Surthrival Trailer Mark 1 Update#4
Hello everyone, Tonight I'm bringing an update for the Surthrival Trailer Mark 1 Project.
I am currently finalizing my bill of materials needed to create the mounting for the solar panels on the trailer. I met with a friend last week to brainstorm and ask where to get a local source for the steel I'm looking to purchase.
Here's a crappy sketch and rough idea of what I've got in mind.
I have two local steel distributors in the area, and I'm looking for 54' of 1" steel square tube to create the frames to allow the solar panels to mount as a system to the top and side of the trailer. My online quote for this much steel at onlinemetals.com is $131 with standard ground shipping.
Let me know what you think!
howdy there @makinstuff! I guess your thing is makin stuff, love the username, like the crappy drawing too, what will the solar panels provide power for?
Haha thanks @janton, Indeed that is my passion "makinstuff" I'm also in Alabama and we take the g' off everythin' haha. The solar panels will be wired into a product called the Sol-Ark which will be housed inside the enclosed trailer. The Sol-Ark is an all in one kind of plug and play solar power system made by a small company in Texas https://www.sol-ark.com/ that handles your charge controlling for a battery bank in my case 8 6v 215AH golf cart batteries wired in series for a 48v battery storage. It has a 3kw pure sine inverter that can also be grid interactive or tied into a generator to help maintain your batteries. In effect its a portable solar power station.
howdy today @makinstuff! Alabama..I don't know anyone from Alabama. Until now! very good and thanks for the explanation and I'm sure you will show it when it gets mounted so we can see how big the panels are.
Been thinking about setting up some type of solar or at least have a portable unit available in case the grid goes down.
thank you sir for all the information, it is much appreciated!
You bet @janton, I just talked to a fella today that has a few panels in his basement and some sealed lead acid batteries stored for when he needs to deploy them. We had those tornadoes back in 2011 that got a lot of people into producing some of their own power. Solar is a great option because its quiet.
yes sir makinstuff, I'm sure you're going to show everyone the finished product? do you have a shot where you make all your stuff?
Oh yeah @janton you can check out a collection of my blog posts at https://thetinkertribe.com. I recently put a list of all my other build posts and videos there.
howdy today sir makinstuff! hey thanks for that link, I got caught up on some of what you're doing there by making a Aquaponics system for plants and fish, what a brilliant concept! now I know what's going on, thank you!