Battery setup for overlanding?'s

[Metalhead]

Any pics of this setup? I have the same power station and just ordered the charger 2. Trying to decide where/how I want to mount them.

I to would be interested in seeing pictures.

Sponsored

 

[dylanhack]

Hi glad Newbie, I made a short video of it to give you an idea.

 

[Glad Newbie]

Thank You. Do you strap down the ac180 for travel?

 

[Metalhead]

Great video thanks for that.

 

[dylanhack]

Oh yes. don’t want the battery bumping up and down. I run straps on the sides of it to the L brackets on the floor. Not too tight, just enough to keep it secured

 

[HereWeGo]

Here are pix of my battery setup. I bolted plywood to the molle panel to have something to attach the switches, breakers, and controller. The KickAss Slim 120 battery tucks in behind the wheel well so you don't lose any bed space. I started with a Renogy unit and after two of them failed and HORRIBLE customer support from Renogy, I switched to Redarc BCDC 1225. Very glad I did. The KickAss battery has bluetooth that connects to their app to monitor charging. There are isolation switches for the solar panel and the main battery connection. The bus bar next to the water tank is grounded to the frame underneath, above the spare tire. All of the wiring that goes outside the bed can be routed through holes that are already there and make sure you add rubber grommets to protect the wires. If you use marine breakers like these, get Blue Sea. There are cheaper knockoffs, but I did not want to depend on cheap stuff.

 

[gt3mike]

Does anyone have the Bluetti Charger 2 (or similar charger) mounted inside their vehicle? I don't have a cap on the bed, so I need to keep it inside where it's dry. Also it isn't practical for me to remove the back seats. I'm looking for ideas on where to mount it.

 

[Bandit’s Lair]

Does anyone have the Bluetti Charger 2 (or similar charger) mounted inside their vehicle? I don't have a cap on the bed, so I need to keep it inside where it's dry. Also it isn't practical for me to remove the back seats. I'm looking for ideas on where to mount it.

If I didn’t have the bed cap, I’d go passenger rear in the corner behind the rollbar up high. Still accessible but out of the way of stuff. My thoughts on these is that they should just run in the background and you never have to worry about them or touch them after install.

With a bed cap, Molle panel rear window.

 

[JTdiRtyD]

I've had numerous people who were diehard power station users that are now wanting to swap over to on-board power and want me to build them a system for a few reasons;

1) scalability
2) efficiency
3) peace of mind (set it and forget it, no more worrying about having to recharge the station)

Power stations are convenient, but when it comes to powering multiple items in your rig for long periods of time they are not the best option. Power stations are usually cheaper initial cost compared to on-board power and don't require any setup. This is why most people initially go with a power station, and for a weekend trip they are typically fine, but once you get into trips that are more than a few days a power station can struggle to keep up.

Power stations are limited to whatever amps are built into the station/ports, where-as on-board power you can run almost anything off of it if you size wiring and fuses appropriately. Items like diesel heaters have too high of an initial draw for most power stations and will trip the internal breaker or blow fuses.

Power stations take longer to recharge. An on-board power system will recharge twice as fast using a DC-DC charger.

If any component in your power station fails, you're buying the entire unit again. If a component of on-board power fails, you're only replacing that component.

Power stations can't be scaled. If you decide you want more AH, you can simply add another battery to an on-board power system (most common scenario). Need more outlets? You can simply add them to on-board power.

Power stations take up space. Sure, on-board power takes up space as well, but you can hide components in smaller unused places.



I think power stations have their place, and thats short term or portable power, but when talking overlanding and needing to power multiple items for longer periods of time they are not the best solution.

 

[Jaxmax]

Wes above has a point!
I have a Genesis dual battery system powering my fridge in bed , 100 watt panel on top of cap hooked to a basic solar charger , and have a 120v inlet hooked to fridge to plug in at night if needed. I used to plug it in while surf fishing every night, but for last two years I have not plugged in and have always made it through the night with the fridge. It is a small system that does what I need and there are no solar panels to deploy nothing to plug in and sometimes I check my solar display that shows amps being delivered and percentage of battery , but most times , I am blissfully ignorant and love it…..Jack

 

[gt3mike]

If I didn’t have the bed cap, I’d go passenger rear in the corner behind the rollbar up high. Still accessible but out of the way of stuff. My thoughts on these is that they should just run in the background and you never have to worry about them or touch them after install.

With a bed cap, Molle panel rear window.

Thank you! Anyone else have one of these mounted inside the vehicle?

 

[Bandit’s Lair]

Wes above has a point!
I have a Genesis dual battery system powering my fridge in bed , 100 watt panel on top of cap hooked to a basic solar charger , and have a 120v inlet hooked to fridge to plug in at night if needed. I used to plug it in while surf fishing every night, but for last two years I have not plugged in and have always made it through the night with the fridge. It is a small system that does what I need and there are no solar panels to deploy nothing to plug in and sometimes I check my solar display that shows amps being delivered and percentage of battery , but most times , I am blissfully ignorant and love it…..Jack

Toying with the idea of doing the diesel Genesis system that uses the underseat storage box for a battery system. A couple mini 100Ahr batteries and an inverter and I’m in there like swimwear.

 

[Metalhead]

I've had numerous people who were diehard power station users that are now wanting to swap over to on-board power and want me to build them a system for a few reasons;

1) scalability
2) efficiency
3) peace of mind (set it and forget it, no more worrying about having to recharge the station)

Power stations are convenient, but when it comes to powering multiple items in your rig for long periods of time they are not the best option. Power stations are usually cheaper initial cost compared to on-board power and don't require any setup. This is why most people initially go with a power station, and for a weekend trip they are typically fine, but once you get into trips that are more than a few days a power station can struggle to keep up.

Power stations are limited to whatever amps are built into the station/ports, where-as on-board power you can run almost anything off of it if you size wiring and fuses appropriately. Items like diesel heaters have too high of an initial draw for most power stations and will trip the internal breaker or blow fuses.

Power stations take longer to recharge. An on-board power system will recharge twice as fast using a DC-DC charger.

If any component in your power station fails, you're buying the entire unit again. If a component of on-board power fails, you're only replacing that component.

Power stations can't be scaled. If you decide you want more AH, you can simply add another battery to an on-board power system (most common scenario). Need more outlets? You can simply add them to on-board power.

Power stations take up space. Sure, on-board power takes up space as well, but you can hide components in smaller unused places.



I think power stations have their place, and thats short term or portable power, but when talking overlanding and needing to power multiple items for longer periods of time they are not the best solution.

You can add more battery power to some power stations. Bluetti has several additional battery packs to increase capacity on some of their models. I do like the genesis system but its expensive and right now my jeep is still under warranty so don't want to get that invasive until warranty expires.

Sponsored