Using a Car to Solar Dehydrate Peppers and Tomatoes

Can a vehicle be used to solar dehydrate peppers and tomatoes?

Saw this on an episode of Doomsday preppers, or something like that, so I decided to give it a try. A tray off of an electric dehydrator was used to hold the food, and a meat thermometer was used to measure the air temperature.

• Tabasco Peppers
• Jalapeno Peppers
• Bell Peppers

Peppers were cut up, placed on the tray then put in the car. The first day the car was facing north / south.

At the end of the first day the Tabasco peppers were dried, but the bell and jalapeno were not.

Second day the SUV was turned east / west. This seemed to maximize the sun. Facing east / west, the inside of the car got hotter fast than north / south, and stayed hotter longer than north / south.

On average, the temperature inside the SUV was 30 degrees hotter than outside. While playing around a month ago I put the thermometer on the dash. Temperature on the dash reached 170 degrees.

Peppers were left in the car for three day.

At the end of the third day:

Bell peppers had drastically reduced in size.

Jalapeno peppers felt oily.

Tabasco peppers dried the fastest and had the least shrinkage.

I have been playing around with this for a couple of months before the video was made. Onions dried well, but not as good as the Tabasco peppers.

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Last edited by kev; Today at 08:37 PM..

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Using a Car to Solar Dehydrate Peppers and Tomatoes