Jeep Campers! Thoughts on Portable Power Stations

[swozey]

I'm planning an overlanding/camping (in my Jeep!) trip and was curious what those of you who do similar think of bringing along things like Jackery/GoalZeros, etc.

I'm going alone and won't be building some crazy camp site. I think I'll get by just fine using the Jeeps 120v. But I'd like your opinions. Right now Amazon has some great deals on Jackery and Rockpro Power Stations (https://www.amazon.com/Jackery-Port...kery&qid=1576284307&smid=AZF6YB7UVA7OU&sr=8-9).

For those of you who have done 1+ week long trips out/in your jeep; am I throwing money away and losing precious cargo space considering my Jeep itself is a big generator? Or did you buy one of these and wouldn't leave home without it now that you've got one?

Thinks I'm interested in charging:
Laptop
Tons of Anker powerbanks
Cell phone
Garmin InReach
Hand warmers, etc

**ALSO** Now that you're here, and you're a camper in a Jeep, hop over to my thread at https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/camping-subforum.42895/#post-947145 and let the mods know if you'd like a Camping/Overlanding subforum for topics like this!

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[dj3513]

https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Gen...ping&qid=1576364065&smid=AAOPU88PXB74W&sr=8-9

 

[JIMBOX]

Welllllll-

Just for grins, my daughter was in MINNESOTA (mayo clinic) HAVING HER FIRST BABY AND WE WERE AT ABOUT 9OOO FT IN THE SIERRAS-

There's no LIMIT TO WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH A JEEP !

W.E.

JIMBO

 

[JRMedic19]

The jackery brand power solutions are really good. I have a number of their products and one of the large backup batteries is a few years old now. They all work excellently. Do try that brand.

 

[fat_head]

If you are going to remain parked for a week, you might need what you're looking at. The biggest draw is your laptop. If you can figure out how to do without that (get a ipad/or whatever crappy android equivalent?) , you won't need a goalzero. Everything else can be recharged on the drive between sites, or a handful of ankers works just fine.

 

[Gee-pah]

Hey Mike:

Let more open up some more solutions to you. They may not be for you--and that's just fine; maybe for others.

You touched upon cargo space as a variable and I'll also touch upon what, if anything your purchase has as purpose for you outside of these trips, be it a generator or gear than aids in other types of trips you may take with your Wrangler.

Clearly not the cheapest option (nor the most expensive) is the Genesis Offroad Dual Battery kit.

https://www.genesisoffroad.com/JeepJLDualBattery-p/185-jldbk.htm

It's pricey even before the two batteries you'll need to additionally also purchase to run it. But it will guarantee to not prevent your rig from cranking based upon your gear's electric demands overtaxing the rig's batteries while it sits parked with its engine off.

At least as it pertains to the 3.6L JL, the device not only monitors your batteries but can informed you of their power status. And it won't take up the cargo space you've touched upon: all residing under the hood.

There there's a generator/invertor. Yamaha and Honda, and a couple of other manufacturers make ones that are not only very quiet, but produce clean sine wave electric for sensitive electronics. Again, not the cheapest route but repurposing a gen during, say, a home power outage can better justify their cost.

Yet another method of addressing this, assuming your running a 3.6L JL is to detach all leads to the ESS/Supplement/Aux battery once at your camp site with the engine off and run your stuff off the main battery.

Come time to leave the campsite, connect the ESS/Supplement/Aux battery and immediately crank the JL's engine before that battery is depleted charging the main battery you used during the trip. Or better, disconnect the main battery's negative immediately after re-hooking up the ESS/Supplement/Aux battery upon time to leave, crank the engine, and then upon successful crank, re-hook up the main battery for the alternator to charge up both batteries. It's not ideal--just an inexpensive option.

A strong ESS/Supplement/Aux battery on the 3.6L is more than capable of cranking the engine on its own (in fact a fully charged main battery and a dead ESS/Supplement/Aux battery will leave you stranded barring some tricks I can link you to on the forum on manually hooking up the batteries in parallel if you're interested.)

Without getting too much into the detail, prior to the cold crank the 3.6L will check that the ESS/Supplement/Aux battery on its own has power, and then use either or both batteries to crank the engine, reconnecting those two batteries in parralel after the crank, where the remain all the time but for ESS events and during the aforementioned instant during cold crank.

These suggestions are again in no way to suggest superiority to other posts here, including solar and batteries. They're just meant to suggestion options.

Happy trails!

 

[DocTwinkie]

I don’t overland but camp and have a Kalysaya pack. They can be hard to find but are super portable and coke with a solar panel though I wouldn’t plan on juicing them solely from it.

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