Instead of the domestic why not just go with the goal Zero 3000x and not have to worry about power anymore. It’s not all that big and would last way longer without charge but you can always carry solar if needed. No dual battery.
@@jr23kid It's 3x the price. My Dometic CC40 refrigerator averages about 20ah/day. For weekend camping, I'd grab a 50ah BattleBorn LFP battery ($575), a Renogy solar charge controller + battery to battery combo unit ($299), and throw it in a box with a cheap inverter and some DC outlets. This could be done in the high $900 and you'd charge 25a while driving, significantly faster than cigarette lighter outlets, and could throw in a suitcase-style or externally mounted solar panel to extend your time a bit when parked. These all-in-one units are super slick, but you can get more bang for your buck going DIY, and it's dirt simple. The Battleborns have a 10 year warranty, as well. Just be aware that the BMS will prevent you from charging if the battery is freezing.
Just want to offer a correction on the price. The Genesis dual battery kit for the JL / JT is $529, and the Odyssey Group 25 is $257.49 each, total of $1,043.98. If you need a shop to install it for you, they normally bill about 2 hours labor for a stock vehicle. Love your content, keep up the great work! Cheers! -Shane
Lots of people in the comments realize the price is way off and the Genesis dual battery kit is a much better option. This coming from someone who does not even own one.. :D
@@Casey250 Just need to get one in the shop for measurements. More thoughts on the diesel JL here - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tRe2Mjps0sg.html
$3,000 for 2 drawers and a fridge slide? this is why people charge so much..because there's stupid people willing to pay that price because their lazy af
This type of setup is the way to go. Way less cost and one issue with hardwired 12 volt systems like RedArc or C-Tec is if that unit fails you have no power to anything. You can still isolate your start battery and use the Canadian Tire jumpers for emergencies - they work well. Dometic, AimTom and Jackery have reasonable units. Off Grid Trek in Calgary is another source. Thanks Casey.
I’ve had the Dometic battery for 6 months, yes it is expensive, but it also has 2000 cycle to 80%. It’s also light at 8kg. Can run my fridge for 2 days, but with solar, and in car charging it’s usually at 100% by the time I get back from 3 days on the trail
The PLB40 is overpriced and reflects pricing from 5-7years ago when LiFePO4 batteries were more expensive. I wouldn't pay $850 for a 40Ah battery pack when I can buy a 100Ah LiFePO4 battery from a reputed brand for the same price. There are other options out there that are more cost effective and even comes with a built in inverter for 110V outlets. Also, there are many use cases for a portable battery pack but getting rid of your dual battery system is not one of them. A dual battery system is much more efficient in terms of how long it takes to charge and how much Ah you get out of it for the cost . Also, I don't agree that you have to cut into factory wiring to setup a dual battery system. Most dual battery systems are plug and play. You can run a lot more stuff from your dual battery system that you can't run from your PLB40 - for eg you can power your air compressor, winch, off-road lights from your secondary battery thereby completely isolating the starter battery. You can plumb your outlets at multiple locations on the vehicle, you can power a very efficient pure sine wave inverter from the secondary battery. A portable battery pack is a very handy thing to have and can be used effectively for powering fridges and charging phones and other devices especially when you are away from the vehicle. Its also a backup power source at home during blackouts. I think the focus of this video should have been the versatility and usefulness of the portable battery pack by itself, rather than pushing it as an alternative to the dual battery system which it is not. BTW the GB70 is regularly CDN 250.00 so that $120 at Canadian Tire must have been a really great sale! I use one myself, great product.
After watching this and in the end you bad mouth the Genesis Dual Battery and claiming it cost over $3,000 when it doesn't cost near that. If you buy the Genesis Dual Battery system, with the G Screen, Two Full River Batteries, and the 12V Power Outlet with all that it costs $1,503.93 nowhere near $3,000. Your Dometic PLB40 is priced $849.99 for just the unit. Word of advice if you want to sell anything don't go off bad mouthing another company it just turns people off and sees you as not creditable.
What’s the difference between that dometic charger and the goalzero yeti charger? I use my goalzero for half the price, I don’t understand why would I buy that.
The so called "solar generator" option vs dual battery is certainly a viable option but this thing is as overpriced as goal zero. It's a decent option if you got more money than knowledge though. Can get 4x the power storage for your dollar if you shop around and near 8x if you diy.
I have to agree with you on this 100%. The only upside to a portable system is just, that it’s portable. If you have the tools, time and either the know how or RU-vid lol you should be able to install a system that A: costs way less B: provides way more power and C: is customised to your exact needs/wants/vehicle. In the end I feel the portability aspect is way overrated and I prefer to have 4-8 times the power at my disposal.
@@krasnaludek298 I haven’t found a goal zero product yet that doesn’t crap out after a couple months. Impressive products initially then you are sending them in for warranty, getting a new one that works for awhile then saying f&ck this, “I’m done with goal zero!” How is yours doing?
Yup it is a lot, $850 for 40 AH. I can buy a 124 Ah deep cycle battery at Walmart for $100. Sure is heavy but is saving 40#s worth spending another $750? Nope! Plus, I could start my truck with the extra battery, can’t do that with the dometic. So then I need to buy a jump pack for another $150. So now we are at $1000. I just don’t see the value. Just my .02
I’d like to see more ventilation around the fridge.... Some of the figures surrounding the number of days you ran the fridge from the Dometic battery pack are questionable... it’s a 40ah battery.... any fridge on the market would consume more than that over 3-5 days with regular use.... did they give it a boost charge with the alternator or solar? Let the salesman do his thing... blabbering over him every few seconds because you want to talk about your own vehicle becomes annoying and is irrelevant to the build in question
You lost me with the Dual Battery comment " Dual Battery Setup - Genesis with two Odyssey Battery's you're pushing 3 Grand? If you can pick up two AGM's (Odyssey, or Optima for $300 each on the high end, and if you select the 185-JLDBK for $529 if I do the math I'm at 1,200 US) So lets talk labor - $100.00 an hour (pushing 3k - leaves 1800) how many hours does it take to install the kit? Come on... talk about leaving potential customers who know their product line with a bad taste. I could add a Tuff Stuff 250 amp alternator and I would come in less than 1200 bucks. Folks - The PBL40 is a great option - you can pick one up for $850.00, toss in another 200 for the recommended jump starter; you could also go with the dual battery system like I have in my Jeeps - I run the Painless Performance Duel Battery Kit for... (WAIT FOR IT) $160.00, two AGM's for $275 each (Quadratec, Jegs, Morris 4x4), and 90 minutes of my time is far less than 3k. For that price you could add the power bank, and a Jackery 1000 with 2-100W Saga's
I had to look around a little, I understand a business needs to make a buck, but come on... Black Rhino Barstow Wheels run $220, not $330. To be fair, I found this trend online with other venue's that featured ADD and Iron Cross Bumpers on sale for the actual price during Black Friday, the markup was listed as actual (The actual sale price was the true cost) the sale price was advertised as some off the top deal - I'll end here... Do you research on all Mods with all 4x4 venues.
I’m assuming you lose your whole back seat with that setup, right? I don’t know what we’d do with the dog, leash her the the bumper like Clark Griswold? While I really like my Jeep, it’s not a great overlanding vehicle, so much less space than a 4Runner, which is the other vehicle I was considering.
From what I understand, The other thing about dual battery setups is that you typically can only get 50% of a battery charge - ie if you have a 400 ah battery you can only drain 200 ah out of it, whereas with the solar generator type setups you can drain the full ah out of those batteries because they are a different type of battery. If I am understanding it correctly. If true that means a lot more actual power for a lot less money and space.
Amp hour is a rating based off amps for an hour. So regardless of battery chemistry a 400ah battery should take an hour at 400 amps to drain. At 12v that’s a 4.8kilowatt hour battery.
Lifepo4 can drain 80-85% for 2000-4000 cycles so 100ah is actually 80-85 with out draining to much and damaging the battery. Lead acid is only 50% without damage to battery so 200 ah is only 100ah. If you want want to be an idiot and drain your batteries until they are dead and recharge them go ahead, its your money
This is the difference between lithium and AGM deep cycle, not the difference between a dual battery and solar. A dual battery can be (and these days usually is) a lithium installation.
I use the PLB40, instead of installing a second battery. It is an awesome setup and I have a Dometic PSB150 solar blanket to recharge the PLB40 in the bush, without having to keep running the truck. One of the great thing about this setup in the weight saving over a dual battery system and its portability. The PLB40 only weighs 7 kg and because it is not hardwired, it can be swapped between vehicles.
Bro, do you also have your plb40 connected to your car? If so , wouldn’t the plb40 suffer from not always getting fully drained ? I’m trying to figure this set up for myself, but don’t want to damage the battery, thanks.
@@jorgesaenz4389 Hi Jorge, I don't have it connected to the car all the time, only when I am going camping or 4WD. Once I am at my camp site I remove the fridge and PLB40 and use the PLB40 to pwoer my fridge, lights and shower pump. As it is a Lithium Battery, it is not affected by not draining it before recharge. I do occasionally run it almost flat though. I have run my 80L fridge (with both zone activate) for 48 hrs and it still had 17% charge remaining.
Thank you for all this great info. I've been looking for a setup like this for my diesel 06 jeep liberty. I would like to keep in contact with you for my build. I'm on a tight budget so it will take me some time. Utilizing a solar panel with this is a goal of mine too. ~Christine
Soon I have an Ecoflow in the back conected to 130 amp solar mounted on my jeep hood..permanently..when driving I can plug this Eco into my cigarette socket in the back so that it's permanently running a charge.. the eco has loads of usb sockets plus 2 uk sockets and a built-in inverter..pure sine for running sensitive equipment and I can move it into the roof tent or campsite anytime I want..its the fastest charging solar gen on the market at an hour from mains..what's the difference am I missing something ?
It's a shame when I watch RU-vid videos about someone comparing products to other products, calls them out by name, then clearly does zero research and inflates the price 3x.
So a car battery will be able to cycle 10k times without being destroyed..... 8-10 years without being replaced sometimes. How long will that dometic LiPo based battery last if you run the fridge off it day and night continually charging and discharging it? Would be cool to run a bypass from a charge controller to run power to the fridge off the alternator when driving and only off the dometic LiPo battery when the Jeep battery drops to a certain voltage. That way the Jeep battery can be a deep cycle that will last for a very long time and the cycle load is mainly spend there vs the LiPo..... I have used LiPo batteries with RC trucks for a long time and drones and they just dont last long.... not more than 2-3 years with regular use
Great points. Although in 4 years of the JK I have also destroyed 2 AGM batteries from the abuse, that'd be my counter point. I am definitely interested to know the longevity as well.
@@Casey250 that is a fair point.... my optimum yellow top is now 8 years old (back when they made them in the US) and has been pretty abused But that is a good point. Would love to see these things used long term to see I have a Jackery and have looked at the Goal Zero's too ....
David Norman My friend just got the 3000x and says it’s amazing and charged it off solar. He can charge it off his battery if he wanted but he just got rid of the dual battery because the 3000x is basically a generator
I think Tesla is proving the longevity of Lithium Polymer chemistry in the automotive world. You have to consider though that starting a car is more violent on the battery with high current draw. Powering a fridge for 3 days on a low current draw doesn’t seem to degrade a battery much. Just look at your phone. Batteries easily last 2 years being charged every day or more. Probably 1000+ cycles reliably. If that holds true and you can get 3 days off the pack, then you’d have 3000+ days of use… maybe 2700+ which the declining performance of the battery. In the US a full time job is 250 days of work per year, so that’s 11+ years of use if you camped 5 days a week.
What is your opinion of the Cascadia 4x4 solar hood panel. What is the purpose of them? I think it would be cool if you could use solar to keep the PLB40 topped off to run your fridge, but it seems it connect directly to your main car battery. So, is the hood panel worth it?
Just installed mine 100watt on jk 3 days ago. Tested it yesterday got 23v and about 3.8 amps so about 87.5 watts with some clouds at 12:30pm. By 5 pm was about 2.7 amps and 6:30pm about 1.80 amps. On perfect and almost perfect days should get around 30 amp hours. Ok days probably 18-20ah. Can probably get around 5-5.5 ah on a prefect sunny hot day. For the mppt controller theres m4 connectors that the panel plugs into. Theres 2 wires that connect to your start battery and then theres 2 wires for auxially ( second battery or 12v socket ect) and a small wire for temperature reading. Installing 100ah battery with redarc40 charger. Should be all set
~$1K for dual batteries too much money according to video, ~$1K for the Dometic perfect solution and throw on another $150 for a jump pack because the Dometic does not work as a jump box .....
Need to check those jump boxes. I don't think the small unit will jump a diesel and I know you can't get 50 jumps on a charge. I recall reading 3 diesel jumps between charges on the bigger unit.
I would rather have a second battery under the hood. That's taking up space in the back of my Jeep where I need it most. I can tuck two batteries under the hood. $3000 for a Genesis setup ?? You guys must be raping people with installation costs. $1000 for Genesis setup and two optima batteries and a hour of your time !!
Nice piece of kit but for about the same money I can by a Jackery 1000 which will run my Dometic CFX3 45l for 5 days. Would love to stick with same brand as my cooler but this charger is just to costly.
How does the Kickass gear compare for dual battery systems and automatic isolation of the start battery/ second battery that runs your fridge and other camping items?
It would be better to install a golf cart relay on ignition power to charge an aux battery like that. I’d forget to either turn the switch on or turn it off.
Got both at REI just over a year ago w/ my dividend and love them. I will say, the battery does not like to much sun or cold, It turns off fairly easily in adverse conditions. I check it fairly often to make sure the fridge is still on. I charge it while driving, and let it do it's thing while in camp. I get a good 3 days fridge(dometic cfx40) power out of it.
Check the recommended operating temp; for example - I purchased the Jackery 1000 during their anniversary sale with the two saga 100's. Now my initial plans was to use the Jackery for winter camping and ice fishing - but that won't work - since Jackery will tell you 'use and store the E1000 within an ambient temperature 0-40℃ (32-104°F)' I'm sure the same goes for the PBL40.
@@jorgesaenz4389 Sorry didn't see your note. I do not. Only on long trips. Last trip had nights at freezing, the dometic battery turned off every night. After 4 days, i could not get it to turn on again until I could attach it at home. Fridge did great though, just had to take a chance w/ jeep battery.
Funny I have been trying to find a blue Jeep like yours, I never see one on a lot, I remember speaking with a sales rep and ask why they do not have any blue ones, just a shrug.
IGLOO 40qt ac/dc fridge/warmer Amazon $135 , i have had mine for well over 10 years works perfect keeps all my food nice and cold and has been to at least 100 trips... these Fridge manufacturers have bumped their heads ,the absolutely ridiculous prices they want for a fridge that doesn’t do any better than my $135 IGLOO.. you can buy 10 Igloo’s for the cost of one of these over priced fridges..
ya but can it keep ice cream frozen :) If it works for what you need and is cheaper, sounds perfect. The cooling ability of the igloo vs the refrigeration ability of the fridges is quite substantial.
@@Casey250 Buddy you are right it wont keep ice cream frozen lol.. but it keep sandwich meat hamburgers,, hot dogs mayo all that kind of stuff nice and cold and fresh..those other fridges are really nice dont get me wrong,, if your going for a 5 day trips and Dont eat ice cream😂 a igloo will do the job , maybe im just jealous cause i cant afford to buy something like that 😂😂😂
@@Casey250 I don't think paying an extra 1000$ to have ice cream is a selling point ;P Also, if you keep your ice cream frozen, would it not also freeze everything else inside it?
Does the CFX3 45 fit into the JLU if you keep the back seat installed? It looks like it does in this build. Goose Gear says that only the 25" deep icebox will fit but I think that fridge is 27" deep. Were you able to squeeze in a 28" icebox? That would be sweet.
I believe so, I was looking at their site a while ago and they have a special note about the CFX3 45 fitting in the tray but it may scrap the fridge, but I haven't personally tried it.
@@Casey250 Thanks! On further inspection of the Dometic site (www.dometic.com/en-us/food-and-beverage/coolers/electric-coolers/dometic-cfx3-45-220582) it says the depth is 24.8" with the handle removed. Not sure if that is front and back or just back....but it may work. Does your rig have the 22" tall Goose Gear Icebox 1.3? I really like the height you have. Still has some room on top.
I really like the DIY Fab work from dirt-lifestyles with air compressors build off each battery tray - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AvaJl-IlmcM.html - different rig of course but the DIY Fab is on another level here.
@@Casey250 need deep cell to run lights stick battery died 46 months and alternators can’t replenish deep cell batteries so need dual battery system with DC the DC charger like redarc
