battery charging question

[ful-rac]

Originally Posted by absentx

Yeah - I guess I left out a critical point to my post.

I do eight days on a river in late summer each year and I love having my depthfinder with me, so I am always looking for creative ways to keep my batteries charged for the full eight days.

Oh, and that doesn't mean load my kayak up with five 10 AH batteries...it means bring two at max and finding ways to keep them charged for the whole trip. The mapping and other tools on my depthfinder are invaluable for the trip.

So if I bring two 10 or 12 ah batteries, one of those would typically last about one and a half to two days. If I had to trickle charge the dead one on the solar panel for two to three days, that would be fine and really helpful! Much use in the real world with regular power? No, but precisely what I need when gone for eight days without access to anything other than solar energy.

Ok well now that's a different question. Going out on an extended trip means that yes a solar panel would be great to charge your batteries. A 7.5 watt solar panel just isn't going to cut it to charge all your electronics quickly. I would suggest getting a bigger panel or, since you have a goal zero panel, you could daisy chain a couple of them together. Another option is to go for the goal zero yeti solar generator with the appropriate solar panel...expensive but exactly what your looking for.




I just recently invested in a Juice box Solar generator from Hardened Power systems. I got to use it in the field for the first time on this last trip to Gonzaga bay. It worked great! I used it to basically charge all my electronics and some of the other guys electronics. Having topped off batteries every morning was really nice. Put the panel out during the day to charge the battery, so I could charge my stuff again at night.