Solar tonneau cover !

[Cbowe]

This ad should be in the Marketplace, or in the Vendor section.

It’s a podcast this is not my company or product we support them and think it’s a cool design implementation I make zero affiliate money from any sales of the solar cover or battery. I like that that are aligned with us on American manufacturing and American jobs with sustainability

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[ZeusDriver]

Yeah that makes sense. They have it rated at 600w and on the podcast said they were getting as much as 800w peak. I don’t have any illusion it would be used to charge the truck it’s more of a complimentary system and fun use of dead space on the truck that I like the concept of.

I converted a minivan to make a "solar" camper, covering the entire roof with solar panels, back in 2013. I've designed and built a solar powered boat, etc. So I have some perspective on the subject. I think the 400 watt figure is a little conservative, and instead agree with the vendor's 600 watt spec.

However, that spec is under ideal conditions, without any shading whatsoever, and with the panels aimed at the sun, instead of straight up. In my van of about the same panel output, I found that 2000 WH per day was a reasonable expectation, in good weather, most of the time. With a suitably-sized battery bank, I powered a microwave, very small window air conditioner, a space heater, and a hot pot... not at the same time, of course. I also powered various low amp loads such as computer and cell phone charging, lights, etc. Heat and AC sucked up a lot of energy quickly, but I would run one or the other for just a few minutes at a time, to take the chill off or (conversely) reduce my sweating rate. In one 6000 mile trip, I never had to plug in keep the batteries charged.

In my boat, all propulsion is electric, and the panels keep the batteries charged for intermittent propulsion use. (Main long distance power is a rigid wing.) The average solar harvest, however, is stunningly low, because my dock is partially shaded. I get about 1/10th of the daily charge that would be expected if I had full sun.

I found the podcast nearly unwatchable, given that it provides about 30 seconds of actual useful content. There is nothing new here, with most RV vendors having offered solar panels for many years.

I just paid $100 for a used ( but like new) tonneau cover, so $2000 seems pricy. However, when looking for a cover, I stopped at a Leonard truck outlet, and the standard rigid covers they wanted to sell me were $1500 - $2000 (including installation, for the physically challenged, I guess). From that perspective, this solar setup is reasonably priced.

 

[Cbowe]

I converted a minivan to make a "solar" camper, covering the entire roof with solar panels, back in 2013. I've designed and built a solar powered boat, etc. So I have some perspective on the subject. I think the 400 watt figure is a little conservative, and instead agree with the vendor's 600 watt spec.

However, that spec is under ideal conditions, without any shading whatsoever, and with the panels aimed at the sun, instead of straight up. In my van of about the same panel output, I found that 2000 WH per day was a reasonable expectation, in good weather, most of the time. With a suitably-sized battery bank, I powered a microwave, very small window air conditioner, a space heater, and a hot pot... not at the same time, of course. I also powered various low amp loads such as computer and cell phone charging, lights, etc. Heat and AC sucked up a lot of energy quickly, but I would run one or the other for just a few minutes at a time, to take the chill off or (conversely) reduce my sweating rate. In one 6000 mile trip, I never had to plug in keep the batteries charged.

In my boat, all propulsion is electric, and the panels keep the batteries charged for intermittent propulsion use. (Main long distance power is a rigid wing.) The average solar harvest, however, is stunningly low, because my dock is partially shaded. I get about 1/10th of the daily charge that would be expected if I had full sun.

I found the podcast nearly unwatchable, given that it provides about 30 seconds of actual useful content. There is nothing new here, with most RV vendors having offered solar panels for many years.

I just paid $100 for a used ( but like new) tonneau cover, so $2000 seems pricy. However, when looking for a cover, I stopped at a Leonard truck outlet, and the standard rigid covers they wanted to sell me were $1500 - $2000 (including installation, for the physically challenged, I guess). From that perspective, this solar setup is reasonably priced.

I think what’s new and unique is the implementation and being manufactured in America not really the solar itself but in this mix of form factor, quality and efficiency. Hopefully the price can come down as they scale and I think this would more augment than replace part of a system with an RV but could stand alone at a worksite for example.

What would you have wanted to see in the podcast that would have made it more useful? More technical details and specs? Always trying to make it better for sure.

 

[I <3 My Lightning]

@OP... I for one like to watch your videos from time to time.

But based on some of your videos you benefit from getting their stuff free to be an "influencer" and post reviews.

I would be all for that cover if it was free and use it to charge my ego batteries over the prior week time, to then run a small cab electric heater for really long trips during very cold weather. That might give me 10 to 20 extra miles perhaps. I have both the 2000watt and 400 watt ego inverters. Currently playing with the 400 watt one to keep my batteries conditioned/cycled during the winter months, (as I only need them right now for additional house back up for small things and the ego snowblower), to run my dash cam in parking mode. The 400 watt inverter peaks at 800 watts and has pass through with charging.

Sorry for the derailment.

Ego is coming out with a 1400watt inverter that will do pass through, hold 4 of their batteries and can take up to 900 watts direct solar. I'm not affiliated with ego in any way...

But I can build a nice one panel solar cover with a single bifacial panel that puts outs in the best conditions about 550 watts at 70 degrees F and during the cold winter easily could put out a bit more... Yes, the single panel could just fit within the bed and have to rest on the cab section of the bed box or be an inch or 2 on the tailgate cap... Some sq aluminum square tubes, some Ls, some diamond plate to make it all pretty and some weather stripping.

I would have my choice of a micro inverter or something along the lines of ego, eco flow, bluetti, ect. To take the power. And if I was real crafty I would nest a second panel below the top with sliders and if I was out and about at a job site, drop the tail gate and pull out the second panel that also has has drop down legs to rest on the tailgate. I could also add some additional drop down legs at both the the bulk head and tailgate ends to then lift and pivot the whole set up at what ever angle I needed to get the max benefit while parked and the orientation of the truck.

 

[Runaway Tractor]

I haven’t see anyone package this solution this well.

It's not a solution to anything, and it isn't even available yet. Zero customers, lots of adjectives.

It’s giving 5-6 kWh of power

No it isn't. No it won't. They're full of crap.

If you were camping for a week that’s 35+ kWh of power

Which this product is not capable of doing in reality.

If you want to be emotionally triggered so be it man I feel for you.

I'm triggered by facts. I'm annoyed by monetized lies. Truely.

 

[Cbowe]

It’s a fair call out and I try to make clear right at the start of the show that I am an affiliate and that they gave me covers to review. To be clear I don’t make anything from this one at all. I genuinely support them as a small made in America company and wanted to share their story and this product on the show. Its a challenge for sure when something is free to maintain credibility so I appreciate and understand the skepticism.

 

[Cbowe]

It's not a solution to anything, and it isn't even available yet. Zero customers, lots of adjectives.


No it isn't. No it won't. They're full of crap.


Which this product is not capable of doing in reality.


I'm triggered by facts. I'm annoyed by monetized lies. Truely.

I make no money from this product at all. Zero. but you do you my friend. I hope your day gets better you seem to be upset a lot. I can’t imagine what that must be like for you.

 

[Runaway Tractor]

I make no money from this product at all. Zero. but you do you my friend.

I didn't say you make money from the product. You said that very specifically several times. We know. I said monetized lies. Unless you're also going to tell us that your you tube channel the monetized links are all as fake as this thing's kWh claims

 

[Cbowe]

This is on the Podcast channel not my personal YouTube channel. It’s shared with 5 hosts. What little money the channel makes goes to the costs for things like the streamyard software and hosting fees and what’s left is split between 5 of us. This video will get a couple hundred views? You genuinely think is about me trying to monetize an extra 75 cents? I hope we can meet one day because you clearly have no idea what I’m about or why I do any of the content I do or why I founded 2 EV Clubs or do community EV events. Trust me it’s not for an extra 75 cents or to be a shill for some product or company I don’t believe in or think there is a cool story about. This company and the people making these covers are fellow Americans making a great product. I hope you follow their story and can see them deliver the results they have been testing. I don’t know where the harsh bitterness comes from but it’s misdirected man. I’m not here to argue with you all day you’re going to believe what you do but on this one you’re wrong in my opinion.

 

[Runaway Tractor]

It's not harsh bitterness. It's being annoyed with a company that is at worst dishonest and at best disingenuous with exaggerations about their product. And annoyed at social media personalities blindly pushing it and being cheerleaders for it sans facts and data. I like supporting data and honest facts about products. If this thing was accurately represented for what it is, I would have no problem with it. I would think it is a waste of money, but at least it was an honest waste of money.

Once you put aside the hype, exaggerations, misleading performance specifications, and accept the actual reality of solar panels, this is a $2,000 cell phone charger.

 

[Cbowe]

Hopefully I can get one at some point next year and verify the data but just because you don’t like the facts and data provided from their testing doesn’t mean there wasn’t any and you have no basis to say their data is untrue. And why wouldn’t you cheer for American manufacturing and American jobs using American suppliers and American Aluminum? They aren’t mass importing from China they aren’t relabeling. Of course I’m cheering for these guys and I assure you it’s not blindly

As I said you already had your beliefs and never watched or knew anything before forming your opinions so I’m not here to have a pointless argument when you clearly know nothing about my integrity much less theirs

 

[chl]

Solar power is generally limited to 1kw per square meter because that's the average level of irradiance on earth. A short bed tonneau is roughly 1.7 meters squared, so the theoretical maximum output is 1700W. Now you factor in efficiencies, like the cell itself (18-25%, or even optimistic research labs of 35% to nearly 50%), inverter efficiencies (80-95%). There are other variables involved such as wiring losses and voltage synergies, but bottom line, in the real world, best case you're looking at 400W. Not nothing, but then you have to look at weather, subjection to road hazards, constant wind speed, uneven roads, those tolerances have an efficiency cost as well. I'm all for the experimentation, just don't get your hopes up.

All of the above is accurate, but...the average is not what you should consider, really you should look at a map and see what your latitude's is and get the value kWh per meter squared per day from that, for example this map:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...4QFnoECCEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2Nkvet1WNpknANqQlRsW8i

For my location the number is from 4.271kWh per m^2 up to 4.864kWh/m^2 per day, for example, depending on the angle of the panels. But of course it varies depending on the time of year and all the variable in the post as well.

Now using the map data, it appears a solar system at my location could give an output of 4.838kWh per m^2 per day. March through August are the highest output months, with close to or over 130kWh per m^2 per month.

Using those numbers and the 1.7 square meters in the above post, that's 4.838kWh x 1.7 or 8.2246kWh per day.

Not a heck of a lot compared to my SR battery's 98kWh, and you have to also consider the losses due to wiring, etc.

If you did not have to do inversion to AC to charge the truck with an AC charger. there would be less losses.

However, it would certainly be enough to keep a 36Ah AGM battery trickle charged - but I'd want the DC from the panels to go through some AGM control circuitry.

There is a solar vehicle, the Aptera, approaching the production stage, that has a very low drag coefficient and a 42kWh battery that provides 400 miles of range, and can get from the solar panels up to 40 miles per day.

So lets use it's numbers: 9.52mi per kWh
40mi/9.52mi per kWh = 4.2kWh per day to get the 40 miles from solar.
Using my location's numbers (4.838kWh per m^2 per day) means a solar panel area of about 87% of a sq. meter, but that is assuming no losses from conversion etc.

Aptera says they have "almost 700w" of solar cells and they say they use "over 3 square meters" of solar cells. So that more than 3 times larger size than the 'ideal' would compensate for the losses.

Anyway, it would not be easy to make the Lightning into a solar truck. Even my 2012 Leaf only gets around 4.8mi per kWh. The Aptera is about twice as efficient as the Leaf at truning energy into motion.

Article from January 2025: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a63547148/aptera-three-wheeled-solar-powered-ev-first-ride/

PS: I didn't watch the OP video because, well, ditto other5 posts, why waste my time?

 

[Cbowe]

Every comment helps thanks for your contribution even if you already think you know it all

 

[ZeusDriver]

PS: I didn't watch the OP video because, well, ditto other5 posts, why waste my time?

You might have at least read the OP's response to those who thought that the vendor is proposing charging the truck's battery. The vendor sees their implementation as a way to charge a small battery pack for use in camping, etc.

Aptera, BTW, has been right on the verge of production for about a decade and a half. Having built a 10-mile-per-kWh vehicle, (back in the days of the X Prize), I doubt their claim of a similar figure for theirs, which is far heavier and of substantially larger frontal area than mine was. I think I'd have more faith in their numbers if they first released a production version of a highly efficient vehicle, and then loaded it down with solar panels, if the market seemed to desire that.

Although I have thought about resurrecting my own highly efficient vehicle project, I wonder about marketability. Even my huge, heavy and boxy Ford costs so little to charge at home that lack of efficiency is not a big deal for me, even though it should be.

 

[ZeusDriver]

What would you have wanted to see in the podcast that would have made it more useful? More technical details and specs? Always trying to make it better for sure.

The script could be this: "Hi, I came across this solar panel truck bed cover that seems to be pretty well-engineered. It claims to be about 600 Watts, which seems reasonable. That could translate into about 2 kWh per day of useful storage in a device like the various solar chargers on the market, or their own version. Here's their website ____________. Take a look. " That's 15 seconds, and that I would have watched in its entirety. I don't have the time to watch a bunch of guys bloviate, especially when it gets into their questionable selection of 3 series aluminum alloy, etc, etc.

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