I’m thinking I’m going to need power for my van (well, its a Rav4 but you know what I mean – its going to feel like a van when I’ve got my widow covers up).
I want to run the following.
- Laptop
- 2 mobile phones
- Maybe a second screen
- Fairy lights
- Possibly an electric blanket in winter
- A fan
I was thinking if I’m out of the van, then there is a good chance it might get broken into. For this reason I was thinking that I might want to carry my high value equipment with my when I’m out, this will include the power bank. My laptop is actually about 6 years old at least, but its a decent workhorse and id hate for it to be stolen.
The most annoying thing about getting broken into (and probably the most expensive) would be replacing a window. Imagine if you are like 100 miles away from your base, and somebody decided to break in and steal whatever they can see lying around. You come back to a smashed vehicle and have to either get it repaired by a local garage, or cut your trip short and go all the way back home to your trusted garage. so I am thinking of a power station that I can actually take with me when I am out so they can not see it or steal it from the van.
The most important thing in my mind though is keeping stuff out of sight. I’ve had break-ins before in the UK, maybe 3 times in my 30+ years of driving experience and 2 of these times were in a little sleepy village. The times I’ve actually had a window broken were in Stockport and Manchester, the kind of places where crime is naturally higher. I’m the sleepy little places, I just got broken into without a smashed window (I think one time my car was unlocked).
Ok so the first things is to make sure the valuables are out of sight and hope and pray that they just don’t break in. If you go with this state of mind, then you can have whatever sized power station you like! So I can get one which could last the entire 6 day trip and just power my laptop and phones at night time and during the day leave them in the car when I’m at the gym or fishing.
Ok so which one is going to last me a full week and which one would be good for recharging? I am thinking of the Anker Prime 250W 27650mAh. This is a really new power station that would be ideal for carrying around with me and even charging up in the gym or in a Wetherspoons providing they all me to. Some people say to have a big power station and stick it in a bag for life and then charge it, but I’m my experience, Wetherspoons are kind of far from free parking, they are usually in city centres – so I’m not relying on lugging a power station across a city thanks.
But what about a power station that I can just charge at home one time a week? I’m only going to be out once a week so I could go for a decent sized power station providing it can be stored in the boot out of sight and cross my fingers in the hope it does not get stolen…. How about something like this? The BLUETTI Elite 400! its actually got wheels on it is so heavy!! A car thief would think he (or she) had hit the jackpot if they saw this sat in my passenger seat. If I actually kept it in the boot though, it would be a different story – they might not get to it if I was parked up in a carpark with CCTV.
I am still very undecided to be honest, I guess the advantage of being able to just power it up once at home before I make a try is a really strong deciding factor. I might have to go with the big one and maybe chain it down to my Rav4 and hope the CCTV, car alarm and chains will be enough to keep the criminals away if they do decide to break in.