im trying to find a different and better solution for the lighting in the bed of my truck and the go fast. my current set up is led lighting around the edge of the go fast to illuminate the bed which is powered by a bigger power bank that basically just get attached to the bed rail(see photo below). Secondly, in the tent i have the same light(different strip)cut and mounted across the high point. These ones are powered by a smaller anker power station. Both connected via USB. My truck also does not have the outlet in the bed, but i think it is wired for that tbh. My initial thought was to maybe add a smaller second battery under the hood thats connected to the alternator and then hooked to some sort of switch or switch panel in the bed and it gets rid of the extra cords and batteries.
I also was looking at some of the more inexpensive solar options to mount on top of the go fast and then have that go into a switch panel if possible? Or is my set up fine for my use case, i dont plan on powering much more than these lights back there for now. Will likely add some other things that would need a power source in the future but not yet. Would love to hear some thoughts or even ideas on this.
You absolutely don’t need solar or the addition of a secondary battery under the hood for 2 light strips. They make smaller profile battery banks if size is an issue.
size is not an issue at all, just trying to clean this up. If i did either id also be adding to be powered from that source. All i currently have is the lights. Ill eventually do a fan i think. This more of a long term question but just curious what other people have done. right now, this is mostly my ocd haha
Why not a portable power station like a jackery or bluetti? It would give you a central point of power for your existing lights, charge phones at night, power the fan.
You could even add solar later, And since it’s portable you can just take it on other adventures.
If you can add on the in bed power port, you could just leave it in the camper to recharge!
When I installed my LED strips, I hooked them up with a Milwaukee M18 battery and one of these adapters. (there might be better/cooler ones).
I have a power station and everything and I still use the battery out of sheer laziness. I usually use my lights on a dim setting for ~1 hour at a time. I can’t remember the last time I charged or checked the battery. If I was out at night for long stretches with the lights on, it would probably be different.
Just spitballing, but you could consider getting a small solar panel (I’ve never used this one and I’m not sure if it’s big enough, just an example) to charge your USB power bank (maybe Anker makes one), and installing it in the back window if you have one. Then it could be all self contained inside the camper shell.
I had cheap amazon LED strips with a AA battery pack. Worked amazing for about a year but the battery pack is now a little leaky. They were on the honeycomb inside.
Honestly, I have 2 of these and keep 1 down low and 1 up high and they work amazing and last ages. Move them around outside as needed. Simple, cheap, and efficient. If I have the 1 up top on its bright enough I often don’t even use the 2nd. I like simple, personally.
I have my lights direct to the car battery. LEDs draw very little power. I have had them overnight with no issue. For everything else (fridge, sleeping bag heating pad and charging items) I use an Ecoflow delta mini. This battery bank along with a 100W renogy solar panel, I have been solid for my camping trips.
Just finished mine with the smallest bluetti as power. No kit, just got a 5 meter roll of single color LEDs and wired with no-solder splices. I assume what i did is what the matt gecko kit does but simplified without switches
