Does anyone know about ARK Portable battery boxes and where to buy them

The Ark corporation from Australia has been advertising ( full page in the new Overland Journal) what appears to be a very cool battery box/inverter. I can't seem to find a USA place to purchase one and their local Web page won't work. Do any of you have any knowledge or info that could help me?
 

mhiscox

Expedition Leader
I bought one a few months back. It works, and the ARK people were helpful. Post up if you have questions.

Here's a copy of the e-mail I got in response to my initial inquiry. Tell Brett I said "Hi."

Hi Mike

Thank you for your enquiry about the Ark Pak, we are currently in the process of establishing an authorised distributor network in America, we are hoping it will be operational by December 2013.

If you are not in a position to wait until then and require the Ark Pak sooner, I am happy to arrange a one off sale for you, the price of the Ark Pak is $ 449.00 Australian dollars, there are 2 accessories you may also want to consider the DC to DC car charger $ 99.00 Australian dollars the DC to DC charger plugs into your cigarette socket and will charge the Ark Pak while you drive and the Ark Pak Mounting brackets as well $ 14.95 Australian dollars.

I have attached 3 links that relate to the Ark Pak which you may want to look at

http://www.arkcorp.com.au/c/37/arkpak

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9nxN1O8CRbc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM_I93nwzvk&feature=player_embedded


I would also have to obtain a quote on the cost to ship it over to your delivery address location.

To recap please refer below

Ark Pak – part no AP620 = $ 449.00 Australian dollars
DC to DC charger – part no APCC60B = $ 99.00 Australian dollars
Mounting brackets- part no APB20B = $ 14.95

In terms of payment you can pay by direct bank deposit into our bank account or provide your credit card details, happy to do which ever option suits you better.

If you have any questions please call or email.

Regards

Brett Collins

Ark Corporation
8 Smoothy Place
Arndell Park NSW 2148

Phone: +61 2 9678 9036
Fax : +61 2 9678 9011
Email : Brett@arkcorporation.com
 
I bought one a few months back. It works, and the ARK people were helpful. Post up if you have questions.

Here's a copy of the e-mail I got in response to my initial inquiry. Tell Brett I said "Hi."

Mike,

Thanks I'll email them and see if they're up to sending another one.
Do they have a 110 outlet or only 220?
 

mhiscox

Expedition Leader
Mike,

Thanks I'll email them and see if they're up to sending another one.
Do they have a 110 outlet or only 220?
The whole thing has been switched over to 110 Volt, both input for the re-charging and output from the inverter.

It's made to hold a Group 31 battery with no slop, and the Sears Platinum Die Hard AGM is rated at 130 amp-hours and costs under $300, so it's probably the most likely battery to end up in these. Mine works great. Let me tell you, though, you wouldn't want the setup to be any heavier. Sticking in a 75 pound battery puts the combined unit right at the limit of carryability for us wimpy folks.

I'm pretty sure they'll be eager to sell you one. Between the cost of engineering the 110V version and the full-page ad in Overland Journal, I suspect they'd be pleased to sell each of us one.
 

southpier

Expedition Leader
perhaps "someone" will be doing a comparison of these all-in-one units in the near future?


everything else being equal, the charge while driving feature could sway me.
 

mhiscox

Expedition Leader
perhaps "someone" will be doing a comparison of these all-in-one units in the near future?
I could comment if I knew of a lot of other alternatives. But I bought the Ark Pak because it seemed pretty much unique when the balance of size and capacity were considered.

Someone might well point out that you can duplicate the Ark Pak's capability yourself. And while it's true that here'd be no great trick to connecting up all of the components, getting everything into a single transportable unit would be tough. You'd need to source the connectors, the inputs, the wiring, the inverter, the battery and the charge status/use instrument. And then you need to find something of reasonable size to hold everything. (About two-thirds of the Ark Pak is space for the battery, so the packaging of all the other components is pretty tight.) So if you count your time for anything and want an ruggedized, integrated assembly of the parts, the Ark Pak will likely be a better way to go.

The Goal Zero Yetis are conceptual similar in being integrated power units, and there are three of them with various capacities. But the Ark Pak can provide 130 amp-hours, whereas the biggest Yeti, the 1250, is only 100 amp-hours. And the Yeti 1250 is much bigger and heavier, and costs much more, though it has a bigger pure sine wave inverter. The Yetis also have plug-and-lay solar recharging built in. The two smaller Yetis, at 14 and 33 amp-hours, wouldn't be capable of running a fridge and so they strike me as being for a different use, but the Yeti 1250 is more-or-less an Ark Pak competitor.

I had the Yeti 1250 for a while and it is an elegant unit, attractive and well-engineered, but it was just too big and heavy for my applications. Not that the Ark Pak (only about 10 pounds when empty but 80+ pounds with the big battery) is any featherweight, but it is dimensionally much smaller--essentially the footprint of a Group 31 battery--and easier to find space for in a truck. But if you have the space and the money, the Yeti 1250 also deserves consideration.
 

austintaco

Explorer
Sooooo..just jumping around the site, and I may have missed this, I don't see a way to separate your batteries, if you were to use it like a National Luna PP. It looks like a well built unit though.

mhis, did you get a shipping quote from ARK?

EDIT: I found it on their youtube video, it does have an isolator feature.
 
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mhiscox

Expedition Leader
are the National Luna units similar in purpose? or just one component in the system?
The National Luna system is best viewed as an auxiliary battery with convenient plugs on it. While removable, it'd most commonly be wired into the vehicle and stay there. The Ark Pak and the Yetis are intended to go in and out of the vehicle; they could, for example, easily be used for electricity during a power outage. Both will charge off of AC power and have an inverter included to provide AC from the battery. You could easily add an inverter and/or an AC charger to the National Luna, but the Yetis and Ark Pak are the more all-in-on units and are meant to be portable.
 

MartinfromArk

New member
ArkPak News from Ark Corporation....

Hi guys,

Martin here from Ark in Australia - with apologies I've only just joined up to Expedition Portal and so have only now followed your thread about our ArkPak battery box / power pack - so allow me to update you all on where we are at with the launch of the ArkPak in the USA.

The great news is that at long last we now have 110V stock IN the USA - ready to be shipped - along with the DC-DC car charger adapters & the mounting bracket accessories. The not so good news is that our USA ecommerce website is still about 10 - 14 days away from being officially live and active. What a few of you guys saw before was our partially completed test site - so I apologize if anyone was frustrated by the incomplete site / functionality of this site.

However, all that said, if you are keen to get your hands on an Arkpak in the meantime, please email Brett from our sales team at: brett@arkcorporation.com and he will send you back the phone number of our Chicago office - who will be able to process your credit card over the phone and despatch one to you at the special introductory price of USD$399 (or the whole kit of three items at the intro' price of $449). This includes FREE shipping to all states in USA except Hawaii and Aaska.

I hope this clears up any confusion.

Plus in the meantime our Aussie website will tell you all about it, and there you can watch our selection of videos or on you Tube - if you google Arkpak.

Martin
www.arkcorp.com.au

PS - The National Luna product does not offer the combined functionality of a built in smart charger and replaceable battery capability - as our US Patent prevents this.
 

mhiscox

Expedition Leader
. . . at the special introductory price of USD$399 (or the whole kit of three items at the intro' price of $449). This includes FREE shipping to all states in USA except Hawaii and Alaska.
Let me attest to the fact that the special offer is indeed a special offer. From Australia, the three-piece kit set me back $614, and I thought it was a fair enough deal at that. At $449, you save enough to make up 2/3 the cost of a 130 amp-hour AGM.
 

Ed B

Adventurer
I am interested in this as I currently do not have room for a second battery. As it is relatively new here I have been reading the reviews on the Australian forums. A couple of questions for those of you who have bought one of these already. Have you attempted to recharge the battery from the power plug in your vehicle and if so, how long has it taken to recharge? There has been some discussion on the low charge rate and the time necessary to recharge. Do any of you happen to have any Apple products and tried to charge them with this. There has been mention specifically about the iPhone having issues. Last, how noisy has it been? I would use this in a tent and there has been mention of a loud hum and noisy fans when running.

Thanks
 

Corey

OverCamping Specialist
I ran across the ad in the OJ and just checked out the site a few days ago.
I currently have a Goal Zero Ranger 350 kit I bought a few years back, and I am very disappointed with it, as the battery will no longer hold a charge.
Charge it up, unplug it, and it will be on zero with a few days.

Was looking on Amazon to get another battery, and the reviews of it stink there.

Now onto the ARK one, what connection does it have for hooking up a solar panel?
I currently have a Powerfilm 60 watt foldable panel with its stock connector, and a harness made up by Goal Zero to convert the Powerfilm over to plug into their charge port.

I also run Goal Zero's LED lights which have the small plug on them much like the power plug port to charge the battery.
Can something be put on the ARK to allow it to run the Goal Zero lanterns?

Here is the type of connector on the lamp.
Would be great if the ARK had a port to accept this type of plug on it.

71MCx2XV18L.jpg
 

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