Honest Question. The Solar generators seem to be a decent idea for a few days without power. I own 2 myself. BUT lets say there is an extended power down situation due to cyber, solar flare, EMP or whatever else. Perhaps 3-6 months or more. Would a person be better off, instead of having one or two solar generators, having just some good 100w solar panels, voltage regulators and some small, car sized power invertors? Then he/she would have the ability to scavenge dozens of car batteries and charge them instead. If the grid is down people won't be driving after the first week due to gasoline shortages and batteries in cars, boats, mowers, tractors, motorcycles etc would be abundant. The ability to charge car batteries around the clock and even set up arrays of car batteries would be very adaptive to the situation. In other words how many car batteries would be equal to say a Jackery 1000 solar generator with a lithium battery? I would love to see a video on that.
Until recently Jackery used lithium Ion which had less charges maybe 1000. My Lipo4 34ah/435wh was 70$. If I had two I would have almost the same as the Jackery 1000 for 150$ + a box + wiring and build maybe 50$= 200$. I am guessing the Jackery 1000 is 1000wh around 1$ a WH in cost $1000. Lithium Iron Phosphate are around 2000-5000 charges depending on the quality. A deep cycle lead acid battery is around 50-100. This is based on draining the battery dead each time of use which kills lead acid even faster. So just compare 100amp lead acid cost to 100amp Lipo4. Sure any battery available is better than nothing to charge in emergency. My setups are for off grid 4x4/overlanding adventures and 4x4 four days at a time offroad. I don't run out of DC power. My experience when I had two deep cycle 120 amp batteries in parallel = 240 ah years ago that were 70lbs each lasted 4 hrs running my tv, computer and router without sun. My 2.5wh pack runs it for 3 days without solar charging.
Thanks for the input. I have contemplated that many times. However Many who have not done the terrain miss what to expect if they want to try it. As at the mine a small sharp rock detroyed my 1 year old TOYO OC AT tire with low miles. The time laps is not fun video viewing just as too much boaring dirt roads. The longer trips I try to make into 15min sections . I try to cut out the boaring sections and add chapter markers instead so it is very easy to skip forward to the next chapter. Especially 4 day trips like this one. Thanks !! Dan
If you park and go hiking you need a forest permit, don't need one driving in and out. I heard the gate is open again to drive to the Holy Jim Parking lot.
@@SOCALOC4x4 thank you. I went and picked up a $5 Adventure day pass at Big 5 just in case. Better than getting a ticket. It was a nice drive. Only crossed two cars while coming and and it was free and clear on the way out.
Best Weather is Jan-May& September to Nov, have to watch the weather for high winds however Sawtooth is very cool. Lots of trails to hike, rocks to climb with rope and all BLM land OHV area also.
Thank you for sharing your trip photos. How was the trail going down the Diablo drop-off and from there out to the Fish Creek trail? Thank you in advance.
Hello, very mellow ride all the way to Diablo. There were 4 options going down. To me they all looked a tad ugly. The far left we took (least ugly) mostly rutted sand. Next to the right was rocky As F*ck, the next right of that was very rutted mostly sand but blocked by Toy broke his axle and CV going up, the far right had some tipsy points and turns that looked sketchy. There was some very rocky skinny canyons after that. Then easy sailing. 95% of the trip was in 4x4 high 2nd gear. 4x4 low on diablo and the rocky skinny canyon.
The BMS has a temp cut off. I was going to add some 4" PC fans however I find just open the lid a tad works fine. I use a normal small meat cooking temp guage for easy look between 2 cells in the center. It ranges from zero to 220F. The pack can be charged by solar or AC charger. I can also add a USB fan fan if needed however it does not get hot for my purposes, running a box freezer and other items when power goes out.
I would like to have seen a demonstration of the light strip. Does it operate on the spool as a lantern? Or is the idea that the light strip is unwound from the spool when it is to be used?
Mini Solar Winter Tip: You can steplessly dim down a Beuler and all other hungry electricity consumers with a 5000W dimmer (EUR 7). I run 5 dimmers in parallel on an 850W inverter. Kettle 2.2KW at 150W runs 12 hours a day, so the water is always hot. The room is also nicely heated. 2.5KW washing machine runs in parallel with dimmed to 200...400W. Iron, dishwasher, oven, electric heater, coffee machine, all internal heating are throttled with me. Videos about it on my channel ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eC2olbCBhh0.html The inverter stays cool, quiet and the MOSFETs remain intact because extreme current peaks no longer arrive at the inverter. Now every Mini PV Inverter is enough to sell large devices...
Mini Winter Solar Tip: You can steplessly dim down a Beuler and all other hungry electricity consumers with a 5000W dimmer (EUR 7). I run 5 dimmers in parallel on an 850W inverter. Kettle 2.2KW at 150W runs 12 hours a day, so the water is always hot. The room is also nicely heated. 2.5KW washing machine runs in parallel with dimmed to 200...400W. Iron, dishwasher, oven, electric heater, coffee machine, all internal heating are throttled with me. Videos about it on my channel ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eC2olbCBhh0.html The inverter stays cool, quiet and the MOSFETs remain intact because extreme current peaks no longer arrive at the inverter. Now every Mini PV Inverter is enough to sell large devices...
It depends on the road conditions and traffic. On average probably 90min to the top of Santiago Peak from Maple Springs gate in Silverado canyon which just opened last Friday.
At the Entrance to Sawtooth is the West side. Barstow road divides the OHV area (west side) from the (East side) BLM shooting areas. It is all BLM land for free camping, off road etc however the open shooting areas are the east side. Lots of open land to choose from as long as you are away from other campers. You need a fire permit if camping on BLM land and all information is on their web site.
Wow! You do good work! I love the do it yourself stuff myself. You know it inside and out and can easily replace any component that goes bad. I'm happy to see that you like that Chinese magic shipping foam. I save every bit! I built my son a 7200 watt hour 3000 watt inverter unit to back up his house fridge and 2 chest freezers. We have PG&E up here, Pacific Graft and Extorsion. His unit has an on board 75 amp Aims charger that can be run from his Honda eu2000 generator and has a 30 amp MPPT Renogy solar input. It's in a steel roll cage on wheels and weighs 130 pounds. It has 8 of the 280AH EVE cells and the 250 amp Daly BMS. I keep it at my house until he needs it. It has been running for 10 months every day and is very useful in my shop. It even ran my Vulcan wire feed welder and radial arm saw. Maybe I'll keep it for myself.
7200 WH is a nice power station. I built my two for the same reason. One is 2500wh and the other 3000wh. One is for my solar off grid shed to supply power to the back part of the house and the other for the garage to power the freezer and entertainment center in the event of power outage. I just completed a build for my truck also with a 100amp lifepo4.
You will not have any trouble, your vehicle will make it to the top of Santiago Peak no problem also. Trabuco Canyon is a shorty offroad test run on bumpy wash board road, lots of pot holes, water crossings, hiking if you want. Holy Jim trail head is around 5 miles in where you can only go forward on foot. There is a parking area that requires a Cleveland national forest parking pass if you want to park and hike around. Its a great drive to learn your vehicle on dirt, see what upgrades you may want to add for 4x4 offroad. Have Fun !
Hey dan its jeff with the jeep from western trails. Let me know when u are looking for tires . Ill get you my best price possible with install. Ram is comming along great!! Hopefully mark plans a more local trip. Or we could meet up and visit big bear with the snow finally falling
I removed the bulky jumper cables and added a power port that I can plug in a set when needed. The battery I used in these packs will charge your car battery no problem however the power surge trying to jump start will cause the bms to shut off. If that happens you have to reset the bms for the pack to work again.
Thank for the shout out Dan. Its was our pleasure to help with the quick repair. love the videos, I hope u have some footage of the off roading too. cant wait to see it if you do.
I am thinking on ordering from China 8 of those 200ah cells. I have a nice 2.5kw solar array and no batteries. I have a new 24v 3000w pure sine wave inverter which is made in china buy shows a good sine wave and this has been a project I want to tackle. Well nice project
@@kimmer6 I actually never ordered batteries and was waiting to see if batteryhookup would post a deal that would fit my budget. I have a 24v inverter which means I need more cells or need to go down to 12v. I was looking into some 18650 packs but sold out quickly on a diffrent site. I will eventually get it done.
There was only one spot at the top of Santiago peak that some drive down a short road to an outlook that requires 4x4. There is other parking at the top and can walk to the out look.
Nice little system for 6 years of service . It’s time for an upgrade like you said , lithium’s lipofe4 is the answer at this time & age from a preppers point of view . Just subbed to you . When you get a chance , please watch my solar videos on my channel , hit like , leave a comment and subscribe . May the solar be with you for 2021 + .
Hi , very sorry for such a late reply. It was a very simple swap of the Sealed lead acid 17amp battery with a Lifepo4 20ah and change the wire cable to what ever plug you like. For me I used SAE. All packs are now Lithium and can be charged via a AC/DC inverter in your vehicle when driving, solar or AC from the home.
