Solar trickle chargers?

[superjackal]

Anyone use these? Are they any good?

I'd like one to use on a couple of cars my bike....

[Blackbird]

I've got one I bought from TradeMe for about $40, basically just to play with. It's marine (all weather) grade and is about 170mm x 150mm x 10mm in dimension. Puts out about 18v in full sunlight but low current (max 70mA). I've been told that it's not necessary to put in a voltage regulator because of the low current but I did anyway as I already had one. Haven't used it on the bike as I've got an Oxford Maximiser but have used it for a couple of years to charge LED flashlights and also hook it up to our boat battery now and then if we're not going to use it for a while. You can get bigger, gruntier and more expensive ones but this one seems to work just fine for my purpose.

Hope that helps.

Edit: I think this is identical to the one I bought, but mine came from a supplier in Whakatane, not Auckland: http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/boats-marine/parts-accessories/other/auction-597894571.htm

[wickle]

got one from memory bought from super cheep, use in car seems to be okay

[AllanB]

Dick Smith sell em.

I've seen some that plug into the lighter socket - interested me as I did not know it would charge back through there.

[Victor03]

Interesting discussion about solar trickle chargers, i also want to say something about it. Well before read this thread, i have no idea about solar trickle chargers, but after read this thread, i have some proper information about solar trickle chargers, i think it's really nice and keep it up guys ...

[Akzle]

Dick Smith sell em.

I've seen some that plug into the lighter socket - interested me as I did not know it would charge back through there.

some (read: most) cars disconnect said socket when "off" - you either have to hard wire or change it to remain connected without the key.

amorphous panels (as are trickle chargers) will generally not explode a battery. you'll also generally not find them over 40w.
a trickle charger, by definition, is nowhere near that. more in the order of 15w, or up to ~150mA (w/v=I)

personally, i'm all for not running lossy transformers and shit. solar power wins.

[Road kill]

I bought one from Dick Smiths to charge my Fish finder battery when I'm camping on the coast.

It takes a full day of good sunshine to fully charge the battery.

When I'm on an extended trip I always take two batteries an leave one hooked up the whole time.
I used to stay in motels and DOC camp sites just so I could use their power to recharge.

I paid about $50 for mine and it's paid for it's self many times over now.

Their like welders and compressors,,once you have one you wonder how you managed to get by without it.