Solar Panel - Yea or Nay?

[tonythomson]

Used a Solar Monkey across Australia, loads of sun, solar panel was loads of rubbish.  Not worth carrying let alone buying unless you want to buy mine.  I guess not uh?

[BikingBrian]

I ended up getting this, because it was pretty cheap and had a built-in battery. I will probably have AC much of the time, but this is small enough to have "just in case". If it works out well, I'll post back here.

http://www.instapark.com/solar-power-panels/mercury-4s-ultra-slim-portable-solar-usb-cell-phone-charger.html

I forgot to give an update after my tour! I found that I had enough access to AC power to charge a small battery pack, so that was sufficient as a backup to keep the phone/Garmin charged. So the solar panel ended up being excess weight.

[officerdare]

The solar panel is a bit iffy. I recently attempted to start a tour on the west coast in WA and OR using a very large solar panel that was to charge up a battery pack to power a C-PAP device. The panel was flexible enough to drape over my BOB trailer but because of cloudy, rainy and heavy woods, I was not able to get more than two or three hours run time on my C-PAP. The panel measured 21"x 30". Maybe it would have worked better east of the coastal mountains.

Definitely, not a fair comparison for a solar panel to charge that type of battery.  That being said, I quit using the C-Pap and went with a TAP3 mouth piece and have not looked back since.  Works great (ask my wife) and since it is similar to a mouth guard, no need to worry about batteries, hoses, noise, etc from a CPAP machine.  Also, the Goal Zero products worked great for me in keeping the battery packs charged, which in turn then charged the iPhone, Garmin at night while sleeping.

[SamSpokes]

Nae nae and thrice nae. They are huge and can barely charge a phone. Presumably if you need one you will be on a distance tour so weight and space is at a premium.

[officerdare]

So SamSpokes, what solar panel have you used? 

[BikePacker]

Nay.

[officerdare]

Folks are asking legitimate questions.  Why bother to respond, if you do not have a solar system.