Wedge Campers & Assorted Oddities

Yes. You can find them for $1425 no tax free shipping if you look.

And it seems like a lot. But I was originally going to use a OGE dual battery kit $900, 2 new batteries $500, and they are not portable at all for the same price this comes out and powers your house, plus it’s literally 75 lbs lighter. Seemed like a good solution. Though I suppose it’s not for everyone.

Goal zero has a 3000 Watt if you really wanna go big, and expensive hahaha.

You’re paying for the the simplicity and portablity. And yes huge weight savings.

 

Yeah. 2 of those would be solid for sure, if and only if you needed it. The other thing that really drive me to the Kodiak is the charging efficiancy. If you watch some YouTube reviews on it it’s amazing. Namely it can take a 12V DC to DC change from your car FAST!!!! Goal Zero says don’t even think about using your car to charge they’re lithium ions... which sucks because well. I drive a lot and charging it just makes sense.

 

This is my issue - $1500 for the equivalent of a 90 amp hour AGM or Lead Acid is too much of a premium for me.

For the smaller unit that rajacat is talking about, my math only puts it at ~30ah capacity - which in my experience isn't going to be enough for how I use my house battery system. So - I would need at least 2, and then it's $700+.

I like the weight savings and charge/discharge profile of LiPo, but I just don't think the value proposition is there for me yet. Long term I am sure it's where things are going and I look forward to hearing more people's experiences.

 

Rule of 75k brah, if you don’t spend 75k on your Overlanding rig you aren’t allowed to play.

Seriously though. Who gives a fuck what I want to spend. I can afford it and it makes my wife happy so why not.

Oh and for what it’s worth I’ve been running my ARB off my stock battery all year so far and yes it does work just fine (with dedicated cable ran).

You’re on the wrong forum JimBob if you think we only should spend on what we need. Most of us would still be driving stock Offroad’s.

Of course most of us don’t fly through the air like you...

 

How about 2000 discharge life cycles.... that’s about 4X more than any standard battery.

 

I have the new model ARB 63QT fridge/ freezer. It’s awesome. It like many others has low voltage shutoff. I pack it full in my truck power it from an extension cord for the night before i leave (it senses and uses 120V when that port is plugged in) than when i leave its all chilled and runs of the stock battery. Works ok, starting batteries are NOT designed to deeply discharge so if you’re gonna run with one for the long term I’d get a pelfreybilt tray and a group 31m. That should power it for a LONG time.

I used mine on a 6 day and an 8 day trip but never stayed in one place for more than 2 days so my battery was always charged. Also it does help to keep the fridge full. I carry at least a 12 pack of bottled water to fill space most of the time.

Side note Dometic just released and NEW battery pack that allows full discharge but is only 40Ah, talked with the Rep for an hour or so in PA a couple weeks ago. It’s made specifically to be a house battery running a fridge. $700 bucks....

 

Yeah I’ve ran my indel B fridge on my stock battery for the last year + and it was great. Just had a portable jump starter for emergencies, but never had to use it.

And yes, I went with the OGE dual battery set up, expensive but definitely loving it.

 

Is $1425 really a lot for this? It just didn’t seem that bad too me. Again i had nothing, so I’d need an isolator, charge controller, battery, tray, pure sine wave inverter, ALL the plugs and adapters to charge a fridge, phone, lights ext...., all the hardware. Idk as i was looking into prices it REALLY added up. And again 2000 life cycles is pretty spectacular. Good for 10 years or more. 12lbs.... plus again i can plug my chest freezer or lights in at home during a power outage. Obviously it’s all relative. Oh i did supplement my cost by selling my Honda 2000 Watt Generator for $800.... either way it seems to me like you get a lot for that $1400, oh. Price a DC/DC charger from red arc. YIKES....there’s a LOT in that little Kodiak box if you are starting from scratch... which i was

 

No

Damn it can’t link to a different forum, Overland bound has it featured on there main site. It’s brand new.

This one. Apparently new batt tech, that actually gives you the full 40 Ah, basically that makes it similar to a 90Ah deep cycle, he was pretty excited. Seems pretty cool. Again it has a DC/DC charger, that is a big deal (at least to me)

 

Another system some of you might be interested in is the Humless 0.64kWh. Sure its half the batt size of the kodiak, but with it a lot less $. I like this thing because it has less restrictions compared to the Kodiak with which panels you can run with it. If you want to take it out of your car and plug a 250W+ panel into it, it will handle that no problem. The display also tells you how long it will last with current loads and current solar making it easy to know how much battery you have remaining. The kodiak just tells you what your current kWh discharge is.

The kodiak is sweet though because you can string more 12V batteries onto it if the 1.1kWh isnt enough.

 

I think my power bank is tough to beat on cost to capacity. If I get another, it not only doubles the power but the backup function is invaluable.

 

It is to me, but it's all relative to your disposable income/free time/other factors

I got a group 27 deep cycle 90ah battery for $100, a CTEK DC-DC charger/MPPT controller for $250, and built the below battery tray in an afternoon using a scrap 24" piece of uni-strut and a $35 battery tray from Amazon.


Yes, it weights 53lbs, and may not last as many charge cycles as a lithium, but the $1000 dollar cost difference puts me ahead for a while. By the time I go through 10 batteries I will probably be driving an electric truck.

Who knows, maybe we'll even have our GFCs by then too

 

Hahahahaha maybe....

 

Obviously it can’t power an entire house.... though it certainly can power enough to live during a power outage, which is a major concern up here, we get very serious ice storms often enough...

I guess money is obviously relative, to be it’s a decent value for everything it offers to others it’s insane.... that’s why America is so great we can all do our own thing.

FWIW there are numerous people powering off-grid homes with Kodiaks they accept up to 600W of solar.

Basically it’s an EXTREME overkill for a house battery but at 12lbs I’d certainly rather have more, than almost enough...

 

https://inergytek.com/collections/solar-generators

I mentioned earlier it can be had for $1425 shipped no tax.

And maybe I’ll miss the Honda. I live way out in the country so I’m on a well and have propane. My Honda couldn’t run my Well pump so the Kodiak should be able to do anything the Honda could do. Hopefully i don’t have to find out this winter haha

It’s worth watching and reading some reviews. At this time there’s nothing else that really compares at any price. Obviously that could change

 

Let me preface this by saying that I'm not trying to start an argument here, just plain giving an answer to "who gives a f*** what I want to spend."

The "demand relationship" - basic supply and demand economics. If you're willing to pay a high price for a product, by default, that drives the price up for everyone else.
Obviously, it's 100% your choice to do so, but you should at least be aware that that mentality does impact other people.

I'm going a much different route, based on my needs and priorities, and price plays a huge role for me.
I won't get into the details of why, but the below is what I determined that I actually need, and what best fit my personal definition of value.

220ah of (no-name) AGM battery ~$330

$539 Redarc BCDC1240D REDARC 40A in-Vehicle DC to DC Charger with MPPT — Dual Input for Solar & Alternator Charging, Green Power Priority - 12 or 24V Battery Charger Suitable with AGM, Gel, Lithium LiFePO4 Batteries

Redarc BCDC1240D ~$370
3 100w (mono) Renogy panels ~$250
Cabling/hardware ~$120

Very different system, but (to me) an exponentially higher value.
And again, obviously different philosophies - I have the knowledge/confidence to be able to pair up all the different components appropriately, as well as the skills to physically assemble the whole system myself. That also gives me the peace of mind in knowing EXACTLY how it all works and that it was done right vs trusting that someone else's work will hold up to my standards.

So back to my original point - I would love to have Li-ion, but as others have also said, the value isn't there for me yet, and the demand relationship really plays a huge role in that decision (across the entire industry, honestly).

 

This has turned into quite a discussion.

Along those same lines it sure would be great if people in SoCal stopped paying 1.5M for modest houses with no land so teachers, and fireman, and other public servants wouldn’t have to live in poverty... but I don’t see it happening....

Buy what you can afford, or don’t, to each his own. I don’t think me buying a Kodiak is driving up the price of anything...

Now those A-holes buying Yeti coolers on the other hand F*ck them!

Hahahaha. Obviously I’m joking.... but you see my point. Shits expensive. Buy it or don’t, but i doubt companies are going to lower prices on new Tech anytime soon, at least as long as they’re selling...

Oh wait here’s another one. People paying OVER MSRP for Tacoma Pro’s or Civic SI’s or any other thing. It never ends.

‘Murcia it’s just the path we are currently on... didn’t do us well in the housing market in 08 though that’s for sure....

Your set up sounds solid though for sure

 

I don’t like storing Gas and rotating it all the time. All the Kodiak has to do is run the blower on my furnace and three 1/25hp Teco pumps to circulate my hot water, that heats my house and garage, some LED lights and my fridge itll do that easy for 3 or 4 days, if it runs low I have a generator (My Tacoma) with a full gas tank always in Winter and it “quick charges” in something like 3-4 hours off DC truck voltage.

My heat, Domestic Hot Water, Stove are all propane. As I mentioned my well pump will not run however. I do keep a 275 Gallon “tote” filled in my Garage in the winter. So it’s not much of a concern. Also I have a septic tank so as long as I have a bucket of water I can “flush” for as long as I want.

Or of course I could run more solar panels, too but I’d rather not right now.

 

Agreed. Not a Generator, but a storage device. Silly to call them something they are clearly not. With panels they will of course store solar created electricity. But without a Stator and a Rotor they certainly aren’t generating much... must just sound cool to the marketing department.

 

It's an AGM power station. ...$700. I'd rather spend another $400 and get this. It recently went up $100. $1400 for the Kodiak is very competitive if you need the capacity.
https://midlandusa.com/product/ppg100-portable-power-station/