Poll of the Day > Anyone know alot about portable chargers or power generators?

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Hi everyone.

Well, I am thinking of making trips all over the US!!!

I have a car I can sleep in, but not a ton of space. Was gonna buy a mini van but i'm gonna try this out first.

I have a laptop (that is what I use right now for all my gaming and to post on here), but I need a way to charge it/keep it charged while I'm just in my car. From looking online I can see many portable batteries that can actually fully charge a laptop many times (think it was 52,000 amps for about 150$).

I don't know if you can just plug the charger into a wall socket to recharge it...but I could in theory use my laptop at a library etc, while charging both the laptop and the charger, and then hopefully have enough charge to use my laptop for 4-6 hours at night in my car as well.

That is what I am aiming for at least.

The other option is to buy a generator. I looked those up and I can get one that is about $450 and holds I guess 6 gallons of gas?....and can provide enough power to run things for 6 hours on that? That is what it looked like. I might be able to run a TV and even my ps4 with the generator though....(probably can't do that with the charger), which could be cool as well.

3$ an hour though, seems alot to be paying to run things with the generator, and there is no way to charge it up for free etc. So I'm thinking that isn't the best solution.

don't want anything too large as well, and they say the generator is quiet (about the loudness of two people talking) but that still sounds pretty loud to me. Also looks much larger and if I'm only using my car (eventually want to get a decent van/mini-van/truck with a cover etc)...I won't have a ton of space.

So....any of you guys have any experience with these things or have any suggestions? I'm trying to be able to travel around without having to stay at hotels, but still be able to play my games, access the internet, watch TV shows (over the internet...netflix/hulu primarily) etc. I realize free internet most places (mc donalds etc) probably won't have the speed needed to stream shows. I may end up paying for a wireless internet plan or something...I really don't watch that much TV though.

I think I have everything else pretty well figured out. May also get one of those very small propane bbq's (the tiny ones) so I can cook on the road at will. We used them before when going to burning man etc and they don't take up much space, but work fine for making food for 1 person.

That leaves clothes/blankets/pillows primarily. I have a dedicated Ipad for my reading needs (It's like an Ipad 2...filled just with books), and another Ipad I can use instead of my laptop to listen to books on tape while driving etc. I have backup portable game systems for if I do run out of juice with my ipad/laptop (probably just bring my 3ds though).

Emergency water, food, jumper cables etc (have a mini bag full of car stuff).

I could fit a medium sized TV in behind my front seats, and still have plenty of room to lay out fully (the divide between the trunk and back set comes down), so I could put a TV there, along with a generator (or even more powerful charger) and play my ps4 etc...though it seems like over kill. I have so many games on my laptop, I should be set.

Any suggestions from anyone who has done anything like this would be awesome, or anyone who knows about chargers/generators especially!!

Thanks (also if you want me to swing by on my travels, just PM me, or post here I guess. I have not finalized things yet even to do long term trips, let alone made an actually road map...but I plan on hitting most of the states along the way.
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Not worried about people breaking in and stealing all this stuff you'll having sitting around in the car?
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I'll be in my car when that is likely at all, and when not, i can put all of it into my trunk so nobody will even know it's there:)

So nope.

I may be old, but I can still handle myself just fine, so nobody is gonna take the stuff from me while I'm there. Also, it's not really expensive stuff either.

Just looked up the wattage used for a small TV and ps4. The Ps4 only uses around 80 watts an hour I think it said, and a small TV is about the same (mine might be more like 120 though), so lets say 200 watts an hour needed. Less for just my laptop (about 60 watts an hour).

I'm....trying...to do some research on chargers as that seems like the best solution since it's so small amount of wattage being used. A generator seems like over kill.

That being said, I found a generator on Amazon that only costs $150 and runs for 7.5 hours on 1 gallon of gas. So....about 50 cents an hour. I'm down with that cost....but....it still seems like a massive waste of wattage. That being said...at that price, I could get a charger AND a generator. Run the generator for an hour and charge my laptop/charger, and then just use the charger for the rest of the night....or something like that.

Still looking at chargers though, if I can get one pretty cheap that will accept a charge large enough to power my laptop for 10+ hours, and can also run my TV/Ps4 for quite a few in a pinch....well that is all I would need and it's much smaller (the generators are like 50 pounds...so would take up alot of space...think that is better fo rwhen I get a van/truck later.
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I dunno, it seems wasteful to run a noisy, gassy generator just for those few things but I guess that's how RV's do it when there's no hookup. Batteries are good for charging things, no so much running the items you want for any length of time. Would have said check out inverters however that's just using the car battery instead.

On that note you may want to stay at campgrounds. Most developed sites have power and water, probably limited cable TV, possibly free wifi. Dunno if they have rules against sleeping in vans. Would definitely be less suspicious than 'camping' in a random parking lot.

My other idea would be do you NEED a PS4? I know the games are plentiful and I'd probably take mine on vacation too. In this case it could be more efficient to find a portable monitor and a Raspberry Pi loaded with emus. Retro gaming can easily last a couple months.