Charging laptop for newbie

[Javin]

Hi guys. We have several trips planned in our hybrid without power. We have done it before for 4 days and did fine with the battery life. However this time I need to get some work done on my laptop while boondocking. After many searches I'm confused on what I should get on a smaller low tech budget. I don't want anything too heavy so I don't think I want a noisy generator. I'm guessing some sort of battery that can be charged and used to plug a laptop into? Solar interests me but not sure what kind of money that will cost. Perhaps something that can be expanded to solar would be great. Any advice for this newbie would be great!

[RVhiker]

There are 12 volt DC chargers for most laptops; they may be called car chargers. Most of these will have a cigarette lighter plug; most can be wired directly to your 12 volt system if that is more convenient than using the cigarette lighter plug.

Does your trailer just have one battery now? If so, maybe you could add an additional battery for increased capacity (though just the laptop should not add much).

[prhanchin]

Our Jayco Jayfeather comes with the safe charge controller and a solarontheside.com connection on the trailer tongue. Here are the portable solar panel part numbers. Portable solar kit GP-PSK-120 is 120w 6.7a, or the GP-PSK-80 80w 4.4a kit, and the GP-PSK-x30 for a 30' ext. cable. The portable panels fold up and the cable allows more options for aiming the panels for best light capture.


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[Javin]

We currently only have one battery on our jay feather 16xrb and there is no solar ready hook up. On our first trip which was 4 days the single battery was fine for what we needed. I guess I'm just looking for something to charge laptop, phones ect since that was the only thing we were in need of. Our van has a household plug but seems excessive to run the van just to charge a laptop. Unless I had just ignition on but I would be concerned about the vans battery dieing.

[Jagiven]

Couple options. A 12v car charger for the laptop. Running the car is not as expensive as one might think.
I accidentally left my 4 cylinder daily car running for 4 hours one cold fall day. I had just put fuel on the tank right before leaving it run. When I found it still running I drove back to the gas station and topped off the tank, it only took a 1/4 gallon. So not to bad of a price to pay for 4 hours of run time idling.

Another option is a very small power inverter.

How about a portable power brick. There are lots of good ones out there.

[Seann45]

This should do fine
https://www.harborfreight.com/400-wa...ter-66814.html

[Les7h]

McDonalds - WIFI and an outlet - you have to eat