I really thought I was on to something as far as topping up the house batteries with the truck, but I’m afraid it’s a giant bust! 🙁

Late afternoon, I wanted to top up my laptop so I could perhaps watch a movie tonight. I decided that it was the perfect time to run a truck experiment.

By this point, I was pulling in only two amps from the solar panels:

The battery monitor said the same.

I started the truck and this was the reading on the battery monitor:

I was DOWN half an amp!!!!!!!

I ran the truck last night, too, and was pulling in a mere 0.9A, although I wasn’t sure of the reading at the time. That really isn’t worth the effort!

I do get a voltage boost after running the truck for an hour or so, but it quickly drops again after the batteries have rested for a bit. Really, there’s no point to the exercise except that I do get a quicker charge out of my computer. So I guess I could sit my computer in the truck for an hour every morning and charge it until I come up with a better way.

How disappointing! 🙁