Portable solar panels for camping.

[Phteven]

I had the bright idea today of buying a solar panel to take camping. Just a small one to charge phones, tablets, my kindle etc and maybe a lamp as well.
I googled them and now I'm overwhelmed by choice
What should I be looking for?
Are there any brands that have a good reputation?
They seem to come in all sorts of voltages. I have no idea what that means. How many volts should I look for?
Should I just go to BCF and throw myself at the mercy of the salesperson?

Please help a total numpty.

ETA - is what I'm looking for called a solar charger?

[Tinks]

DH just bought some last week. I think they are 160w, not sure on brands or anything because DH did all the research and shopping around.

[~Hestia~]

A solar charger is a regulator, which controls the voltage from the solar panel to say the car battery, so you need both. Are you planning on running it through the car battery?

[Liz]

We just use an inverter in the car to charge everything up on a powerboard Have to remember to run the car tho... have forgotten about it before and ended up with a flat battery LOL.

[black_rose]

We got ours through Jaycar, BCF would be expensive.

[Netix]

The Man says to get a solar panel that will charge what you want will be quite expensive, and will take more than a 160w panel. Being that laptops, tablets, and the like take so much to charge, that's why the car battery would have gone flat. He would recommend getting something like a power pack with a multi charger. I will get what its called tomorrow if you like, but they have an inverter (with power point), usb socket, work light, air compressor, battery jump leads, etc, and they are $149. You can recharge them off the car, and they hold charge for quite a while. He uses it to power his laptop when he goes camping, and I have used the jump leads several times.

[~clover~]

My parents have solar panels that came with their troopy (so I personally don't know whatts etc), but they run to the truck battery (second battery I think). They also have an inverter. With their set up they can run the laptop here & there, & car fridge no worries, but we still run the truck for 20 or so minutes every few hours just to be sure. Not sure if they have actually used the solar panels yet. Will have to find out when they get back. Curious now.

I'm considering buying my own battery pack the way the kids leave interior lights on in my car

I do alot of travelling with my phone & ipod, but not my lap top. The battery doesn't charge anymore anyway. I do want an inverter, but I think I need a car better set up for that kind of usage.

[Phteven]

I had a bit of a google and I found something called a Solar Monkey that is designed for charging small devices (phones/tablets) that might do the trick and be affordable.

If you can find the name of the multi charger thingy that would be great Netix

[Tinks]

Netix, do you mean a jumpstarter? We have one that has a cigarette lighter thingy in it but not a power point or usb. I want one of those! Was it really only $149? Ours was heaps more than that. I'm feeling quite ripped off lol.

Our car has 2 batteries in it, one of them we wire up to the camper trailer so we can charge our devices and power lights at night. It works really well, it has never gone flat and charges just as quickly as plugging them into a power point.