I love the home built units. When something goes belly up you can fix it yourself. I built quite a few battery/inverter boxes and my drive is to cram more into a smaller space. Ain't cheap!!!!! The last unit I built fits in a MinnKota trolling motor box and has a 200 amp hour lithium battery inside. That's 2560 watt hours, equal to 4 of the 87 pound deep cycle batteries. There's no solar charge ability (yet) and I added a 300 watt PSW Bestek inverter on top held there by Velcro. But I can strap on the 1200 watt Bestek inverter if needed with a jumper cable. It can run a 4 cu ft fridge/freezer for up to 8 days before needing recharge. Lithium batteries are coming down in price but still a lot of $$$$$.

@The Solar Junkie Don't worry about it. When the shit hits the fan, I will burn old bus tires to keep my family warm. Old railroad ties, too.

Happy birthday to him in heaven! God bless!

Mine too, I'm doing this simple design!

Those Amazon fuse panels are trash. You can read 11.45volts with the fuse pulled out … very dangerous

I can't wait for van life! All I need is a van! Lol. Doing a cargo trailer conversion now and next will be a bus or van for sure.

Thank you for the kind comment!

Thank you! I appreciate your input! God bless you as well

Great idea! I also have 100 watt panels on my truck I use to charge it.

can you share a parts list on your build

I do recommend a sealed battery if you can afford it! And of course the sine wave inverters are far superior. I just used what I either had or could buy cheap! The inverter was on sale for something like 70% off so I had to get it....lol

It's super simple! I would like to do another with a sine wave inverter and a sealed battery as well.

Me too! We are going to be stylin!

If you want to check out my build it's 200 amp hour solar generator

@@joesapia9732 where can I check it out? I didn't see a video!

Thank you! It works very well and I'm glad I did it!

Thank you! I just finished another one but with a better battery. I got the 1500 watt inverter at a garage sale for $10 American! And the battery just down the street for $30 at another sale!! Pretty happy with it so far!

@@overlanderbenny3789 wow you sure are a great bargain hunter mate thanks for sharing!

I agree. I have found a nice sealed battery for about $225 US dollars so that will up the cost a bit, but well worth it I think! They are able to drain more and hold a charge much better. Still a much cheaper option than say a yeti or jackery I think.

I didn't know they had them that cheap! I understand what you mean about powering the device, but could still charge a laptop and unplug it to use it! Lol

@@overlanderbenny3789 oh for sure, and I've only really noticed the crazy noise in desktop PCs, not so much in laptops.

I will definitely be upgrading when I do my trailer solar. I'm still learning and this was just a experiment that turned out to work quite well! My goal zero with a daisy chain to another battery is great, but not convenient to pack 2 separate units for me in the truck. This provides 3x the power as my goal zero as is. I'm not even slightly impressed with the yeti I paid twice as much for.....

That's awesome! We are in the pacific northwest and do a lot of overlanding. It will run my fridge 4 or 5 days without a charge, and with only 50 watt of solar it will run it forever! I wanted it portable though so I can use it in a future trailer build I'm planning as well. If you didn't want the fuse panel, it would be super easy to just use a in-line fuse for the cigarette plug, but I figured it would be nice for the trailer eventually so just did it now.

Man I'm not quite ready to build my own. Kudos to you both.

@@overlanderbenny3789 Yes, I guess my Tacklife“solar generator “ would be considered an all in one. On seeing your “Power Box” with a the small batteries and you say only 50 watt solar panel, I’m envious. My main use is to keep my 45 watt freezer/cooler running for several days. Maybe occasional use of 200 watt elec blanket or small appliances. I especially like the small footprint depending on which box is used as my vanette is space limited. ? So with the charge controller you can keep the solar panel connected continually and mount it permanently somewhere? Will rewatch your vid many times. Kudos for posting and answering 👍🙏

@@rocknmamma2666 I normally run 100 watt of panels but I broke 2...so right now I'm at 50 watt on my truck with 100 watt set in the box for my trailer build. (Stay tuned for more!) The problem is the inverters take a lot of power. So although I can run my 12v fridge for a long time, once I start using 110v power the battery dies pretty fast. Yes I can keep my panels plugged in at all times and the controller regulates the charge. I strap it in my truck and plug in the panels so it will charge during the day as I drive. A lot of panels are Portable and not permanent, but I didn't like that since I'm driving during the day and want it to charge for the night ahead. So....I mounted my panels to my canopy and it works great! (Keep the bolts tight so not to have 2 break loose and shatter) lol

Just be sure if using a lead acid battery it is well ventilated!

You are correct it would be redundant. My yeti is also inside the unit. However the yeti is 400 watts and a 33 amp hour battery, and is recommended to discharge no less than 20%. With the 800 watt I have a much larger battery with 114 amp hour storage, and should be ok to run near dead if necessary. The inverter eats battery life fast, so I have a 12 volt fridge and such. The inverter we only use for small stuff. The yeti 400 will NOT run a power drill for instance, but the DIY 800 watt will, and for substantially longer. For instance I have a projector that we watch movies on. I can watch about 5 hours with my yeti using 110 volts. I can watch probably 3x that with the DIY. My solar panels and control came from harbor freight. To use them with my yeti I did have to make my own plug because they make them special so you have to buy their panels...

What would you like to see? I didn't go into great detail on this video because I wanted to make it short and to the point, but I could probably do a full tutorial! I want to build another one soon anyways! Lol

@@overlanderbenny3789 Please do a full tutorial. Need to build one before the entire grid goes down

Yes the inverter goes directly to the battery. The fuse panel is for the cigarette plug in and anything else I may add in the future, and completely unnecessary if you are only using the sine wave inverter.

@@overlanderbenny3789 Thanks Benny. A simple hand drawn circuit diagram would be great, to include fuses. And closeups of connections in good lighting. The diagram could be a comment here or a new video to include showing drill working, adding a kilowatt reading would be fun to watch but not necessary. your circuit diagram could be as simple as a hand drawn version of the 2nd to last picture diagram shown in this solar panel richsolar.com/collections/rigid-solar-panels/products/200-watt-solar-panel. You could also explain in the next video that because your inverter is on the outside, you didn't put a fan inside the box. You mentioned elsewhere that you'll do a detailed video of a more elaborate system, probably for your 6x12 cargo trailer, but more details in this build would help folks. Even if you didn't want to wrench yours apart, you could just do close up photos of connection pieces off Amazon ads to help folks out.

That would be perfect! I feel anything under 1000 watt is nearly a waste of time for anything but charging devices. At 1000 I think it opens up more options. But I couldn't pass up the price of the inverter for this experiment!

Correct. And although the battery is not the best (easy upgrade when money allows) the unit puts out twice what the goal zero does, meaning I can at least run a saw, which I can't say for the goal zero....

I am aware this was a very cheap inverter. It was a experiment that I wanted to try as cheap as possible before I went crazy on a good inverter and battery. Now I know I like it and it is extremely handy, I will be building a much nicer one in my trailer as well as another portable. This inverter was on sale for $35 so I really couldn't go wrong....lol

Sounds like you have an all in one system. I prefer those to building my own. Fuses and breakers confuse me. Ha

There is venting from holes in the back I drilled and where wires go in I didn't seal them. Battery isn't a sealed battery so must be kept upright. If you can afford a sealed battery you wouldn't have either issue!

@@overlanderbenny3789 yeah i used sealed batteries left over from when i sold my jeep. Thanks again!

I would definitely like to upgrade the lead acid battery but that's big money! I will put good batteries in my cargo trailer conversion for sure.

The lighter only has a positive and negative so I ran the positive to the fuse and the negative to the grounding block. The fuse box is powered from the battery so add a fuse and done! Thank you for watching!

what's that

Oh for sure! It's definitely heavy and I'd love to have a nice battery! But it is what I could afford at the time! Lol

It's a RV battery that is supposed to be ok to discharge more, and obviously who wouldn't prefer lithium, but it was an cheap as possible experiment and that's what I could afford! Lol

@@overlanderbenny3789 Hey, TOTALLY NOT KNOCKING IT!, great build! And budget friendly is always good! Just a thought. True, Lytham is more bucks up front but cheaper in the long run, do to having a WAY long lifespan & usable Ah.

@@CD-hc5ds I agree. I plan to do the same basic set up in my cargo trailer conversion but more power and better batteries.

What is a Lytham battery? Never heard of it before?

@@alpscraftshack599 LOL OK, typo👍 lithium iron phosphate

This is not a sign wave converter but I would still use it for my TV or lap top, with a standard surge protector just in case!

Pure sine wave inverters are best for running thngs with inductive motors. Such as a\c, refrigerators and some fans. But modified sine wave inverters work just fine for most electronics.

It is lead acid deep cycle RV battery from Walmart. Everstart brand. I would definitely rather have a nice sealed battery but I was on a strict budget and it actually works quite well for me at this time! Future upgrade...

I'm looking at building another and making a detailed video! Stay tuned!

That's a good question! I've never really thought about timing that to see. I do think it takes quite a bit more to bring this unit to full charge though, as it is much bigger. For example I can watch about 2 movies on my 7 inch DVD Player with the yeti. This will easily run the DVD all night and the fridge as well. It has substantial more power than the yeti, no Matt what the other comments may say. I run them both so I can attest!

@@overlanderbenny3789 Do you charge your lead acid battery on solar?

@@scottboyte yes I do with the harbor freight 100 watt panels and controller kit. It was about $189 last I seen for the kit and comes with everything you need but a battery. I had to make my own adapter to charge the yeti from the harbor freight panels, but the yeti has a built in controller, so I go straight from the panels to the yeti. The harbor freight controller is mounted to the side of the box I made.

Yes I would definitely have it in a box vented to the outside if possible. I highly doubt it would be harmful in the van, but better to be safe than sorry. For the van I would spend the extra money for a sealed battery so no gasses can escape. The rest of the setup could still be used! It would raise your price, but it would be minimal for that piece of mind.

@@overlanderbenny3789 Awesome thank you. Do you mean an AGM?

@@anniebeasley92 that would be ideal for sure! But they do sell other kinds of sealed batteries that would be suitable for inside a van as well. I believe some brands like Optima have sealed batteries that would be fine, although probably not as good as a AGM.

This has been brought up a dozen times. And I agree, but that obviously wouldn't be a $200 project now would it....AGM batteries are expensive! This does a great job for me to this point, and yes I would love to upgrade the battery when funds are available!

I know! I will be spending the money on good batteries for my trailer build but since I was experimenting I wanted to stay cheap! Definitely would go for a sealed battery if possible!

@@overlanderbenny3789 Go ahead and discharge one vs something like LiFePO4 , Lead Acid and AGM are lucky to get 50% discharge before off at a contant heavy draw (what you're saying this rated for, should last an hour yeah? No. You'll get the amps for a while but not what it says "800*). Your capacity draws will be vastly different. Don't take my word for it, check a lead acid or AGM vs basically anything else that people are using.

@@ecidemon5672 oh I'm definitely aware of the vast differences at this point! Like I said, completely experimental. I can change the battery out at any time with 2 wing nuts when I get a better idea what my final plan will be. This setup works well for the time being while I focus on other projects!

Great video! Thank you! I would have left you a comment but it says they are turned off. But I really think its a great idea and would be ideal for a small off grid cabin or something like that!

@@overlanderbenny3789 thanks..was fun to build..

Last night I watched a video on your page of the 3000 watt build for home but it seems to be missing today! I watched it on my lady's phone so didn't comment but my question was, does the battery care If you lay it on the side? Or do you flip the battery right side up when using the box as a table? If it works in any direction, what battery is that! Lol

@@overlanderbenny3789 yeah I have to put it back up something happen actually going to just reshoot it because my new controller came in and I'm putting it on but no that AGM battery doesn't care what orientation it's in it's a sealed battery so you can put it sideways upside down doesn't matter what position it's in

@@overlanderbenny3789 hey Benny are you talking about the big fan powered box that I built for home power or the smaller orange and black portable one

I have no desire to sell them but you can get everything to diy at Walmart!

@@overlanderbenny3789 i will buy one for 300

Does it say sine wave? Nope! Does it say top of the line components? Nope! Everything was under $200 even with the 1980s math I did, so before you comment rude crap, make sure you know what you're talking about! Have a great day!