If you’re getting into “Overlanding”, one of the issues that you will need to sort out is power. Off-Roaders don’t generally need to worry about power supplies because they return back home the same day, or at worst, the day after if they get stuck on the trails overnight. However, the Overlander is away from their homebase for days or even weeks at a time. If you are on the road for extended periods, or full-time in some sort of RV, motorhome, or enjoying the “vanlife”, then you need to figure out a solution to your potentially huge power requirements.
Times have changed from when the only electronics that we would bring camping was a wind-up radio and a flashlight. Now when we go camping, we tend to bring with us a lot of electronics that we need to keep charged up. This is especially true for those who do RV, Overlanding, or Vanlife style camping.
Things like mobile phones, cameras, laptops, drones, radios, campsite lighting, etc all require quite a lot of power. Nowadays it’s not uncommon for people to need power for coffee makers, blenders, hairdryers, microwaves, fridges, and air conditioner units.
A lot of consideration needs to be put into exactly what your power requirements are, for how long, and how you will recharge everything. You will probably have to do some calculations on how much power your devices and appliances draw, to figure out how much power you will need, over how long, and sort out some realistic ideas for recharging again (solar, AC, car charging, or even gas generators).
Portable power isn’t just for campers though. Perhaps you’re some sort of mobile business that requires a lot of power to do the job. Perhaps you’re a contractor who needs to recharge a lot of power tools. One such company that I’ve worked with is Torque & Tire, which provides a mobile tire installation service. In their Sprinter vans, they literally have a full tire shop including several rechargeable power tools, a tire mounting machine, a tire balancer, and a large air tank with a powerful compressor. All of this equipment is powered by large battery banks that were added to the vans. It’s an excellent business model, and they need a tremendous amount of power all day long.
Adventures, and businesses, come in all shapes and sizes, and so do power solutions. However, what works for me, may not work for you, and even my needs vary from one day to the next depending on what I’m doing. Perhaps you only spend a of couple nights camping at a time, and only need to keep a phone and a radio powered up. Or perhaps you’re an Overlander that only needs a small amount of power each night, and can recharge the battery during the day while driving using a 12v plug-in charger, or a DC to DC charger. These can be done with very light weight solutions that take up very little space.
On the other hand, perhaps you prefer to stay in one place for a week or more in a van, RV, or motorhome, and can’t recharge it from a vehicle because you’re not driving at all, and are parked for many days. Someone like this, will need a larger battery pack and solar panels to keep topped up. This will require more space, and will mean hauling around some very heavy batteries, and a couple solar panels.
There are many manufactures out there, and I’ve used various ones over the years, including some “no-name” ones.
Over the years, I’ve become a fan of the Bluetti brand, and I bought my first one in 2023, which was the AC180, and I’ve used it quite a lot. In a pinch, I could even run the air conditioner in my RV for short bursts on very hot days. In fact, it served me so well that I reached out to Bluetti to discuss a partnership both personally and professionally.
Thanks to that arrangement, I’m now fully powered by Bluetti products. I can plug my RV into the Bluetti AC240 + B210 expansion pack (which are both weather resistant so I can leave it out in the rain, and dusty environments), and I have enough power for many days off-grid. I can even run my air conditioner for short periods to cool down on really hot days. I just can’t leave the AC running for too long obviously without planning to charge it with either their “Charger 1” DC to DC charger (while driving), or some solar panels (while stationary).
I also use Bluetti products to power my outdoor classrooms, vendor booths, camping, RC racing, and various other events. They have also coming in handy keeping my chainsaw batteries charged while clearing trails of fallen trees, which is a constant issue.
All these battery banks, regardless of who makes them, can be charged with solar panels of some sort., and of course Bluetti makes some good ones. Sometimes though, the use of solar panels only provides enough power to slow the rate of drain from the batteries, and not enough to actually charge them back up again. This could depend upon not only the size of the panels (100W vs 400W or more), the quality of the panel, and how efficient they are (solar panels will never be 100% efficient). The biggest issue however, is always the weather. If it’s not sunny, and if the panels aren’t pointing at the sun, you will get less energy from them. Having said that though, I’ve gotten great results from the newer, more efficient monocrystalline panels from Bluetti.
I also installed the “Charger 1” in my Jeep, which can be hard wired into your vehicle so that you can recharge your batteries while driving. This is a huge game changer. With that setup, you can buy a battery bank suitable enough to last you a couple of nights, and then recharge it during the day while driving. This makes a perfect option for Vanlife, Overlanding, and weekend car camping. For multi-day, stationary camping, a larger battery would be needed.
My needs are very diverse though. Sometimes I may need very little power for just one day, and other times I’m off-grid and stationary for many days at a time. This is why after a LOT of careful consideration, I settled on the AC240 + B210 expansion pack, PV200 Solar Panel, and the Charger 1. Sure it’s a very heavy setup, but it suits my power needs of keeping my RV powered over a few days. Sometimes I don’t need such an elaborate setup.
If you only need a small amount of power for 1-2 nights at a time and only need to power a few lights, a radio, and a phone, then perhaps a much smaller pack like the Elite 30 V2 (which can be put in a backpack), along with a 12v car charger would be the perfect solution.
Regardless of your power needs, there are now many options available on the market, and Bluetti has a solution for everyone, and every application. They even have options for full-home backup power solutions in the event of multi-day power outages.
If you’re in the market, use this discount code “GripDriving” on their website https://www.bluettipower.ca/
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