Power Source ?

Bacchus

Going camping very soon with my young daughter who has to have her DVD player and movies. I am happy to ablidge for multiple reasons. We are tent campers, usually camping at Larger parks with power and water at our individual campsite. Our upcoming trip is slightly more rustic, while still car camping, community restroom but no campsite water/power.
The portable DVD player has a battery that will get us through the first night. There is both a standard household power cord and the car cig lighter type. I dont wish to use my vehicle's power for this however. Also I would like to run an electric coffee maker, if possible.
Short of a pricey generator, what are some of the good options? Deep Cycle Marine Battery and adapter? Automotive jump starter?

Thanks in advance!

Ron

Semolina Pilchard

I have a couple of the automotive jumps starters, and have used them for similar things, and they work ok. The batteries in even the best of them and do not hold a charge for very long, and are very slow to recharge. If you will be wanting to use those devices often I would see about getting setup with the largest marine battery you can find. I understand some of the higher end solar chargers can charge a battery fairly quickly, although I can't speak from experience.
While at it you may want to get some 12 volt light bulbs. They fit in a standard socket. I have a few sockets that are nothing more than a socket and a wire and they hang anywhere.

"Sparky"

Hey Ron,you can get a power inverter pretty cheap(compared to a generator).I use one of these in my work van to recharge cordless tool batteries,and even run big electric tools(when power is not available).You could run one off of a separate battery,but not sure how long it would last.I would just run it from the car,and let the car idle,while making coffee Recharching the DVD player,shouldn't drain the car battery too much

http://www.donrowe.com/inverters/wagan_1000.html