Charging your phone or tablet while camping off-grid

[pyolet]

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.

[Mike S]

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.

[sblack]

Ok that's pretty dang slick! Thanks for posting!

[BruceEicher]

Originally Posted by pyolet

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.

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

[RickWoodall]

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.

[pyolet]

Doph! Gotta start proofreading more. It's actually the Rayovac Adventurer. Nice unit though. W.

Originally Posted by Mike S

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.

[ronschreck]

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.

[alpinelakespilot2000]

Originally Posted by ronschreck

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.

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!

[David Lewis]

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.

[ty1295]

I was looking around after reading this thread other night and found one with 3x the power on amazon for the same price. Just an alternative.

https://www.amazon.com/Charger-Effic...portable+solar