On our first big road trip in Dutchie we boondocked for a few days along Highway 1 in California. All the power we used was our (LED) lights at night, our WeBoost, Wifiranger and the water pump. We still ended up with an almost empty battery!
We learned it took two hours a day of running the generator to keep our batteries charged. That’s when we knew we needed solar panels to charge instead of a noisy generator!
A huge thanks to Go Power! for providing us with the GP-PSK-120, a 120 watt portable folding solar kit with 10 amp solar.
Features and Benefits of the 120 watt portable folding solar kit
- Sets up in minutes – simply unfold and connect battery clamps to battery
- Place in the sun and park in the shade
- Built-in PWM Solar Controller
- Maintenance free
- Folds into carrying case for easy transport
- No installation or mounting required
- 25 year solar panel warranty
Set up in minutes
The set up is simple – take the solar kit out of the heavy duty carrying case, unfold the legs and face it to the sun.
Place in the sun, park in the shade
The kit comes with 12 feet of cable. You can extend the distance of the kit from your battery by using an extra 30′ of cable.
No installation or mounting required
The Portable Solar Kit comes with battery clamps, quick connectors, ring terminal connectors, SAE solar plug adapter and XLR-style solar plug adapter. If your RV is provided with a solar plug adapter you simply plug it in. On this trip I used the battery clamps but next time I will use the ring terminal connectors and leave the adapter outside our battery compartment so it’s an easy connect when I set up the solar panel.
Built-in PWM Solar Controller
Go Power!’s 120-watt Portable Solar Kit comes with a 10 amp charge controller. After setting the battery charging profile the controller will charge your battery in the best possible way. You can also manually override the charging profile (for example when you want to use the Maximum Power Boost Technology). MPBT is designed to be used before the end of the day if you know you will require many loads through the night. This feature can also be used when you have just installed the solar controller to put batteries on a boost charge up to 14.4V (Flooded and AGM) or 14.1V (Sealed/Gel) right away.
Folds into carrying case for easy transport
The whole set (including cables) fits in the heavy duty carrying case. The case easily fits in one of our storage compartments.
Is 120 watt enough?
I don’t know… for now, it’s enough for us! It also depends on many other factors – like your battery type and how much energy you use. We are very happy with our 120 watt portable folding solar kit because on a sunny day it can easily keep our two 6V wet cell batteries fully charged. Our batteries provide power to our (LED) lights, WeBoost, WifiRanger, fan, radio, water pump and refrigerator (even on propane the fridge will use a little of your 12V power). We have a small 175 watt inverter we use for the charging of our computers (with the 175 watt inverter it’s even possible to watch tv).
Do you need more than this? If so, that means you need to upgrade your batteries, inverter and solar panels. With the right configuration (like Go Power! Solar Extreme System) it’s even possible to run your air conditioning!
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram so we can keep you posted about our experience with the Go Power! 12 watt portable folding solar kit.