What's your overlanding power solution?

[zane8stacks]

following this thread to learn something. electricity may as well be voodoo magic as far as i'm concerned. talking about amp hours and watt hours like i know what that means. im in the market for a small camper/overland trailer so i'm trying to learn.

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[wy_overland]

This is what i am running. Has yet to leave me with no power.

https://www.goalzero.com/shop/shop/goal-zero-yeti-1000x-portable-power-station/
https://www.goalzero.com/shop/yeti-accessories/yeti-link-vehicle-integration-kit/

 

[sniffHound]

I’m bringing this.

https://www.thegreenmicrogym.com/product/the-green-microcycle/

Have to install one of the new Gobi racks tho.

 

[WuNgUn]

following this thread to learn something. electricity may as well be voodoo magic as far as i'm concerned. talking about amp hours and watt hours like i know what that means. im in the market for a small camper/overland trailer so i'm trying to learn.

Amps give you the amount of current. Think of the water pipe analogy. Current is the size of the pipe... Bigger pipe can flow more electricity. Voltage is the pressure of the flow.
AH and WH give you the capacity... One is referred to in amps and the other in watts. (Watts are an expression of power, and is simply volts X amps. There are also VAR and VA as an expression of power, but that's in AC circuits)
A 50AH battery will deliver 50 amps for 1 hour, or 100 amps for 30 minutes.

 

[BroncoRick]

I use 2 Jackery 240's paired together and occasionally the 60w panel that goes with it. Plenty for my ARB 50L fridge and sometimes topping off small electronics. We never stay put at any given camp for longer than a couple nights before driving off and recharging from the car 12v anyways.

They're cheap, small and light, pack easily, and are simply moved from vehicle to vehicle (or into the tent or anywhere else). Works great, I love the small Jackerys.

 

[JohnnyBoots]

I'm running this Redarc system in my XJ (haven't hooked the solar up yet) but it works great! I plan on moving it out of the XJ and into the Bronco once I figure out a dual battery set-up. Likely with Lithium Ion this time.

I'm also fairly low tech when it comes to camping/overlanding and use a lot of my backpacking gear. Our reliance on electronics is relatively low so I'm mainly relying on it for our Engel fridge and charging phones.

 

[4x4TruckLEDs.com]

We're running a Bluetti EB70 right now. We got it with the solar panels for remote charging. Right now we can keep an ARB fridge (which is empty, so theres no food to help it maintain the low temp) around 32F for about 3 days (more if we start with the fridge already running). So figure 4 days.

Bluetti plugs into the rear cig. port so it charges the Bluetti while driving. But since we don't drive a lot right now, I've been plugging it into power at the shop every 2 or 3 days to recharge the Bluetti up to 100%.

So far, works very well. It's nothing like a dual battery setup BUT it's a sealed/solid unit that's also portable and can easily connect to solar. We also use this at shows when we need to power things under the tent.

 

[GunninGopher]

If I were looking to do this I'd build one myself. Sure these 'power stations' are slick, work well, have trendy names and lots of cool lights, but you can DIY one that meets your specific needs for 1/2 the price of the more expensive units. That Bluetti looks like a decent deal, though.

I have a 200Ah Chins LFP in my motorhome and it works great and is remarkably well made for the price. Here is the 100Ah model (1.3kwh) for $350 which seems more comparable to these and should meet overlanding needs if you are wheelin' and chargin' every day, even if you run a small heater. Bear in mind, ALL of these use Chinese batteries so there isn't much flag waving we can do with this stuff right now. At this point they have the LiFePo4 market cornered.

Install a 20A DC to DC charger that will keep your alternator in decent shape and provides plenty of power for overlanding, for about $100. You can find DC-DC chargers that will both charge off the alternator and are MPPT chargers for adding solar panels to the mix right away or at a future date.

In the RV I have a Renogy 500A shunt to keep an eye on the battery level. While a shunt is a must because voltage doesn't tell you much until they are really low, I wouldn't recommend the Renogy one for most situations because the display illumination is annoying. I think for an overlanding rig, a bluetooth one like this is best.

Inverter options abound so I won't even bother to cover those. USB plugs and other things are trivial, too.

Basically you can have 1300wh of power taken care of for $600 and then all you need to add is the inverter (couple bills) and maybe some other unique needs. Under $1000 for a very capable overlanding power setup.

If you want to be a absolute custom beast, you could probably use individual cells and have a built-in system without losing any storage space. There are 4s Bluetooth BMS systems out there for under $100 if you build using individual cells. We have a 4cyl and there is a ton of space under the hood. Plenty of room for 4 100A cells. Not sure about the heat, though.

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