Zion Np And The Eastern Sierra

Well, I made it home from my previously mentioned trip. I spent 3 nites in Zion and 3 nites in the Alabama Hills of the Eastern Sierra. I also spent one night in the parking lot of the Eureka Casino in Mesquite, NV.

The weather in both locations was quite similar. Cold in the morning, cold in the evening and pretty pleasant when the sun was out and you were not in the shade.

Rooftop solar worked great. I even managed to charge my solar generators from the house battery while it was charging from the solar. It does require keeping an eye on it because there is a good chance you will be pulling more watts from the house battery than you are putting into it. The two days I tried it I was pulling out between 93-100 watts while the solar was putting in about 70 watts. I only ran like that for 1.5 hours each of the two days I tried it.

Here's some photos...

That's the Watchman in the background at Zion NP...



I guess this would be called, a room with a view. The Watchman again...



A couple of miles down the bike trail you'll find this view...



Now entering the Alabama Hills...



This was moonrise, two days before the the full moon. If you look close you can see detail in the moon.



A view of the Eastern Sierra...



For those of you who are gourmet cooks you may want to skip the next one. The lazy man's breakfast.



Last year one of the many CA wildfires came through here. As you can see, the trees were burned completely black. If you look in the background between the first two trees, the taller peak you see is Mt Whitney, the tallest peak in the contiguous 48.

 

Nice pics, John!
How did you charge your solgens exactly?
DC to DC via?
Like to do same, and collecting info.

 

The sogens each have a 12v DC charge connector. (Most sogens come with that.) It's made for mostly charging from your car but will draw from any 12v source. Just plug it into a 12v receptacle in the trailer. You just have to understand and be aware the sogen will suck all the energy it needs as long as it's available. That can easily kill the house battery depending upon your specific circumstances.

 

I recently purchased the 1up rack (single) with the cargo carrier and turn signal kit. It fits really nicely and is easy to put on and take off.

 

Great pictures!

 

Thank you. I enjoy taking photos. It's one of the reasons I visit the places I do.

 

Thanks John. What size are your sogens?
How did you determine the watts in vs watts out?
You have the standard lead acid 72ah house battery or?

Nice bike- ebike?
Able to also recharge battery pack from solar roof via dc outlet in the CI?

 

That's a lot of questions. Let me try to address them one by one.

My two largest sogens are an Ecoflow River Pro which has 720 Wh (rated) capacity and a 600 watt inverter and an Ecoflow Delta Mini which has 882 Wh (rated) capacity with a 1400 watt inverter. I also have a smaller Jackery 300 I use mainly for camera batteries, phone, iPad, and laptops.

When the sogens are charging, they show you the watts in. When they are running, they show the watts out, but more simply there is a state of charge percentage which shows when the unit is on. As they run down (or charge), you see approximately what you have left as a percentage. Keep in mind you will never get the full rated capacity due to AC and DC inefficiencies as well as the fact that the battery management systems (BMS) will never really let the battery run down to completely empty.

I have the upgraded AGM house battery. I couldn't find any Ah rating on the manufacturers web page. I asked Cary, he said it was 78 Ah. Mine was new last year. I can't say what any of the older ones might be.

My ebike is a Bosch system, with a proprietary battery and charger. I have to use their charger which is AC only. So, I could charge it from any of the sogens via AC but not the trailer unless I'm on shore power. My ebike battery is rated for 400 Wh. If it's close to empty, it will take a good portion of the charge (or all) from any of my sogens. I can charge the sogens with my portable solar panel(s), but I'm not keen on having to baby sit them at the campsite during the day.

As I mentioned above, I can charge the sogens DC to DC via the house battery. But given the size of the house battery, the potential draw of the sogens, and the desire not to run the house battery below 50%, you have to be careful running the DC to DC charge. And you really should only do it while the rooftop solar is providing good input to the house battery. So, unless I have shore power, charging the bike from a sogen really isn't high on my list of things to do. This was my first trip with the bike and I didn't run it empty so I never needed to charge it. I only rode it about 25 miles.

Let me try to summarize a bit. None of these measurements are 100% black and white. Neither is the weather or even clouds on an otherwise "sunny" day. I've done a lot of testing of my sogens at home to understand approximate usage and what I can or can't do relative to charging via the trailer and via my portable panels. I also know that my fridge draws a minimum of 220 watts per 24 hours whether there is sun or not. So, all of that goes into how I use any of the products as well as when or where I try to recharge anything. On this particular 7 day trip I could have made it without recharging anything. But, the bike was almost empty, the Delta Mini was low, and the day I left to come home was quite cloudy the whole day. Two or three days of no sun could be a real problem without shore power. It makes life interesting.

 

John, I've spent many nights in that campground in the Owens Valley. Love it there and will probably do another hang gliding trip there around Memorial Day. Spectacular range from Lone Pine to Bishop and everything about it is BIG. Nice hikes, floating down the Owens river in an inflatable raft, lounging around in the Keough Hot Springs, poking around in old mines, it's all good. Once you've been in the Alabama Hills, you will start seeing them constantly in car commercials and old Westerns which were filmed there.