It certainly to be properly sorted.
This video is awesome! I’ve been researching electric lawn care for a few weeks now and can’t stop thinking about it. You’ve got the trailer build down pat!
Thanks for the tour and how-to. Also, cudos to you for crimping square ferrules on the stranded conductors!
Hey Dave! Thanks for always following along.
That end mowntage was amazing
Hope it was mowtivating!
Dude, the editing here is at a very high level. Wow. But even better is your handy skills during the build. My faith in younger generation is restored. I know you do lawn care as the end game but I can see a future in consulting on solar builds. Really nice job Steve!
Thanks! I spent a lot of time trying to get the editing down, glad it came across that way. Also I’m glad I can restore some faith!
As to your other remark, stay tuned! I’ve got some really fun stuff to announce soon. And thanks!
Was waiting for this one to drop! Thanks for posting this, the idea of a fully electric lawn company is so cool. I just picked up my own EGO push mower a month or so ago and it's been great so far.
dude, the wife is kicking ass rocking those welds! Heck yeah
She’ll love to see this haha. She’s shy on camera so have to get her to try and appear in more.
Such a sweet setup! Amazing 🎉
Glad you enjoyed the build!
Great job on the video Steve! Thanks for making it.
I love this video! This is almost the exact setup I have drawn out for my mobile garage trailer build. Great to see how you brought it all together. Thank you for sharing.
Absolutely great video. Thanks for sharing!
Great video. I've had the same idea for a solar lawn care business stirring around in my head for a while now. Great job on that trailer! Excellent setup.
Can't wait until the next build, so freaky cool
Me either! I think you’re going to like it, I’m super excited to share what I’ve been working on.
6:17 Best to keep them the same power cables. Having a service line is okay. But you keep the same resistance on both the positive and negative line equal both being the same length. Great job on the build. I subbed. I'm looking to do something like this.
The build is great, but also PRO level editing. Well done!
Gotta love the old set your machine to the number of things you need trick. Countless hours saved 😄
I just came across your video....wow, perfect timing. I use to landscape with my uncle in central TX and I lost a good paying job recently. I was thinking about starting up my own lawn service. I never thought about using DC powered lawn mower and equipment , what a great idea 💡! Thanks for that 👍. I have a military electronics background so this solar setup should be easy for me to do. I really like how you drew out your so called schematic 🤠. I went ahead and subscribed! I'll will be planning to build one just like yours with a twist 😉. I'll be looking for your next build. Oh, and by the way.... the name of your business is brilliant! Take care ....
Hey sorry to hear about the job, hope things swing in your favor soon! As for the lawn equipment, unfortunately it’s not dc-dc charging. This system is having to convert to ac and then the chargers take that and turn it into dc for the batteries. It’s annoying but best I could do without building super custom systems that likely will void all warranties.
As for your future trailer build, either make sure you drop your email in my website solarpunkit.com or send me an email at steve@solarpunklawn.com if you’re thinking about building something soon as I have some things on the horizon that might interest you.
Super cool build. Love it.
Now.. if you could solar punk a cybertruck camper type trailer for off-roading applications that would be awesome. Something that could charge a cybertruck (123kw battery) in a couple days, is aerodynamic, and maybe has electric motors powered by the whole setup(last part is a bit complicated but hey why not shoot for the stars? its the internet right?). I mean.. if you have 120k to drop on a truck.. you probably have at least half that to drop on a trailer...
I'm 32 seconds in and ... lookin pretty sweet! Good work.
Just a few more seconds to go 😉
Great project!
Great video+ Great job 🎉 Thanks!!! 🔥
Excellent video. You provide a lot of very useful information.
Very nice layout to allow the use of battery operated equipment. Much better installation than many professional panel maker for industrial equipment control panels.
Awesome! Thanks!
This video is so awesome! The attention to detail and the amount of time o know it took to record and edit this is crazy! I get frustrated just fixing a hole in a ceiling and painting over it 😂
Thanks Tony! Yeah let’s not even talk about the hours put into purely the editing lol. Waaay too much time to think about.
@@solarpunksteve it’s my least favorite part of it all. Great job! Love the business and love the content (I subscribed)
Great video dude! You got the right idea! Pretty clean setup love the sense of humor as well. I see alotta solar vids where people don't really care to make there wiring look clean.
It takes a lot of extra time so I understand why some wouldn't but personally I just like the way it looks and feel it's worth the effort. Thanks checking it out and glad I could entertain for a few minutes!
Great video, the finished product looks and works great. This solution would work great as just a garden workshop as well as your application.
Great job but I would suggest you buy some low profile metal roof remove all your solar panels and put that down first and then remount everything on it because of the way it's sagging in the middle. You're gonna have problems in the future from water sitting there by using roofing material. You could run it from side to side, making the water run right off down the sides never having a problem it would fix the low spot in the middle.
Thats super cool! Your videos are so well made as well!
Thanks! Really glad you like them and have continued to follow along!
As always, absolutely phantastic. Also very very interesting for camping caravans. Sunny greetings from germany. I just have 550W on my camper, but it enought in may to oct to get around 2kWh every day.
This is exactly what I've been looking for! I also run an all electric lawn care business and I just got an enclosed trailer that I pull with an F150 Lightning. Right now I've just got a 12v/400ah battery bank with a Renogy 2000w Inverter built in to the trailer and a pass-through to plug into the bed of the truck. I'm planning solar right now and trying to figure out the best way to go. It can get kind of daunting
Daunting projects are exactly what we humans need to grow. When I'm up against something that is confusing, I just "stare" at one section at a time.
Stare at it long enough, and it begins to make sense. You got this!
Awesome. Thanks
i suggest getting some 4ga cable wire both uni-strut to each other and attache it to the tongue jack if it has a steel foot. this is a path to discharge a lightning strike add a lightning arrester to the solar pv lines and tie it to the frame in a worse case this will protect all your gear inside and maybe even a few panels in a direct hit for most the USA the odds are very low but in the south east the odds are crazy high
Loved the video, but I’m following because of the smile at the
Lights at the very end. I’m a car electronics guy and it’s very much something I would do.
Haha thanks. It was a good moment, finishing everything!
Funny enough I work as a dishwasher and had this video playing in the background.
Don’t you just hate it when one of the skippable ads comes on but your hands are too soapy and it just keeps playing forever‽ it drives me nuts haha.
It’s a sign bro
Nice setup. I would add another EG4 battery to the mix to accommodate for the cloudy days.
Good work.
@7:30 you can connect to the earth, just toss a spikey anchor out the back door each place you stop ;)
Tossed you a like for the This Old Tony reference.
He has been a favorite of mine. His jokes are next level.
Great video and explanation. and great order
Thanks! Hoping others can learn from some of the things I did and maybe help them make decisions on a process that might work for them if they choose to do it. Thanks for watching!
Thanks for super ez get to know ur system design.
awesome vid man!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.
Good stuff as usual. I just happen to now have a trailer in the driveway 😉will be doing something similar with my new project, always nice to see different ways of doing the setup.
Awesome! How soon do you plan on doing out your trailer? Also, what size is it?
@@solarpunksteve its an aluminum 16 * 7.5 with a 7-foot height.
We've got two maybe three runs left with it as a cargo trailer to empty a storage unit and then we'll be getting started.
HVNomads is something I've been so excited to start!
There are still a few more components to pick so we can make sure it's balanced, Model X is heavy but a trailer can still flip it in a blink if it starts swaying.
@@KaceyGreen Sweet! Hey send me an email at Steve@solarpunklawn.com. I’ve been working on something you might be interested in regarding the trailer solar setup.
Great install! Only recommendation I would make would be to use bright orange wires for the DC wires from the solar panels (or put them in orange split loom). The HV side of electric vehicles typically use orange so that in an emergency a first responder knows those are high voltage and to be careful.
Also, I’m sure you did this, but didn’t hear it mentioned. Make sure your wires are rated for that voltage. 270+ VDC is nothing to sneeze at!
Great points. My wiring and components are rated for 1000VDC, however I think I could maybe use some secondary breaker or potentially a dc cutoff switch for the battery system. Truthfully I would like everything in conduit/protected due to damage that could occur with tools etc. used in my line of work inside the trailer. However since this isn’t an occupied vehicle or a house I think orange cabling might be a little unnecessary considering if there’s a car accident no one will be in the trailer, and if something catches fire for other reasons this trailer will burn faster than any first responders could get to it lol. I used to work on different ships and some of them were completely fiberglass or a fiberglass superstructure and we would always joke that all the firefighting and suppression systems were only there to help us make it to the life-raft, as once material like that catches, it’s toast.
@@solarpunksteve A lot of the NEC is geared toward fire safety and human safety. Conduit to protect the solar input wires would protect the wires from causing a fire and protect humans that might enter your trailer not knowing live wires are in arms length.
@@uhjyuff2095 That's true, and definitely a better way to think about it for future trailers/builds. This was very much a "prototype" when I started putting it together as I had no idea if the concept would even work as I envisioned. I didn't even plan on using this trailer build for as long as I have. But it's great to get feedback on some better practices because I am working on another one 😉
This was beautifully done. I thought the SOOW wire was a no go but turns out it's more durable than SJOOW wire. The liquid tire conduit was a nice touch. won't wear through anytime if ever in its service life with vibration.
Yeah I think the only difference is the voltage rating. 600v for SOOW and 300V for SJOOW. Which should technically work too, no? It’s only 120Vac running through this and if the gauge is adequate for the amperage (~30amp in my case) it should be fine I would think.
@@solarpunksteve Either or works perfectly fine. SOOW just has a tougher jacket to it apparently.
Very cool. I think if it were me I would have installed a small 240V subpanel and also installed provisions for charging the Tesla off the panels. I suppose you could still L1 charge occasionally with your setup though, and might as well if you have plenty of sun.
Yeah I would do it differently if I were to do it again but part of the challenge and fun was I didn’t see anyone else doing it, or at least the way I wanted to do it so I just gave it a go. As for charging the car I have solar on the house so that really takes care of the driving I do. Lawn care is fairly demanding on power consumption so it’s not like I get tons of excess unless the trailer is parked for a while, but I would like to add some fun features to the next one.
@@solarpunksteve Plus trying to charge a 60 to 100 kWh battery from 1200W would take days. Another thing to consider is the inefficiencies of L1 charging versus L2. I've seen reports of real life number crunching where 30% of the power is wasted when using L1 for some cars.
Nice video.
I have an idea for an improvement or future bigger trailer.
In The Netherlands we have a 13 pin plug for the trailer lights.
2 pins are dedicated power pins for the trailer battery / refrigerator.
I don't know if the US uses the same Jaeger 13 pin connector (DIN 11446), other 13 pin connectors offer the same capabilities.
Since these are 12v, they might be a bit low for your solar setup, but maybe with DC/DC boost converter you can charge the battery of the trailer while driving.
This reduces your range on electric vehicles, but might take the trailer "fully" off the grid
Those tape cable tie downs will definitely come loose. I see them all the time at work. It might be best to make or buy a tie bar
great build! I also have a semi solar powered mowing trailer. solar panels on the ute canopy and battery\charging system in a trailer mounted toolbox. my ute and mower are still oil burners but the rest of my gear is Makita battery powered. unfortunately I don't make enough money to afford a battery mower and a battery powered trayback ute is non existent in my country.
Looks like the 30 amp breaker and disconnect is redundant. You could have put your box with two 20 amp breakers right where the 30 amp is and used them as a disconnect. Your inverter should have fault protection for the AC voltage out and the wire between it and the 30 amp aren't protected by anything other than the inverters fault protection anyway. I used a breaker box from an rv for my trailer build. So it had both 110v breakers and 12v fuses.
Is it possible to hang a couple panels on the side of the trailer? Of course their output wouldn’t be huge, but their advertising effect might be greater than the big logo.
Anything is possible! I think from a practical standpoint that wouldn’t be the best option for a lawn care company. Too susceptible to damage driving around neighborhoods and all over the place. But as a camping setup that might work better. Idk, I’ve seen one or two examples on a trailer and not been excited about the look and I don’t know how well they would perform, but open to the idea still.
Maybe for the next build consider putting the battery centered over the axle of the trailer to distribute the load and reduce the risk of damage to your battery in the case of an accident as that’s the most protected area from side and rear impacts
They do have a groundiing cable that will go from your system to the road that just drags there
Awesome setup, such low maintenance. Also love the little point at the screw at 6:01, pro tip to remember where you drop screws
Haha yeah I do that every time I drop something, definitely helps.
Yeah it's awesome.. I don't think I would have used those specific panels I probably if was going to do this would have gotten the KB Solar MODULE-KBS450-MONO x6 and then installed it. They are 41 Volts and 10 amps a panel. So six of them in Series would be like 246 Volts roughly and 10 amps for a max wattage of 2,460 watts. I also think I would have invested in a Shutter Exhaust Fan for the wall of the trailer Preferably somewhere toward the front to draw air one way through the trailer in hopes to bring the temps down while in the trailer especially with the inverter heat. Just a thought also if you want to go insane on the grounding for lightning protection you can have a portable ground rod for when your stopped and a ground reel like you would have for airplanes for refueling. Look up Motorola R56 Manual they have an insane diagram about grounding that will maybe spark some ideas. Great stuff keep up the good work!
Next step if you have energy to spare is to add an EVSE so you can charge your car. Would be interesting to make it smart, so it only dumps spare power in the EV and keeps the rest for the work batteries.
my dream would be a f150 lightning with a trailer like this with a small AC
You could trickle charge the truck all day long. That would be pretty cool!
@@careykaeding4542 Also imagine getting a ladder rack on the truck with panels from front to back. Doubling the solar input to the trailer. Add a couple more storage batteries and that thing is not only a lawn equipment power system, but probably a pretty decent home backup system in case there's a power outage.
So I just looked at the snap n rack because I've been looking for something similar, and thank you for that, but can I suggest that you add a rubberized washer? It looks like it's designed to be used with a self-tapping roofing screw which has a rubberized washer, so that means I will be adding a o-ring to my own setup
FYI they have strut washers!
Fun fact: Mc4 connectors can go on over the crimped part
OO new content
For the inverter. Can you install the grounding screw from the inside going down vs outside going up? That way the group wire will be inside the 3000ex wire way?
love the details. i'm not looking to power a lawn care company, but I'd love to do a similar setup in my shed so that I could completely power / recharge all my lawn equipment off grid.
Bro, install a portabel AC/air conditioner
That would be so nice! Unfortunately then I wouldn’t have enough power to mow all my yards haha
Great build! Any pros / cons of using an all in one system like a EcoFlow Delta Pro or Max?
Some cons: Inverter output capacity. Then you have cost of battery storage; $/wh is significantly higher although you usually get some benefits there: all-in one system, no additional wiring required etc. One other reason I could see them being not quite the right fit would be the solar array. I see they usually have a low voltage requirement on the solar arrays and in some cases have proprietary connectors or just generally not the best options for solar. Sure there’s probably something from one of them that will work just fine, but they weren’t a great option when I first started looking to build this and I also wanted to keep my costs super low initially since I had no idea if any of it would work out long term.
Pros are definitely ease of setup, mainly because there is none. No wiring, no shopping for fuses/breakers/etc. and of course depending on what you get you could pull it out of the trailer and take it with you/bring it into the house.
I do the same except my panels are I do the same but mine is a 24 volt system for safety. I have 18 year olds working with me!!!!
Yeah I have to make some changes to the next one if I’m going to be bringing people with me! Electricity is dangerous and can be scary. But also worth considering all the dumb things we do around/with gasoline 😅
Great job. I was wondering if your charging system is able to maintain tool battery charging during a normal business day? Also, how is your electric riding mower holding up as a residential machine doing commercial work? I have 1 acre using an assortment of Ryobi outdoor tools and nearly 30 batteries, all solar charged. I use the batteries for other purposes inside my home, i.e. tvs, lighting, fans etc. It's better to use them constantly and expand for many things because they were expensive.
Awesome Project! Still watching so not sure if this is addressed later in the video. What are the temperature ranges for charging and discharging for your inverter and battery? One of the only drawbacks for lithium unfortunately vs AGM Lead Acid. In our area, freezing temps are pretty common but also I'm sure the enclosed trailer gets pretty warm in the summer. Do you have a vent fan planned?
You need to bond the inverter output neutral to the earth before your main breaker to bring them into equal potential so your gfci has a zero reference point, easy to test as you have it now it will be a VOV setup meaning you would measure a voltage between neutral and earth which is dangerous, if you bond them you will have zero volts between neutral and earth and a properly functioning gfci outlet
This is a good point to make. I have the inverter set so that the ground and neutral are bonded inside the inverter itself. When it gets plugged into shore power it automatically (relay) switches to open thereby relying on the home’s single ground-neutral bond. Occasionally when I do plug it into the house and it tries to seamlessly transfer the load to the house from the inverter it will trip a GFCI outlet, likely because the outlet senses an issue with the ground-neutral bond reference potential (this is my speculation).
@@solarpunksteve you make a good point, in Sunny South Africa where i live our code demands a permanent bond unless the internal relay is monitored via inverter software and switches off should the relay fail so we tend to supply the inverter with grid pre gfci and then have all inverter circuits on an rcd, you needing to plug into gfci protected plugs makes sense to use the islanding feature. Nevertheless i like the build and i have subscribed 😁😁😁
No I’m really glad you’re trying to look out for me and others! I should do a video of the inverter system setup and some of the safety stuff. Ground-neutral bonding is a scary topic for people and a lot get it wrong. Took me quite a while to figure out what was (I think) safe and I still have more to learn!
SA! Howzit bru? Glad you enjoyed the video and subscribed, lekker man!
Haha I used to work with a lot of people from South Africa when I worked on yachts. Still good friends with a lot of them. Used to love teasing them about “now, just now, and now now”
@@solarpunksteve lekker man lekker 😄😄😄 yeah man!! Im sure that would make for some good content as most people doing these diy installs doesn’t even know about voltages creeping around on the earthing conductor if there is no bond. Happy mowing bru ✌🏻
@@solarpunksteve i was planning on replying now now 😂 as im watching F1 quali atm but when you brought out the lekker man bru i just had to reply now
I have a 13" Ryobi, battery powered lawn mower.
I can charge it with my 100 watt solar panel & 100ah, 12v moto master battery.
Dude! Have you never heard of a pair of pliers? (I'm talking about you holding the washer with your fingers while you're cutting it with power snips).
Not a expert but you should probably ground it to the actual frame and cover all the wire with a metal cover so if you hit them with a tool or something they won't break also add a emergency stop buttons at the front and back of the trailer that cuts solar and battery. Fire extinguisher ball ○-○
A bell box and a weather proof cover but then you chose a non "weather resistant" GFCI receptacle?
Budget cuts 🤷♂️
@@solarpunksteveas long as you keep the cover closed in the rain it should be ok. I will say in my electrical career I’ve pulled out two or three standard GFCIs from outdoor installations that were completely melted in the back… could be water, could be loose connections… never seen it happen with a WP GFCI. Since the outlet is inside the trailer I wouldn’t worry about it
@@j2468dm I had an inspector demand gfci receptacles inside an electrical room because he said "I think someone might use an extension cord with this outlet so it needs to be gfci." AHJ can say made up things and we just said ok sir no problem.
Yeah my main concern was operating electrical equipment in a potentially wet environment and getting electrocuted. The outlets themselves don’t really see any water/moisture being inside the trailer.
Most of the systems I’ve worked with on ships are GFCI breakers and then just standard outlets around the exterior of the vessel with “watertight” covers over them. The good shipbuilders would put the outlets in a deck locker and also have a cover over them. But even just the exterior covered ones lasted pretty long that way and ironically the only trouble we ever did have with them was due to crew (deckhands) doing dumb stuff 😂.
If not yet cmmented on: Never use solid wires in a moving environment - they and the connections will take harn through vibration over time ...
13:44 wrong strut washers those thin ones can bend and come loose.
Thin? Maybe it looks like it in the video but those are some of the thickest stainless steel washers you can buy without doubling up. At least for these ones it would take tremendous force to bend them plus the nut is a flange nut so even more evenly distributed load. I have checked over the rack a few times in the last year and not seen any shifting/loosening/signs of concern. Im glad you’re trying to look out for me so if I’m wrong or you notice anything else please do critique! It’s good having people check my work, and I always want feedback.
Also does your big EGO batteries ever not charge if they’re hot or overheated? I use EGO and have a fast charger but if the battery level goes below 2 lights sometimes it just sits in the red and charges super slow on the fast charger…I can only narrow it down to hit being hot, needs to cool down and battery to low
Hmm, honestly I haven’t experienced that so far. I don’t use the rapid chargers in my trailer but rather 4 of the smaller chargers for my tools and then the big ego mower charger for my lawn mower which is trying to charge 6 batteries at once so the power is split between them keeping each at ~400W max. I noticed that the chargers are activating the internal fan to try and blow air through the battery as soon as you place it on the charger and I can see the power will ramp up and down for the first few minutes after throwing it on the charger so it might be doing exactly as you said, waiting for it to cool down a bit before ramping up the amperage. I’ve done a little testing recently and noticed even though it starts charging after being used it actually gets cooler sitting on the charger than it was when I pulled it off the tool. So those little fans in the chargers really do help. Also, I rarely ever use my battery past two or three bars. I don’t like to run out on a property and batteries hate being discharged to empty so it’s just easier for me to swap batteries often since I’m in and out of the trailer all the time.
@@solarpunksteve yeah I definitely agree and I’m tracking. On the rapid charger I do hear the fan but definitely think it’s because I’m running it down so low and it being 100+ degrees here in Texas the battery probably needs to cool down first. I run my lawn car side business out of my other car which is. VW so right now I’m just having to work with what I got until I find a truck. I have a 10 ah and a 6ah battery along with a 2 all ego so if I cut two yards I’m pretty much on one battery bar left if not dead but I get what you’re saying that probably does play a big part. Going to try to get 1 more big battery and I think that’ll help. Thanks for the feedback and responding! Love the channel and love all of the “E” everything. That’s the route I’m trying to go, I have solar panels on my roof and drive a Tesla and of course all the EGO PRODUCTS.
@@tonyssmarttechandtravel if you could also buy a battery like a ecoflow river to power a simple fan it can help cooler your battery while it is on the charger. More ego batteries will also help because then you can swap between them like SolarPunkSteve does.
@@uhjyuff2095 yeah, it’s a good idea but this is when I’m plugging into clients power outlets. The 700 W has a fan but I think the Texas sun is just too much
my "dream" is to build a solar generator trailer with a big battery bank, just for fun. But than I look at my time and bank statements ... a man can only dream.
Can you charge your Tesla while running?
how's the bus going mate?
It’s still there! Haven’t had time to work on it unfortunately. Trying to push through a big project right now and then I might be able to start getting some work done. Thanks for asking!
Great video. Why are you talking about 30amp, you're only getting 10amps with your system set-up?
30 amps for the “household” 120 volts 60Hz AC side of the circuit.
The inverter is 3000 Watts of rated output, so assuming no losses you get 3000/120V=25amps, so add in some safety fudge factor + surge/inrush current and wiring is sized for ~30A and a 30A breaker (what the inverter manual calls for).
The DC solar side of things is low amperage but high voltage and that’s where I’ve got my 10Amp fuse I mentioned.
Remember I’m taking solar power which is Direct Current, and either storing it in a battery (also DC) or using it to power things that require alternating current. It’s extra confusing because the EGO battery chargers take that AC and turn it back into DC for the EGO batteries haha.
Hope that helps.
Don't confuse the solar input wattage to the battery with how much can be drawn out of the battery via inverter. Even if there is zero solar input, you can draw power out.
Technically burning wood which we've been doing since prehistoric times burn nature's solar panels: plants.
Yes, but that would have made my intro much longer haha. Not to mention oil is dead algae that’s been compressed over millions of years. Technically we are burning what the sun produced there too.
I need your help installing one I live in St. Cloud Florida so not too far from you
Hey Steven, send me an email about what you're trying to do! Steve@solarpunklawn.com
Who did you order your inverter from? I ordered mine from Solar sovereign almost a month ago. Tracking label was created over a week ago yet it still has not shipped and they are not responding.