Goal Zero Ranger 350 Kit

[Corey]

Just ordered this setup of a rechargeable battery and inverter that can be recharged via 110v at home, via your rig, or via solar panel.
I had a custom cable made up that will made this unit to my Powerfilm solar panel so the panel can recharge it in the field.

The inverter can pump out 400 watts at 110v outlet, and it has USB ports for recharging accessories, and also a 12v plug.

I will probably power my AirLander tents 12v light from this unit, and maybe power some other stuff too while camping.

Goal Zero Ranger 350 Kit
Ordered it from Jim Jackson at Expedition Off Road.

Will have a detailed writeup in my camping gear review thread and blog the first time I get out this year.

 

[Corey]

More info and a video from Goal Zero on the 350 powerpack and inverter.
Same setup I ordered minus the solar panels since I already have one.
http://www.goalzero.com/shop/p/64/Extreme-350-Adventure-Kit/1:3/


A random video I found on YouTube of a review of it.


There are a ton of videos on YouTube is you search for Goal Zero.
Here is another good one for setting up a base camp.

 

[Corey]

As seen in this post, here are a few pics of the adapter cable I got from Jim at expeditionoffroad.com
This will allow my Powerfilm 60 watt solar panel to charge up the kit above.

 

[max.powerzz]

I was just looking at these over the weekend, they seem very slick. Would the larger "extreme" battery power an ARB fridge for a weekend? I'm looking at this 350 watt kit http://www.goalzero.com/shop/p/64/Extreme-350-Adventure-Kit/1:3/ .


PS--Jim at Expedition Offroad is a very upstanding guy, very honest and great to work with.

 

[Corey]

That is the exact same kit that will show up at my home very soon.
Yes, Jim is great to work with.

I believe that will power an ARB fridge, and during the day use the solar panel to put back a charge into the battery.
The battery can be used when it is being charged with a solar panel.

 

[orangeTJ]

I have the Extreme 350 and UI as well. Used it camping over the past weekend to power up some LED Christmas lights I have had from a rope that was strung between a bunch of trees. It gives off nice ambient light so we don't trip over lawn chairs or firewood.

 

[Corey]

Cool, glad to see others have it too.

Mine came yesterday, will be playing with it tonight and jamming up every port on it to test how it does.
Will hook the laptop to it too to charge it up while the other ports are powering stuff.

I did charge up my Droid in it before work this morning, worked great.

Also the battery arrived at 80% and took just a bit to get it up to 100%.

The only snag I had and I admit I called up Jim, was I could not get the inverter attached to the battery.
I did not want to wrangle it on there as I have a tendency to over tighten things (strip threads :sombrero: ) but after talking with Jim I got the inverter on OK.
Ya gotta ********** it just a bit.

 

[Corey]

Setup the Goal Zero Extreme 350 kit and the three Goal Zero lights a little bit ago.

Nice packaging for display purposes.

Setup the Cabelas Deluxe Roll Top table to put the stuff on.

Here is where the 110v charge cable goes when you want to charge up the battery at home.
For display purposes I have my PowerFilm 60 watt panel plugged in where the 110v cable would go.

In this picture I have four items being run off of the battery.
1. USB port:
Charging up the GoPro HD camera

2. 12v cigarette outlet:
Charging up the Droid

3. 12v outlet:
Same as the solar panel/110v in type of connection to run the three Light A Life LED lanterns

4. 110v outlet:
On the backside of the UI inverter running/charging the Dell 17" laptop

When running the 110v outlet with the laptop, the fan in the bottom of the UI kicks in to cool down the inverter.
It must draw a lot of power, not sure.

My impressions with this setup is that it is going to work out very well for me.
It will have no problem running those three lights and charging up the GoPro and my Sony digital cameras batteries.

If I am so inclined to drag along a laptop camping (never done it yet) but it might be fun so I can do my camping gear reviews while on a trip too instead of waiting when I get back home.

This unit has more than enough power as you can see to have all four outlets running at the same time.

If you are thinking about doing solar to charge up/run stuff while in camp, this looks to be a great way to go.

I will have a more in depth review when I get out camping.

 

[orangeTJ]

I am going to take mine on a Jeep trip tomorrow, and use it to power my ARB fridge.

Better be getting the fridge plugged in tonight to pre-cool it.

A group of locals are heading over Chinook Pass in WA State to check out the Litle Naches area and see how high we can get before hitting snow.

 

[Corey]

Have fun on the trip.
You might run into a few of these guy's, just saw their thread the other day.
http://www.fjcruiserforums.com/forums/north-west-region/131047-naches-weekend.html

 

[max.powerzz]

How noisy is the inverter on the larger 350? Would you worry running it all night with a fan to keep your tent cool? I don't mean a fan to cool the inverter but a small fan to cool you down.

Edit: I guess you could use a car fan that runs from the cigarette lighter jack on the battery without the inverter?

 

[Corey]

When the fan kicked on you can hear it pretty good within a few feet or so.
I would run a nice 12v fan to have a breeze on you in a tent, this would be perfect for it.

I think the fan will only kick on when running the 110/220v outlet.

 

[Corey]

As an experiment I ran the three Light-A-Life LED lights from Friday evening until around 2 am Monday morning, around 56 hours.
The 350 battery was on 80%, not bad.
The system had also charged up cell phones three times, and had also powered the laptop for awhile Friday evening when I first set this up.

I am very impressed with the setup.

 

[deeker]

Would you be able to run a couple of 12V fans in different locations - say, a roof-top tent and in the back of the vehicle - for the whole night on one charge?

 

[Corey]

I do not see why not, but you would have to do the math too to see how many amps the fans draw.

I do not think they would draw that much though.

I ran my 110v living room fan on high speed as an experiment a week back, and the Goal Zero ran it fine.