Camp power

AWS

AWS

Custom Accessory Maker & Retired PM Staff
With the van gone and no solar set up yet. I need some power while camping, charge phone, caller batteries, kindle, small tent fan. So I got a little handy, and built a port-a-power.

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Old ammo can, 35ah wheel chair battery, two amp charger, quick connect for solar if I get a small panel to charge on extended trips. It has connections for USB(2), "C" (2) and a cigarette power port plus a voltage monitor. I've been testing it here at the house and ran the fan 6 hours, charged my kindle and phone and only dropped the voltage from 12.9v to 12.6v so it should give me a few days of power. Cheap Jackery box.

I hate to tap the vehicle battery when back in the bush. But will probably add a port to the Nissan so I can charge while traveling.

Boat accessory panel


Bag of inline fuse holders.


Charger connector for later use of another charging source, like solar. I had a bag here from other projects so added while I was wiring. I fuse with as light a fuse as I can get away with. These are just an example mine have been here for years, I had to add ring terminals


Charger, 2A is plenty for this small battery. There are plenty of chargers out there I like this brand I have a multi bank in the boat and use one like it as a maintainer on the MC and had one 5A as backup on the van. It also fit in the box.


Battery is a 35Ah wheelchair SLA battery you might be able to get one from someone with a little scooter/wheelchair. When you change out batteries usually two one is still good but you change both at the same time. This is like the one I used. I use an SLA battery as you don't have to worry about tipping or gassing they are designed to be charged indoors. I had them in the van it a box and never had a problem with corrosion.


The box is one I had here I liked that I could put the panel in the top and have room for spare cables and adaptors.

Flambeaux Dry Box # 1408

Wiring is pretty self explanatory, plus to plus, neg to neg, fuse the plus side between the battery and the end.

I cut a piece of 2x6 to fit the bottom of the charger end of the box and screwed it in from the side. It is there to mount the charger on and keep the battery from sliding.

This is the power box I had in the van. It was set up to charge from the truck alternator(long cloudy weeks in the PNW), solar panel and if I was in a campground I could plug into shore power and park in a shady spot and the 5amp charger would keep the batteries topped.

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i love these home build power stations like this!

the only recomendation i would make on a change would be to put a LIFEPO4 battery in there instead of a SLA.

you get to use 95% of the battery storage, instead of 50% with SLA, and its gonna be less than half the weight for the same form factor and storage space.

although if its what you have around, use it :)


i'm putting togther something similar, in a HF apache case using up some old 7ah LIFEPO4's i had in the deer shack that have since been upgraded. i have 3x so 21aH when wired in parallel. i intend to use it as a portable power bank for ham radio primarily, but its usage is for whatever.
i ahve the following input/outputs

in: SAE ->2a battery charger - although i'm considering changing to a different format to make it impossible to plug the solar into it
in: SAE -> MPPT solar

out: usb-a (2), USB-C (1) with voltmeter
out: 2x anderson power pole (12v - 20a)

i picked up a good deal on a 60w foldable panel to pair with this that has a multi output plug that does anderson powerpole, xt60 ( for use on like jackery/bluetti power stations), as well as small and large barrel DC power. as well as having 3 direct usb-a/c outputs (5v-3A) for direct charging of devices/small usb power packs.


big perk that it can go direct into the handhelds and allow you to save the power bank for other stuff that cant run direct off the solar panel.
 
Very cool, excellent set up for camping or SHTF.. I wanted to build one but bought a solar generator. It will run a fridge for 4-5 days on its own. Wife used it to run a circle saw lol. Very handy to have.
 
Widow maker 223 said:
Very cool, excellent set up for camping or SHTF.. I wanted to build one but bought a solar generator. It will run a fridge for 4-5 days on its own. Wife used it to run a circle saw lol. Very handy to have.
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ya if you got the budget for it, some of those solar generator units are the cats meow.


with the right units - i'm thinking one with a 30A outlet - you can also setup a generator tap & "generator transfer switch" sub panel and run your home essentials (fridge, freezer, furnace, well, couple lighting circuits, etc) with them during power outages.

what some folks are doing - even if they already have a gasoline generator - is running the house off the power station/solar generator, and then using their gas generator to fast charge/topoff the power station for like an hour or two as needed/before it gets dark (many of these have AC fast chargers that can fully charge them in like 2hr) and then turn the genny back off.

saves a lot of wear and tear on your generator, plus if gas is hard to come by - figure an average genny will run 12h (ish?) on a tank... so you can recharge your power station 5-6 times on a single tank, and run for nearly a week on a single tank of gas. possibly longer if you have a couple solar panels tapped into the power station during the day, offsetting the usage and therefore lowering the time needed to run the genny for battery bank topoff.

plus this allows for the use of those smaller suitcase sized genny's instead of needing to have one of the big 5k+ units on wheels that you gotta drag around.



[edit] bonus for camp/cabins. you wire up your semi-permanent (or permanent) structure with 110 ac power, feed the panel with a generator tap, and use the power station the same way. now your emergency power station for home doubles as your camp/cabin power as well when you're on vacation/up hunting. [/edit]



added bonus, you dont have to leave your genny running all dang night and listen to it, same for the neighbors, or worry about someone coming around a snagging it when you're asleep or not at home, etc.
 
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I dont remember the wattage mine is, its not very big. It was around $600. Those generator taps are salty, I need to come up with something similar so I can back feed from my barn.
 
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