TacoTuesday1
New member
Long story short, kind of need to live in my truck for maybe 2mo
No big deal, lived in a car before for 1mo.
Temporary trip. Good old rent. Not really interested in throwing away thousands+ to a stranger.
Also going to be working out (as opposed to not) so am trying to take this seriously and do it right, in terms of nutrition, ie food storage and cooking
I have a truck, might as well use it. 2nd gen Tacoma 5' with a shell.
Picked up a Dometic CFX3 35
and now, trying to figure out how to power it.
I thought I had my mind made up. Harbor Freight listed "Jackery 500" $250/ea.
The way I see it? Get two. Rotate them in and out for use. Because Jackery advocates against pass-through charging.
Dometic allows pass-through charging with their PLB40, but I hear negative things about their product. It also doesn't have a wall plug on it for a laptop like every other power station.
edit: 400
Except one small problem. Harbor Freight cleverly lied/false advertising in the way the product is titled. It's not a 400. It's a 290.
There goes that idea.
Why a power station? It is versatile, hopefully idiotproof, mobile, and somewhat universal.
I know how to work on cars, and as much as I'd like to screw around with a very possibly still expensive dual/second AGM battery,
a power station sounds smarter. Get it, keep it. Or if you don't need, sell it later.
I don't have the time right now to build a second AGM in terms of ordering all the parts involved, waiting for shipping, etc.
most power stations, odds are you can pick them up quick at a store or Amazon Prime
First off, if you're building a battery box, there's AGM batteries that some people consider to be the bare minimum in quality needed, and those are $300 alone. And if it's 100Ah, you can only use half of that. 50Ah. Really not that different from a Power Station with 40-50Ah lithium that can be used all the way. Like the Jackery 1000 having 46Ah
Seen brands like Bluetti, Jackery, EcoFlow, Goal Zero, and research has told me:
Jackery > EcoFlow or Goal Zero
Not sure about Bluetti
All the prices and capabilities still seem similar at the end of the day
I'm also looking at trying to stick a 100w solar panel somewhere on the roof, maybe Renogy, and hope I can wire it to a power station
so that if the truck is not driving and charging it via DC (would require extension harness to the bed); roof solar would charge it without having to run around a dirt field with briefcase panels
Supposedly this Dometic CFX3 35 can draw 1ah, and up to 60w. Definitely sounds less than the somewhat more expensive (but I guess nicer) bigger 75DZ? Dual Zone which I believe is 3ah
I've heard you can power the 35 with a Jackery 1000 for days, or even up to a week
and supposedly, much smaller size power stations don't work well with the power draw of a fridge kicking on at first
Dometic PLB40 looks cool. Keeps the brands the same. Resale value. You would hope designed properly from the ground up, but from a company likely new to portable power stations compared to others.
As much as I want it to be awesome, unfortunately I've found posts of the thing getting stuck turned off the second a cloud passes over your solar.
I see different prices of the same name, with no way to differentiate if there's been a redesign I believe they promised, that companies often release.
Not having a wall outlet in it to power a laptop, and needing an inverter which adds parts, cost, heat, energy conversion waste
Might not be a dealbreaker, because out of town I may not have internet anyway. So I could just be like everyone else; if I need to work on the laptop, go into a library or coffee shop.
I'll continue to research this but if you know a good power station to recommend, please let me know
No big deal, lived in a car before for 1mo.
Temporary trip. Good old rent. Not really interested in throwing away thousands+ to a stranger.
Also going to be working out (as opposed to not) so am trying to take this seriously and do it right, in terms of nutrition, ie food storage and cooking
I have a truck, might as well use it. 2nd gen Tacoma 5' with a shell.
Picked up a Dometic CFX3 35
and now, trying to figure out how to power it.
I thought I had my mind made up. Harbor Freight listed "Jackery 500" $250/ea.
The way I see it? Get two. Rotate them in and out for use. Because Jackery advocates against pass-through charging.
Dometic allows pass-through charging with their PLB40, but I hear negative things about their product. It also doesn't have a wall plug on it for a laptop like every other power station.
edit: 400
Except one small problem. Harbor Freight cleverly lied/false advertising in the way the product is titled. It's not a 400. It's a 290.
There goes that idea.
Why a power station? It is versatile, hopefully idiotproof, mobile, and somewhat universal.
I know how to work on cars, and as much as I'd like to screw around with a very possibly still expensive dual/second AGM battery,
a power station sounds smarter. Get it, keep it. Or if you don't need, sell it later.
I don't have the time right now to build a second AGM in terms of ordering all the parts involved, waiting for shipping, etc.
most power stations, odds are you can pick them up quick at a store or Amazon Prime
First off, if you're building a battery box, there's AGM batteries that some people consider to be the bare minimum in quality needed, and those are $300 alone. And if it's 100Ah, you can only use half of that. 50Ah. Really not that different from a Power Station with 40-50Ah lithium that can be used all the way. Like the Jackery 1000 having 46Ah
Seen brands like Bluetti, Jackery, EcoFlow, Goal Zero, and research has told me:
Jackery > EcoFlow or Goal Zero
Not sure about Bluetti
All the prices and capabilities still seem similar at the end of the day
I'm also looking at trying to stick a 100w solar panel somewhere on the roof, maybe Renogy, and hope I can wire it to a power station
so that if the truck is not driving and charging it via DC (would require extension harness to the bed); roof solar would charge it without having to run around a dirt field with briefcase panels
Supposedly this Dometic CFX3 35 can draw 1ah, and up to 60w. Definitely sounds less than the somewhat more expensive (but I guess nicer) bigger 75DZ? Dual Zone which I believe is 3ah
I've heard you can power the 35 with a Jackery 1000 for days, or even up to a week
and supposedly, much smaller size power stations don't work well with the power draw of a fridge kicking on at first
Dometic PLB40 looks cool. Keeps the brands the same. Resale value. You would hope designed properly from the ground up, but from a company likely new to portable power stations compared to others.
As much as I want it to be awesome, unfortunately I've found posts of the thing getting stuck turned off the second a cloud passes over your solar.
I see different prices of the same name, with no way to differentiate if there's been a redesign I believe they promised, that companies often release.
Not having a wall outlet in it to power a laptop, and needing an inverter which adds parts, cost, heat, energy conversion waste
Might not be a dealbreaker, because out of town I may not have internet anyway. So I could just be like everyone else; if I need to work on the laptop, go into a library or coffee shop.
I'll continue to research this but if you know a good power station to recommend, please let me know
