Or the Power required for Camping
Psychologically, camping is a great way to relax and ease the stresses of everyday life. Getting out into the wild has a calming effect like no other if the conditions are right for your mindset at that point in your life.
Some people prefer to go all the way back to the caveman days. No cell service, no electronics, no power, just a tent and a campfire.
Others prefer a little more in the way of amenities. A bit of battery power for charging or lighting. Our phones, even without service, still make decent cameras to capture the memories of our family time. Before you know it, your teenagers will beg you to stay home from the family camping trip and all you will have is old pictures to convince them otherwise. A small solar panel, even if you are partially treed can keep a small battery topped up for these occasions.
Some, like myself, have CPAP machines, 12V fridge/freezer set ups and more or less enjoy most of the comforts of home. My teenager, J, is old enough to stay home with minimal supervision from the grandparents. We feel safe going to places with no cell service for a couple days at a time.
To keep my one, slightly larger battery topped up takes more than a small solar panel, even if we didn’t camp under the trees most of the time. We have a EcoWorthy 280AH LiFePo4 (Lithium Iron Phosphate) battery to handle our power needs.
https://amzn.to/45ALLdf This one has Bluetooth, mine is a slightly older version.
On our most recent trip, I noticed that we are using around 100-110AH of battery a day. If we were to attempt to use a standard RV charger, it would take around 10 hours to fully top up the battery on a daily basis. Most of the places we stay, allow only 4 hours of generator time per day, so that would leave us without battery after a couple days in the wild.
To compensate, I purchased a 40A LiFePo4 battery charger from Amazon. When running, the charger typically adds 33A per hour back into the battery. (There is always something running even while charging.) Even at 100-110AH of use, the daily generator use tops us back up for the next day.
https://amzn.to/3UBU5mI Again, I have the slightly older version.
Now nobody wants to hear a bunch of generators running while your out camping. Generator Hours are typically while most folks are up and about making meals or going about their day. Generators come in a variety of sizes and the amount of noise that they can make is dependant on how much money you spend on them. Honda generators are generally regarded as the quietest. Yamaha is a close second. Here in Canada, however, they are both the pricier options as well. In the States, folks on many of the forums recommend Predator generators from Harbor Freight. I went with an Amazon find. After several hours researching all of the different brands and looking for deals in our Canadian retailers, I went with the MaxSpeedingRod MXR35000 suitcase style generator shown here:
This generator has been awesome for us. It’s light (for a generator), lasts about 4 hours on a tank of gas at high idle, has an RV 30A receptacle (if needed), a 15A receptacle, parallel connectivity, and USB ports. So far, it has started on the first or second pull every time.
I used a decibel meter app on my phone when I first got it, and it is totally acceptable for short times I run it in the campground. Most times the neighbors are far enough away that if I place it on the backside of my campsite, they can barely hear it anyways.
It has over a thousand reviews on Amazon.ca and the majority are 4-5 star. 4.2 overall and less than $700CAD. Compared to the same size Honda or Yamaha, entirely economical. Some of the poorer reviews complained that the generator didn’t come with a jug of oil and I had to go out and buy some myself. Not the worst.
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Disclaimer: I may earn a small commission from affiliate links contained in this post. Just another new thing I am trying out.
The Charming Artisan 
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