I Ditched the Lensun Controller! Hood Solar Install on my F350 Rossmonster Baja скачать в хорошем качестве

I Ditched the Lensun Controller! Hood Solar Install on my F350 Rossmonster Baja

Keep your batteries topped off and your electronics running! In this video, I install a Lensun 98W Hood Solar Panel on my 2024 Ford F-350 Super Duty with a Rossmonster Baja expedition camper — but I did things differently than the standard kit. Instead of using Lensun's included MPPT controller, I upgraded to the Victron SmartSolar MPPT 75/15 for better efficiency, Bluetooth monitoring via the VictronConnect app, and long-term expandability. I found a clean, hidden mounting spot for the controller inside the cab — behind the lower glove compartment on the passenger side — keeping it fully protected from engine heat and the elements. This video covers the entire multi-day installation process: routing 12-gauge marine-grade wiring through the passenger-side firewall, swapping the factory MC4 connectors for low-profile Anderson connectors, applying protective vinyl to the hood, and mounting the solar panel with VHB tape. I also upgraded from the panel's factory 14-gauge wire to 12-gauge to reduce power loss. If you drive short distances, have parasitic battery draws from FordPass, run a dashcam, rodent deterrent, or Starlink Mini — or just want your dual AGM batteries at 100% state of charge when you return to your truck — this is the mod you need. The final result? 52–53 watts and nearly 2 amps in real-world February sun conditions here in San Diego — more than enough to keep the batteries maintained on my overlanding rig between adventures. Special thanks to Clayton at Auto Pro SD in Vista, CA for the black vinyl wrap material — if you need window tinting or a car wrap in North County San Diego, that's your spot. And yes, Shelby the dog supervised the entire multi-day build from her favorite spot under the truck. 🐾 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔧 PARTS USED IN THIS BUILD: ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Lensun 98W Hood Solar Panel (Ford Super Duty fitment) Victron SmartSolar MPPT 75/15 Charge Controller 3M 2080 Matte Black Wrap Vinyl (hood base layer) 12 AWG Marine-Grade Duplex Wiring Anderson Powerpole Connectors (replacing MC4) 3M VHB Tape Inline Fuse Holder ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✅ KEY FEATURES OF THIS INSTALL: ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✅ Custom in-cab controller mount (hidden behind glove box) ✅ Victron MPPT for dual AGM battery optimization ✅ Anderson connector conversion — low-profile, easy disconnect ✅ Upgraded 12 AWG wiring for reduced power loss ✅ Real-world 53W output in February sun conditions ✅ Protective vinyl base layer under the panel ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📌 CHAPTERS — See timestamps below ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🚐 MY RIG: 2024 Ford F350 Super Duty Rossmonster Baja Expedition Camper 👋 ABOUT THIS CHANNEL: DTAdventure4x4 is an overlanding and off-road travel channel featuring our Rossmonster Baja expedition truck. We share real-world gear installs, trip reports, and everything you need to know about building and living with an overland rig. 📬 Got questions about this install or running a similar setup on your F250/F350? Drop a comment below — I read and respond to every one! 💡 PRO TIP: I replaced the MC4 connectors with Anderson Powerpoles. MC4s are bulky and hard to tuck under the hood cowl — Anderson connectors keep everything low-profile and make it easy to disconnect the panel if needed. Highly recommend this swap! 0:00 — Introduction: Why I'm Adding Hood Solar 0:45 — The Plan: Lensun Panel + Victron 75/15 1:21 — Finding the Passenger-Side Firewall Access Point 2:16 — Removing Interior Panels & Accessing the Rubber Grommet 4:00 — Shelby the Supervisor Checks In 4:37 — Choosing 12-Gauge Marine Wire Over Factory 14-Gauge 5:18 — Feeding Wires Through the Firewall 6:41 — Finding the Perfect Spot: Victron MPPT Behind the Glovebox 8:14 — Routing Wires Into the Engine Bay 8:40 — Charge Controller Installed — The Hidden Mount Reveal 9:43 — Day 1 Wrap-Up: Wiring Complete, Waiting on the Panel 11:05 — Solar Panel Arrives + Anderson Connector Prep 12:07 — Cutting the MC4s — Voiding My Warranty (Worth It) 13:11 — Upgrading to 12-Gauge Wire & Anderson Connectors 14:57 — First Test: Panel on the Hood, Moment of Truth 16:02 — It Works! Victron App Shows 46–48W 17:45 — Applying VHB Tape to the Solar Panel Back 19:01 — Rainy Day Detour: Buying Vinyl at Auto Pro SD (Vista, CA) 20:06 — One Week Later: Installing Vinyl on the Hood 21:51 — Positioning & Marking the Solar Panel with Painter's Tape 22:40 — The Big Moment: Mounting the Lensun Panel 24:12 — Weight It Down: Kettlebells & Patience 25:01 — Live Performance Check: 53W and 2 Amps! 25:28 — Caulking the Edges for Weather Sealing 26:35 — Final Results, Honest Review & Wrap-Up #LensunSolarPanel #HoodSolarPanel #FordF350 #SuperDuty #Overlanding #RossmonsterBaja #VictronMPPT #SolarInstall #OffGrid #ExpeditionVehicle #OverlandBuild #TruckCamper #SolarPower #DIYInstall #BatteryMaintenance