Was thinking of investing in a couple for certain trl cams that stay out all year. Anyone have experience with them.

I believe in my humble opinion ( if I had one)
The cost of the panel is too much for the option of replacing batteries

You are going to check the cam anyway

My cell cams are going through 8 batteries each every 10 days. Next year I am going solar on those.

Upgrade the cams first

Are your trail cams placed in the woods/shade? If so they will be useless.

We were talking about those at deer camp but we have to put the cams in ammo boxes so the bears don't wreck them too fast. I am afraid the bears would chew the antenna off the cell cams and we figured the solar panels wouldn't last more than a month or two.

RdFx; I have an alarm system that is supposed to run itself on solar panels. I'd consider the juice that must require would be practically non-existent, compared to the drain of a cam.

Yet, each winter, as the days shorten and the sun isn't what it was? I find myself dragging the main battery back for a plug in to the mains recharger.

This ^^ i have a 20 watt solar panal on my battery for my electric fence but i end up charging it once a month or so. Sure its longer than 8 days then the battery alone but that is me putting the pannel in a spot with full sun at the correct angle. Not a smaller panal shaded in the woods. I believe you will not be satisfied except in maybe 1 out of 100 locations.

I know of several landowners that run solar panels on their Spartans and don’t have any issues. These cams are pretty much permanent in there locations…fields, intersections, any entrance, etc…

SPYPOINT has them built in I have had one for 1 month in partial shade still reading full charge while my mil tries have been through 2 sets of batteries

I have my Browning trail cams set up to take pics at 2 sec intervals when there is motion. The batteries last a year at least. They are not cell cams, just pics on a SD card. How are you guys burning through batteries so fast?

I have cuddy back cameras that link back to the main cell camera to send me texts and emails from all 5 cameras through the one cell cam. I put the extra battery pack and a solar charger on them and they have been out for a year with no battery changes.

A few years back when I was running 15 - 20 cams I was using solar panels on some of the cams. It extended the battery life quite a bit on some while did no good on others. This was back when most cams were battery hogs. Most cameras now do not eat batteries like that. One of the main selling points is that they don't burn batteries very fast. Now having said this,. I have never had batteries last anywhere near what they claim, but they do last a long time more than they used to. If you are burning up batteries in a newer cam, you may have a bad one that needs to be replaced/returned.

Many die hards leave cams soak all season in spots they don't disturb or go onto at all for future Intel. Solar poweris great for those guys.