First time powering up my battery pack at a restaurant (camper van)

I should just look like a student or professor sitting around studying. That big yellow thing in my backpack is the battery I use to run my TV in the van off of, as well as hair clippers (tested them) and can charge my phone and laptop and tablet and nintendo switches if my smaller power bricks run out of electricity.

I'm still on the fence about getting a electric generator. I don't know if I can jump the van's battery during a snow storm with this or not, or if I can keep it charged off my car's cugarette lighters. I think I'm capped at 180watts to 200watts, and it takes a while to charge this up.

Plus it's been a long time since I've last used a portable jumper, and amazon now has extra discriptions for 6L engines or 7.5 and I'm scratching my head on what qould work on my van. I obviously can use a trickle charger, but don't k ow if I'll be sitting around for hours before it starts up, or if it can jump immediately and I can just charge it deeper over hours. I've only used the trickle charger on a old scooter, and it never went dead, and on a dodge durango, and it was dead dead. I'm looking at the cheapest solution that is compact and doesn't take up much space.

This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »

Musicman · 61-69, MVIP

They do have those power stations with small portable solar panels. You can charge for free that way if you don't want to go out.

Dignaga

@Musicman I bought this Aeiusny battery pack a few years ago for that very reason to hook up to a old 100 watt solar panel I made for a bicycle trailer camper (and that big stove I have in my van went in that camper, with the flexible solar panel over it.) I thought it looked great, but everyone commented on how I built a mobile meth lab.

I'm out of that 100watt solar panel, down to this suitcase 80 watt panel:

I'm expecting the batteries to die sometime this winter as it is a couple of years old now. I did buy it with the intention of switching out the inner batteries (they look like massive AA batteries sealed in a multirow pack) bjt have a good feeling that operation will just F the whole thing up and leave me without a battery pack. Luckily I have plenty of backup smaller powerbricks, stuff I can charge off that solar panel. The onky thing that solar panel cannot charge is my Aeiusny. It only puts out in USB, and the input for the Aeiusny is traditional solar adaptors or a wall outlet. It has plenty of USB sockets, just nothing will charge it.

It does have a weird DC connection I've never seen before (think it is four prong, or four seperate single prongs) but don't know if it charges the device or only for discharge. I dunno.

If it dies completely and I have a job I'll just get a jackery. It seems to of became the North American standard AFTER I bought this. I don't knkw if they charge off USB, and I doubt my solar panel will do much during the winter.

Musicman · 61-69, MVIP

@Dignaga A popular company here is Jackery. People love it. It can be charged multiple ways. They even have an expansion battery pack that people use to power their RV. One model even has a 30 amp plug on it.

Dignaga

@Musicman I know about Jackery now, and even seen them sold in harbor freight (suggesting a level of compatibility with their other stuff).

My big question right now however, if can I jump a car off my portable battery with a cheap car jumper, like off Amazon in the $30- $40 range. If I gotta spend $90 to $150 dollars on a car jumper, I might as well buy a $150 gas generator. Then at least I can camp out during a blizzard for a few days watching TV on my 32 inch, or running a small heater (350 to 450 watt) to keep the temperature somewhat tolerable (above freezing) while up. But if I go the generator route, planning on using THAT electricity, what would be the cheapest and smallest device I plug in to instantly jump a dead battery?