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I pulled the trigger on a DC Solar Trailer. I am surprised that there has not been a lot of discussion on them as its basically a plug and play start for an off grid system for a house or camp with capability to get grid connected. For those not familiar with them, the firm built portable solar trailers to be rented to large events like Nascar Events and football games. They appear to be well built with quality components but they were part of some creative solar financing that was sold to large financial firms like Berkshire Hathaway and Progressive insurance reportedly for 150K each. Sadly the owners go greedy and turned it in Ponzi scheme and the Feds moved in and auctioned all the assets of the firm. There were several depots of these sold mostly down south or out west. Apparently some were in NH for the big Nascar race that is normally held in the state.
The unit I bought from someone who bought several at the fed auction appears to be the top end unit. Its set up as a portable light plant with 3200 watts of LED flood on two telescoping poles. Reportedly they would light up a football field. The trailer is 10,000 GVW car trailer modified for the gear. There are two GNB FLA 540 AMP 48 forklift batteries, a Kubota water cooled Diesel generator, a bulk fuel tank, 10 250 watts PV panels, two Sunny Island inverter, a Midnight Solar Charge Controller with a lot of high end hardware. The components could be sold off for more than what I paid for it and I see the Sunny Islands up for sale in Ebay some in the original cabinets all wired. They are set up for 50 AMP 240 volt output. There are various videos on You Tube. Its used gear but low hours, my generator has 40 hours on the hour meter. The PV panels are mounted on adjustable frames so they can be folded into the trailer for transport. Its definitely not a optimum mounting angle for a fixed array but I have a few ideas.
The batteries are 2008 vintage but my guess is it was not used much. The person who bought them at the auction was a solar guy and cycled the generator every few months and had a desulphanator on the batteries. I realize that they are a crap shot but if I get couple of years on them it meets my needs. I will be building a house in few years and the plan is use the trailer to build the place and then install the components permanently. In the short term I plan to use it to charge my plug in Rav4 hybrid and possibly run a transfer switch to the house and run it off gird.
The unit I bought from someone who bought several at the fed auction appears to be the top end unit. Its set up as a portable light plant with 3200 watts of LED flood on two telescoping poles. Reportedly they would light up a football field. The trailer is 10,000 GVW car trailer modified for the gear. There are two GNB FLA 540 AMP 48 forklift batteries, a Kubota water cooled Diesel generator, a bulk fuel tank, 10 250 watts PV panels, two Sunny Island inverter, a Midnight Solar Charge Controller with a lot of high end hardware. The components could be sold off for more than what I paid for it and I see the Sunny Islands up for sale in Ebay some in the original cabinets all wired. They are set up for 50 AMP 240 volt output. There are various videos on You Tube. Its used gear but low hours, my generator has 40 hours on the hour meter. The PV panels are mounted on adjustable frames so they can be folded into the trailer for transport. Its definitely not a optimum mounting angle for a fixed array but I have a few ideas.
The batteries are 2008 vintage but my guess is it was not used much. The person who bought them at the auction was a solar guy and cycled the generator every few months and had a desulphanator on the batteries. I realize that they are a crap shot but if I get couple of years on them it meets my needs. I will be building a house in few years and the plan is use the trailer to build the place and then install the components permanently. In the short term I plan to use it to charge my plug in Rav4 hybrid and possibly run a transfer switch to the house and run it off gird.
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