We Built the First Solar Truck Rack for my F150 Lightning

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Solartruckrack.com
We built a rack capable of generating 27 miles of range per day. Join us on an extraordinary DIY journey as we take on the challenge of building the first-ever solar-powered truck rack for the F-150 Lightning. This video takes you through each stage of the process, from brainstorming to the final setup, highlighting the innovative use of solar energy to enhance vehicle functionality.
What You'll See:
• Introduction: Quick overview of what the project is all about.
• The Design Phase: Conceptualizing and planning the solar truck rack. Hear about the initial ideas and the inspiration behind the project.
• Building the Rack: Follow the build process, featuring our struggles, breakthroughs, and the tools we used
• Technical Insights: Dive deep into the integration of solar power, featuring Goal Zero tech for energy storage and how we managed to connect everything.
• The Final Product: A comprehensive tour of the completed rack, demonstrating its functionality and the solar panels in action.
• Challenges and Solutions: Discussing the challenges we faced, including initial skepticism and technical hurdles.
• Future Plans: Outlining the next steps for improving the rack and potential upgrades for greater efficiency.
• Viewer Request: Asking for feedback on areas of improvement
Why Watch?
• Explore the integration of renewable energy in automotive applications.
• Gain insights into overcoming engineering challenges in a DIY project.
• Get inspired by sustainable solutions and practical engineering.
Call to Action:
• Like if you enjoy creative engineering projects!
• Comment with your thoughts or questions about solar power and vehicle modifications.
Feel free to get in touch using contact@thesteels.com
#SolarPower #RenewableEnergy #EcoFriendly #SustainableLiving #DIYProjects #Innovation #Engineering #AutomotiveInnovation #GreenTech #EcoTech #SustainableTech #FordF150 #TruckMods #SolarEnergy #CleanEnergy #TechDIY #EnvironmentalTech #FutureTech #GreenEnergy #InnovationInMotion #FordLightning #F150Lightning #FordTrucks #LightningEV #ElectricF150 #FordPerformance #FordElectric #LightningTruck

Опубликовано:

27 окт 2024

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Комментарии : 68

@deucebigs9860 2 месяца назад

No idea why this was in my algorithm but I thoroughly enjoyed it so I'm a subscriber now.

@hypercasual 6 месяцев назад

This is the highest production from the smallest channel, had your own music and everything hahaha

@functionalvanconversion4284 21 день назад

Hell yeah! Bad ass, way to go.

@greglougheed9876 6 месяцев назад

If you going to upgrade your panels you should think about bifacial panels. Also maybe you could do two layers that would slide out to make a bigger rack, like a drawer. Ps I own a solar company in Canada. Sunfish Solar Inc.

@DominicRand-qp4ss 6 месяцев назад

A+ for curiosity, ingenuity, perseverance and execution!!! Reminds me of one of my favorites, Treehouse Masters. Time for a Netflix series.

@The-Steels 6 месяцев назад

Miss you Dom!

@eto2352 2 месяца назад

Seems like the perfect setup for Hawaii! I can't believe you guys used stainless, that's impressive. Mild steel is a lot easier to weld and work with...and cheaper! Adding hydraulic posts to raise the rack for the hammock and struts for the side panels is easy work. Great project! Self sustaining cruising around the island!

@johnfitbyfaithnet Месяц назад

Really cool

@WCORBIN62 5 месяцев назад

Guys, Awesome Idea and execution on doing this marvel idea, I was googling to find out if anyone has done this before because I didn’t want to put solar panels on the roof of my trailer camper. Using extruded aluminum such T-slot I think may be a better way to go. My idea was to do the same, but use the panels as a wind deflector making use of that while driving. Having a tilt mechanism for optimum solar collection when camping. I thank you for the inspiration to actually give this a try.

@scottermatinger5925 6 месяцев назад

Hawaii has fairly constant wind. Add a spinnaker!

@beginnereasy Месяц назад

I'm looking for a completely solar camper van

@pstoneking3418 2 месяца назад

To make this work you'd want to put the DC Voltage from the solar panels directly into the battery. Since ford uses a 400 volt battery you'd need your panels configured at a minimum of 400 volt output which would connect to the 2 DC pins on a CCS connector. But not that easy because you'd still have to use the J1772 connector on the CCS connector for control which would require knowing what kind of control voltages you'd need and what pins on the J1772 are used to control the charge.

@joshuatreepower 2 месяца назад

Love this.. Great work on the Solar Truck Rack!

@scottzipf5503 Месяц назад

G Awesome idea. Great to see people innovating. Why didn't you use Aluminium for the frame and would you consider lighter soft panels? Would be a huge weight saving.

@redman8574 2 месяца назад

would be awesome to see someone put something like one of those pop up "Smartflower" solar tracking systems in the back of a F150 Lightning.......

@iamrambo99 2 месяца назад

Looking forward to seeing the next video and seeing how you get rid of inefficiencies and figure out going DC to DC

@beginnereasy Месяц назад

Underrated video LOL

@zachariahlester8253 2 месяца назад

I could see this setup, but with collapsible hardware. Imagine all solar panels stacked up in the bed while driving, then pull them out when parked on some sort of collapsible/expandable hinged apparatus. What a dream to commute, park, charge at work, and drive home without having to pay for fuel.

@beginnereasy Месяц назад

This was funny and cool. I think the f150 is an inefficient base. I would prefer a body like a vw camper and a solar charger that flowers at destination rather than on the way.

@gracemccarthy7490 6 месяцев назад

INCREDIBLE! Still so impressed with what you guys have accomplished throughout this journey!

@Priit49 4 месяца назад

Very talented people, high production, great vibes, this channel has a big future. I’m proud to be a VERY early subscriber (104th)! Keep it cool, keep it weird, I love it! What a find!

@LittleSpot 2 месяца назад

there is a channel 4x4electric. With their array they traveled through africa with an VW made car (MEB Platform). Maybe flexible panels are more efficient for transportation. They also used a prototype DC to DC converter to reduce losses.

@ryanbroesche1711 2 месяца назад

Seems like if you tucked those side panels underneath the top panels you could improve performance by adding more panels and better driving performance just a thought

@simritjhita6425 3 месяца назад

If I’m getting this right, 13 kWh generated per day -> 4,750 kWh/yr for a system that could last 10 years. That means a system like this at around $6k would be about 12 cents per kWh, making it relatively cost effective.

@pstoneking3418 2 месяца назад

If your calculations are correct. You'd need every day of the year to give you at least 5 hours of solid sun with no clouds 365 days/yr. And I don't know of any solar panels that have a 100% efficiency rating.

@ReubenBLy Месяц назад

They didn't buy the battery... Would have been $9 or 10k. Also, labor was free. Makes an awesome video tho! Love it guys!!

@yayinternets 2 месяца назад

Great video guys, and fun project! I'm sure you'll learn plenty more about how to improve it just by actually having a working project. To improve charging efficiency, eventually you'll probably want to build your own battery/use a pre fabbed one that is only a battery that has it's own BMS. From there, you need a DC to DC charger. I've only seen one DC to DC charger for EVs by a company called Enteligent. No idea if it's any good. This is the first video I've watched, will go see if you have more. Curious about wind noise, highway speeds, etc.

@paveloleynik2743 2 месяца назад

At winter time the flat solar panels will produce ten times less energy. Electrically tilted panels the only decision when the space is limited.

@ScrappyDoodad Месяц назад

The length of the front overhang will be problematic at speeds There is too much leverage for the wind pressure pushing up, it might get ripped off

@solarcoaster4329 6 месяцев назад

Nice job fellas…was wondering when someone would get around to doing this! Let’s talk to solaredge and see if there upcoming DC EV charger can be retrofitted for this purpose ( no inversion) or perhaps some enphase iq8 ensemble’s to go direct to charger and skip the intermediary battery ..( one inversion at the microinverter) there..got some unique German light weight glass less bifacial PV coming around that could make superstructure less intensive as well… aloha from maui

@The-Steels 6 месяцев назад

Thanks for the support from Maui! Yeah it would be killer to avoid all that conversion.

@intensedan 5 месяцев назад

Any ideas on how to wire the solar directly to the truck? Lightnings have a 220 (or so) DC charger that charges the 12v battery, but I don't know if it can work both ways. I run an electric mowing business with my Lightning and I'll be doing solar on my enclosed trailer soon, so I'll keep an eye on your videos!

@willywhite8971 6 месяцев назад

Wow drew you’re incredible

@danielsoutdoors 6 месяцев назад

Great Video guys!

@The-Steels 6 месяцев назад

Thanks man!

@danielsoutdoors 6 месяцев назад

@@The-Steels I had an idea to make a bedcover roller that was made with Solar that would be charging your batteries at all times even when driving. But no luck pitching it to Ford.

@rishabhaggarwal2 6 месяцев назад

This is soooo cool!!

@kenkeiter 6 месяцев назад

These are the worst welds I have ever seen, but the project is dope. Nice work boys 😂

@TheJponton 6 месяцев назад

Excellent. Use solar optimizers or use mcro inverters for each panel. Lateral panels are striking the other if they are hooking, all panels will perform just like the worst

@The-Steels 6 месяцев назад

Yeah! Good point, we do have a solar combiner thing from goal zero that takes in 3 separate combined arrays, so luckily not everything is in series.

@dane_jah 3 месяца назад

How did you get the battery to Kauai

@JasonCarmichael 6 месяцев назад

How is it possible only 1 subscriber on this channel! "ringers". 😆 PS - I already have a solar powered Lightning. But mine gets it's juice from my house. I do have a mobile setup on my cargo trailer though, for a totally offgrid cargo mower setup.

@The-Steels 6 месяцев назад

We are sitting here wondering how to rename the video to make it more accurate :) any ideas are welcome! We've also been thinking about solar trailers!

@JasonCarmichael 6 месяцев назад

@@The-Steels Put some ## tags in the description for what it is. I think the title is pretty good. I am an Aptera investor and totally get this build! :)

@JasonCarmichael 6 месяцев назад

@@The-Steels Consider "Linear Actuators" instead of hydraulics. They work on 12V, so nothing complicated to discover.

@bamanature5258 6 месяцев назад

@@The-Steelsever you too can have a solar vehicle

@VedaSay 6 месяцев назад

If your plan was to change when stopped, a better approach would have been a setup that rolls down into the truck bed and is rolled out and expanded like the setup. With this suggestion you will not have to build that heavy frame structure. You are loosing over 10 solar miles due to the weight of the structural frame itself. Second bit, the solar power generator. Remember for pure solar charging use case, you don't need large storage capacity for the generator. Get one that has battery just enough to stabilize the output to the truck charge port. Or may be repurpose one by removing the storage on the generator. This should reduce few 10s of lb weight. Last but not the lease, a wind turbine mix, vertical one, would be an excellent addition to the power generator.

@The-Steels 6 месяцев назад

Thanks for the thoughts. Wouldn't a wind turbine basically just add equivalent drag, thus negating any power gains? Maybe im wrong. Curious!

@ChrisRyan_Oz 5 месяцев назад

@@The-Steels You only have the wind turbine setup when the vehicle is stationary.

@gjsxnobody7534 11 дней назад

How to contact you? We are doing similar but with boat

@wadafruit 6 месяцев назад

Can you make one for the CyberTruck?

@The-Steels 6 месяцев назад

it would actually probably be easier because the body of the cybertruck is already stainless steel.

@pstoneking3418 2 месяца назад

If I had to depend on public chargers, I wouldn't have purchased my lightning. Prior to purchasing my lightning, i did a lot of research on the truck itself and its charging infrastructure. The truck was great as long as I wouldn't use it to travel long distances. Even winter driving looked like there wouldn't be any problem with the limited range in colder weather. Public charging is way overpriced compared to charging at home. It is even better for me because I can often charge my truck from my home solar for as much as 3 hours a day and still get a full charge on my home solar system. That's around 20 kwh of power added to my truck on really sunny days. I only usually drive my truck a couple of times a week and a round trip never any more than 60 miles. So I pretty much drive my truck for free.

@pstoneking3418 2 месяца назад

This will all change in the winter, which is fine because my winter kwh cost is only $.08/kwh and I'll just start charging off the grid again. Even if I only got 1 mile per kwh, it would only cost $8 to drive 100 miles. But I get much better range than that with my lightning.

@Anoneom 3 месяца назад

Having to plug into the charging port seems very stupid... Ford should really fix that!

@mattmochary2206 6 месяцев назад

Now 2 subscribers!

@suzannesmith50 6 месяцев назад

Of course u used pulleys and skateboards! So Aza

@LarryRichelli 4 месяца назад

Plug the Ford EV charger into a 220 outlet.

@bamanature5258 6 месяцев назад

Nice party.

@backdoormanintheend 6 месяцев назад

Not hydraulics, but small electric motors.

@The-Steels 6 месяцев назад

Any links would be dope.

@backdoormanintheend 6 месяцев назад

@@The-Steels Just saying that hydraulics would be needlessly complex (hydraulic pump driven by a motor plus hydraulic lines and pistons). Rig up an electric winch with pulleys and cables. You already have an electric battery supply and outlets.

@yayinternets 2 месяца назад

@@backdoormanintheendI think they maybe just used the wrong term. They could definitely figure out some gas struts for this application, which is what I think they mean.