Solar Etrike

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Forever E-Triking
Save some pussy for the rest of us
200W solar panel, 48V 20 aH battery. Range is 25 miles on battery with no pedaling, estimated additional 20 miles per day of full sunlight with solar panel, pedaling will increase range. In full sun, the panel charges at about the same rate as the plug in charger, 3 amps.
- In full sun
  The asterisk. Here in northern Europe, sometimes weeks pass without even 10 minutes of that. But in the Sahara this would be great - it even provides shade!
  
  Bet it would do great in California
- That seems rather large for only 200 Watts maybe the picture is giving me a poor sense of scale but that looks like it's a similar size to my 480 watt panels what are the dimensions here?
  
  It is an Allpowers 200W flexible panel, about 33" x 54"
What happens when you get a sudden gust of wind from the side?
- Make sure to always have that hedge on the windward side! ;-)
- Not much. I generally ride with the panel in flat top position.
Yo this is tight, how build
- I started with a trike, and added a cheap direct drive ebike kit (Voilamart), and a Hailong battery 48V 20 aH. Then built a frame out of electrical conduit with Makerpipe connectors. The solar panel mount is made of 1x2 wood epoxied together and lashed with string onto the metal frame. I connected the 36V 200W Allpowers flexible solar panel to an Elejoy MPPT boost charge controller, which outputs 54.2V into the battery. That is the short version.
  
  Wicked sick
Very cool! Can you give us a rundown of your setup?
- I wrote the parts used in another post in this thread, but if you have any specific questions, let me know.
Love it. Been wanting to build something like this eventually.
Ever hear of this project/have any thoughts on it? https://vhelio.org/
- Looks like a good project.
Looks like it could haul a lot. Have you thought about a trailer, etc? Looks like you could go carless completely or at least for days at a time.

21 comments