Extra battery power?

[knothead]

How many of you carry extra battery power for your phones and GPS devices when your out and what are you using? I'm looking for something as light as possible that will help me keep my devices going for a week in the bush.

I carry my phone for GPS and topo maps and am looking at an Inreach right now for signalling.

Has anyone used some sort of solar charger? How well do they work? Any you would recommend?

[Bear Brawler]

I bought an Anker battery device. Fully loaded, it kept my iPhone 6, Inreach, and my Garmin charged for 10 days on out sheep hunt last year. Was about 65 bucks on amazon. Love it.

[Gun Dog]

If you use Makita 18V cordless they make a USB charger accessory for the battery.

[Rob]

I have a solar charger. Works good. I bring an ipod for tunes when hiking and it also has audio books on it incase of bad weather

[albravo2]

I have the GoalZero solar charger. Works pretty well, though you need to be careful if you have a few devices that need charging. You can only charge one at a time and I found it charges fairly slow.

[Ohwildwon]

I bring a 20 watt Nekteck solar panel...
Folds out to 11" x 22".. It's 16 oz.
Works great so far, see how late into the season this fall...
$55 on amazon...
Has 2 USB ports...

[Stresd]

I've been using a 50,000 mah usb battery bank for those 2 week packins and have never ran out of juice. Bought out of hong kong about three years ago and still works excellent. about same size as the S2 that I use bluetoothed with my inreach. I see on some of the newer models available now they have a solar charger built into the battery bank. Brother just picked one up and says works great. Under $20 bucks, free international delivery. Lots of different sizes MAH sizes available. I just put in 50,000 in the search engine. My phone battery is 2600Mah so a 50,000 Mah battery bank will recharge my phone or my inreach se from dead to full charge 19.23 times. Now with the solar capability there is no limit except the sunshine
Picks your poison. Only downside is can take a few weeks for it to arrive.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=50%2C000%20battery%20backup%20usb%20solar&rt=nc&LH_FS=1&_trksid=p2045573.m1684

[knothead]

Thanks guys for the input. Stresd went to the site you recommended and ordered one up, $17...why not.

[AgSilver]

I carry a few of the small Duracell ones from Costco (easy to always keep one in your pocket as it's so light and small) but I want to pick up one of the big solar ones. Some of the ebay stuff is such BS...600k mah...riiiiiight. Theoretical max...practical max? Like 10k.

[Iron Glove]

Just curious about buying on line from China?
Any problems with Canada Customs when it arrives?
Secure method of paying? Never done this before, walk me through it.

[Wile E]

As soon as I hit the mountain, I turn my phone off. The battery lasts all week.

;) c'mon, someone had to say it

[Stresd]

Thanks guys for the input. Stresd went to the site you recommended and ordered one up, $17...why not.

At those prices you could have at least got two.:razz: I think Mr Custom Weld will be needing one too, to go along with his Inreach se.;-)

[Backwoods]

I'm in the market for a solar/battery pack also, was looking at the Bushnell mini wrap, small and compact heard decent reviews. Also open to more suggestions

[buck nash]

Its not an ultralight back packing solution but, I got a biolite stove for my birthday this year.

It has a reputation for being a very slow charger and I have to agree. It takes an hour burn time to get my phone half charged but i don't mind if I'm sitting around camp in the evening. I think they're pretty pricey ($150+) but stove fuel isn't getting any cheaper either and over the years its probably going to pay for itself. You can always find something it will burn where i camp but i find cedar keeps the charger working the best. There's usually a 3" round laying around the slash pile where i hunt. I take one of those and chop it up into little 1"square logs. It takes a piece of Cedar the size of my fist chopped up to boil a litre of water. A chunk the size of a dinner plate by 3" will get my phone from 50% to full.