Alright i am starting to plan for some trips next year and I need a power source for inside the tent. I want to be able to run some lights, maybe a tv, and charge phones and dog collars. I’ve been looking at the goal zero yeti stuff and it seems perfect for what I want but really expensive. Not sure if I should just go with their setup or build out my own. Use a lithium battery a charge controller and inverter. Build my own portable box and call it good. Let’s hear some ideas and build a solar generator.

You can build a pretty effective system cheaper then goal zero. Just have to spend some time filtering through Amazon reviews.


Out side of tv you can do all that off a few anker battery banks.

I ran fan, lights and recharged headlamp,phone, Inreach. All this done via three anker 10k banks. I was out for 7 days with sub freezing temps for half the time. I still had a lot of juice left

Led lights are a game changer,


Most new RV’s are < or = to 300watt systems with storage of 100ah battery

"filtering through amazon reviews"
This

I put a solar system in my camper stand on the K.I.S.S. and cheap principles. Fairly large but inexpensive solar panel from ebay or amazon after reading reviews. cheapest charge controller I could find. Replaced all my bulbs with led bulbs. 12 volt trucker fans. receptacles for usb and cig lighter outlets. Made pigtails with converters for different types of plugs and power needs like for charging a 6 volt feeder battery, powering a roku, etc. I bought a 12 volt TV off amazon or ebay again after reading lots of reviews. Cheap TV antenna off amazon that I hoisted up into a tree. Old used Roku with remote off ebay that is connected to the cheap 12volt TV that allows me to mirror my phone through the roku onto the TV the same streaming TV service I have at home. I also previously downloaded several movies and shows onto a portable hard drive that I keep plugged into the roku. Very cheap simple setup. I run two deep cycle batteries in parallel. I did fine with one, but had a several day stretch of storms where I did finally run the battery down one night so I upgraded to two. Never had a problem since. IMHO, A similar smaller portable system for tent camping could easily be thrown together much cheaper and more powerful than a new prebuilt self contained package. I already do some of this stuff with extended tent camping, but rather than a solar system I installed a second battery in my suburban. Let it recharge off the alternator when running around, hook up to only the spare battery at night with a switch thrown disconnecting it from my starting battery. I opted not to use a power inverter due to how much drain on the system it could cause. If I need to use power tools or 110 lights and other stuff, I bring a generator.

Look at 4Patriots possible what you looking for

I looked up the Patriot Power Generator 1800. Cost for the package with a folding 100watt solar panel is $2,497.00. It is advertised "it can hold 768 Wh of power (60 Ah)".

A typical deep cycle lead acid battery has over 100 Ah or 1200 Wh and of the trolling motor marine type battery would be less than $100 bucks. You can find any of several 100watt folding solar panels on amazon for under $250, but for no more than 50 bucks more you would at least want one in the 200-300 watt range. A power controller is dirt cheap and fits in the palm of your hand. Power inverters are not very expensive. Nor would marine pigtails for 12 volt cig adapters and usb ports. Other than the battery and solar panel, it all could fit in a plastic ammo box. So for $2000 less than the patriot, you could have twice or three times the power. It just would not be in one nice looking package like the Patriot, though you could easily build your own in a similar configuration to make it look nice if your so inclined.