I have a new Hawk Shell model. It has a heater, lights, cooktop, and I use an ARB 50 qt fridge/freezer. The Hawk came with two 75 Ah batteries and a 180 watt solar panel so it has the Zamp solar 30amp charge controller and the blue sea battery separator. I added a 100 watt portable panel I can set out in the sun when I'm parked in the shade. Shell models do not have provisions for shore power. I have been on two elk hunts thus fall (Wyoming and in my home state of New Mexico). The truck has been parked for up to 5 days straight and the batteries stayed charged as there was lots of sun. It was warm so the heater was only run for a few minutes.
My concern is that in colder darker weather and rainy environments I won't have enough sun to keep the heater and lights on for days on end. I own a Honda 2000 generator and want to use it to charge my batteries when necessary. I am pretty ignorant when it comes to electricity and batteries and separators and such. My question is how do I connect a battery charger to my system so I can use my generator to run the charger and charge the batteries. Specifically, I am wondering if I can just wire the charger directly to the batteries or if I need to deal with the solar charge controller and the battery separator.
Also, I was planning on getting the IOTA DLS 30 IQ4 12v 30 amp charger. Would this be a good choice to use with my Honda 2000 generator to charge the batteries?
Thank you for your advice!
Brandon
Albuquerque
Sent from my iPad using Wander The West
My concern is that in colder darker weather and rainy environments I won't have enough sun to keep the heater and lights on for days on end. I own a Honda 2000 generator and want to use it to charge my batteries when necessary. I am pretty ignorant when it comes to electricity and batteries and separators and such. My question is how do I connect a battery charger to my system so I can use my generator to run the charger and charge the batteries. Specifically, I am wondering if I can just wire the charger directly to the batteries or if I need to deal with the solar charge controller and the battery separator.
Also, I was planning on getting the IOTA DLS 30 IQ4 12v 30 amp charger. Would this be a good choice to use with my Honda 2000 generator to charge the batteries?
Thank you for your advice!
Brandon
Albuquerque
Sent from my iPad using Wander The West