POWER From The Sun! | BougeRV 200W Solar Panel Install and Review

[Music] what's going on guys we are back with another video and today is an exciting day because we are finally getting solar on our Harker EXO topper so BGE RV sent out this 200 W solar panel and it is is absolutely awesome some of the great features about this probably my favorite one is how lightweight this is this is only 7 lbs which is fantastic the other fantastic feature is as you can see how flexible it is so you could if you have somewhere that you need some it's not a flat surface to put it on this will work perfectly fine for that and then it is also super super thin which is perfect so that way it's not sticking up high above on the topper and not catching any tree branches along the way so in this video I'm going to show you how to install it and we're going to also be doing some tests to see how much output it's actually putting out even on an overcast day like this today so let's jump right into it all right so first thing we're going to do is we're going to prep and clean the backs side of the solar panel obviously and then wherever you're going to mount it so in our case it's going to be on the roof of the Harker we're going to clean that so we have a nice clean surface all right so now that we have our surface nice and prepped and clean and so is the back we're going to be using is some silicone that we're going to be applying to the back so that way when we flip it over we can stick it and adhere it to the top of the topper so I'm going to show you the exact pattern you're supposed to do because you have to leave you can't fully seal it because there's supposed to be room for some air to get underneath for ventilation I'm going to stop my past self here momentarily because using silicone to seal and glue down the solar panel to the camper topper was a terrible idea I unintentionally did a durability test with the solar panel as after about 48 Hours of that curing I uh went to run an erand and going down the road the solar panel ended up ripping off the roof going about 35 40 mph down the road landed on the road and several cars ran over the solar panel after properly installing it which I'll go over how I installed it properly momentarily the solar panel still works 100% so kudos for a actually well-built solar panel that can unintentionally get ran over by a few vehicles and fly off the roof of the truck going about 40 miles hour so how I properly now secur the solar panel is using double-sided Gorilla Glue tape which I will link down in the description I used the same pattern I did with the silicone as far as the proper way to that that way it lets air flow underneath the solar panel but I just used the double-sided tape and I have tested it to make sure it does not fly off if you've seen the previous video which was the SEMA video we drove here from Salt Lake City down to Vegas and back and the solar panel is still on top of the truck so I can safely say this method 100% works just make sure you still silicone the front of the solar panel so that way there is no way for air to catch Underneath It All right back to the video all right this is the layout of of the silicone on how it's displayed in the manual so you're supposed to leave these gaps here so that way airflow is able to get underneath and in between the panel to I'm assuming keep it cool so it's supposed to be laid out like this kind of these brackets and uh some spacing in between those brackets so that way air flow is still able to get underneath the panel so now we just need to flip it over and install it right there on the roof all right once it's flipped over on the side uh you you want to put another dab of silicone on the front side here which I already did that way no wind gets underneath it and obviously rips up the panel and then now we just have to Route the cables into the inside of the camper all right excuse the mess but we got everything wired uh ended up drilling a hole on the side there and running cables and it is currently hooked up and running and as you can see the sun is currently fully covered by these clouds here so basically I mean there's not any direct sunlight and yet let me crawl up in here I'm not sure if it's going to pick up there but we are pulling 22 watts of solar input with no sun so I'd say that's that's pretty good considering it is the sun is fully covered and we are pulling about 22 to 23 Watts that is that is pretty impressive all right so we're not at full sun but we're probably about 80% Sun um because it's still behind uh a thin Cloud up there and we are currently pushing 113 Watts of solar and which is still pretty good also want to remind you that the solar panel isn't optimally angled right now to the Sun and there's still clouds so the fact that it's pulling 113 watts is pretty impressive all righty so with the topper open and the solar panel angled a little bit better at the Sun up there uh but it is still it's still a little hazy out so it's I wouldn't say it's the most intense Sun ever but yet we are currently getting right now 143 watts of solar which is pretty good for the conditions and I mean there's plenty of other tests online that you can check out just to see how well these solar panels do all righty guys that's it for this video if you're interested one of those solar panels make sure to use my code outlandish BF for 21% off but you have to use that code before December 5th if you like the video make sure to leave a like And subscribe for more awesome content like this and we'll see you guys in the next video [Music] [Music]