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Charging your phone or tablet while camping off-grid

pyolet

pyolet

Active Member
Just got back from AirVenture and got a kick out of watching the novice campers fight over a bank of outlets to charge their phones and tablets. It was a power cord apocalypse!!!

I never once plugged into A/C. Here's how I camp off grid.

Went to Harbor Freight and bought a $25 solar USB charger, and to Batteries Plus and bought a $60 Rayovac power cube (which even has a flashlight). The power cube charged an iphone6 3 times and iPad mini twice before needing a charge. Plugged the cube into the solar charger and it recharged in a day. You can do this indefinitely.

solar_charger.jpg


Hope this helps next Oshkosh. Woody.
 
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Somebody needs to tell Ray-O-Vac their cube is really a cylinder;)

I bought a bunch of these as Christmas presents a few years back, work really well. Amazon has them. I suspect your setup has more juice, bigger solar cell, and battery so it should last longer during those OSH extended cloudy spells.

71kF1jppcaL._SL1000_.jpg
 
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pyolet said:
Just got back from AirVenture and got a kick out of watching the novice campers fight over a bank of outlets to charge their phones and tablets. It was a power cord apocalypse!!!

I never once plugged into A/C. Here's how I camp off grid.

Went to Harbor Freight and bought a $25 solar USB charger, and to Batteries Plus and bought a $60 Rayovac power cube (which even has a flashlight). The power cube charged an iphone6 3 times and iPad mini twice before needing a charge. Plugged the cube into the solar charger and it recharged in a day. You can do this indefinitely.

Hope this helps next Oshkosh. Woody.
Click to expand...

Wow! I did this at REI for over $100. :mad:
But I agree, system is great!
 
battery packs

There are some pretty good quality battery pacs that put out the over 2.5 amps and will hold enough juice to charge phones and ipads many times. On amazon do your research but company's like RAV make good ones and there are pretty good promos. We take one with us all the time. Keeps stratus, full size ipad and phones charged for many days and takes up no room. Do read the reviews and ensure your getting a good one not a piece of junk.

The one we bought is on amazon for 39 or 49 and always goes on their lightning deal and various sales for $25 or so. Works great.
 
Doph! Gotta start proofreading more. It's actually the Rayovac Adventurer. Nice unit though. W.

Mike S said:
Somebody needs to tell Ray-O-Vac their cube is really a cylinder;)

I bought a bunch of these as Christmas presents a few years back, work really well. Amazon has them. I suspect your setup has more juice, bigger solar cell, and battery so it should last longer during those OSH extended cloudy spells.

71kF1jppcaL._SL1000_.jpg
Click to expand...
 
I bought this little gem a few years ago. It will power a cell phone for a few weeks or it will easily start my IO-360. I have started an IO-540 with it as well. Costs about $100 from many sources.

 
ronschreck said:
I bought this little gem a few years ago. It will power a cell phone for a few weeks or it will easily start my IO-360. I have started an IO-540 with it as well. Costs about $100 from many sources.

Click to expand...

Costco has a version of this for $60 or so. Jump starts cars and provides lots of accessory charging if necessary. Never thought to start my o320 off it though! :D
 
HB item number

Great solution! What is the Harbor Freight item number for the solar USB charger? I did a search on their site and don't see one.
 
If you can spare the weight:

I had a prematurely replaced RV battery sitting on the work bench. Charged it up before the trip, bought a cigarette lighter adapter from ORielies with pigtails. When I left, to come home, it was down to 11.9 volts charging an iPhone and an iPad for four days. Never plugged in as well.
 
5 watt or 20 watt solar charger

pyolet said:
Just got back from AirVenture and got a kick out of watching the novice campers fight over a bank of outlets to charge their phones and tablets. It was a power cord apocalypse!!!

I never once plugged into A/C. Here's how I camp off grid.

Went to Harbor Freight and bought a $25 solar USB charger, and to Batteries Plus and bought a $60 Rayovac power cube (which even has a flashlight). The power cube charged an iphone6 3 times and iPad mini twice before needing a charge. Plugged the cube into the solar charger and it recharged in a day. You can do this indefinitely.

solar_charger.jpg


Hope this helps next Oshkosh. Woody.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting this. I see the Harbor Freight solar charger is 5 watts. Some on Amazon exceed 20 watts, but cost more. Does the wattage really improve charging or is it a gimmic? Also when you read reviews on these solar chargers there is 2% - 4% that rate them low as a #1 and state they don't work. 95% say they work great but are they the paid reviewers? Hard to tell the truth. I guess knowing will cost $50.
 
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pyolet said:
Yup, that's the one I have....HF puts it on sale every once in a while, especially to the "Inside Track Club".

The Amazon version looks like a better unit, as the panels are flexible and it has two USB ports.

I've been surprised at the quality and output of the HF version and am satisfied or wouldn't recommend it. W.
Click to expand...
Will this charge an iPad? Do you still recommend it?
Thanks

Looking for a solar charger that I can use for my iPad and iPhone. Don?t want to spend a ton since I will only use it maybe once per year. Looking for something to bring to OSH with me.
 
In my experience, the solar chargers really don't work that well. Just not enough panel power, and you really want to top off at night anyway.
Buy a few (light) USB battery gizmos cheap, and use those to charge at night. You can always recharge those at the kiosks during the day, and might not even feel that bad leaving them unattended.

I have a decent sized solar powered battery backup thing, and it mostly just drew down the battery, even though I left it on the HS all day to "charge".
 
fl-mike said:
In my experience, the solar chargers really don't work that well. Just not enough panel power, and you really want to top off at night anyway.
Buy a few (light) USB battery gizmos cheap, and use those to charge at night. You can always recharge those at the kiosks during the day, and might not even feel that bad leaving them unattended.

I have a decent sized solar powered battery backup thing, and it mostly just drew down the battery, even though I left it on the HS all day to "charge".
Click to expand...
Thank you. That is what I as afraid of.
 
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