Recommend a Affordable Flexible Solar Panel?

[Woltz]

So if I get a truck which I'm kinda gungho for right now, don't expect anything else, I'd like to do solar. However I will have a rack on the truck topper to support a kayak and bicycle. The rack is a must. Because of that I'd like to have a thin, strong, flexible solar panel that I can run the length of the topper (size unknown), stick it on with hopefully the panels tar sticking, and let charge a small battery bank. The hope simply is that the rack can go over it once that is done and still be in use. Can you recommend a good flexible solar panel that can do all that?

 

[Every Road Leads Home]

You don't want to put a rack over a solar panel as it will severely limit it's efficiency.

 

[Wabbit]

I don't know much about those flexible ones, but I do remember renogy stopped(recalled? Not sure) their flexible panels sales. They might have fixed it by now, but read about the pros and cons of them. Best of luck!

 

[WalkaboutTed]

What about portable panels?

 

[Woltz]

You don't want to put a rack over a solar panel as it will severely limit it's efficiency.

Which I am aware of. I don't plan on going out enough for power to matter. The only things I see the power being used for is to charge a phone/laptop, power some lights, a small fan, and maybe a emergency jump start. So if the two standard bars that make up the rack somehow limits it's efficiency, that's not a complete problem.

 

[SternWake]

Very small shadows on solar panels can reduce output so much as to make them nearly useless.  Depends on the panel of course, but it is not as if a shadow covering  2% of the panel surface only reduces output by 2%.  It could be 50 or 60% or more.

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

If you really don't need THAT much power, consider mounting a panel on the roof of the cab, rather than on the topper over the bed.


That said, understand this:  A solar panel in the sun gets hot.  As it heats up, it's power output goes down.  A panel with some air space between it's back and the surface it's mounted on will ALWAYS work better than a panel attached directly to a surface.