Recommendations for 12V solar battery maintainer
 

Looking for recommendations for a 12V solar battery maintainer. It must have a built-in diode for overcharge protection when the battery is charged fully and discharge protection to prevent discharge of battery when there's no light for charging. I have purchased one of these before from Harbor Freight, I placed it on my dash and it melted! Also the cigarette lighter adapter would not stay plugged it unless you were pushing in on it, otherwise it would just fall out. I have found several on Amazon but thought I would see if anyone on here could recommend one. I have a traveling job, with a company car. My Ranger is sitting at home not being driven.

I too am interested in this as I may be going back on the road as a truck driver and my vehicle may sit for weeks at a time. If you do get one, get one that attaches directly to the battery and not the cigarette lighter. Some come with a cord that you permanently mount to the battery but you can unplug and plug it fairly easy. I also would recommend putting it outside the vehicle if possible as it will work better as it will get more sun and you can put up a sunshade to protect your vehicles dash.

I'll look and see what we use at work.

Well even if I do put it inside the truck, I still plan on using a sunshade. I'll find a way to make them work together. Most of the ones I looked at online are not weather-resistant unless you fix them up yourself. I might connect it directly to the battery but I think the cigarette lighter option will work fine as long as the lighter power is constant even with the key turned off (not sure about this since I'm out of state and my Ranger is at home).

The harbor freight unit seems to be repackaged in many variants for about 20 bucks.

Found this one that is absolutely a different design.

12v 5.5W Solar Battery Maintainer | Automotive Solar Battery Charger - Innovative Solar Solutions