Wiring up the rear cigarette lighter so it always has power

[philmeup1]

Hello everyone,

During these weird times, I find myself with lot's of time on my hands. I've been mostly camping in and around Ontario with a plan to perhaps drive out west at the beginning of August.

I've camperized my van and made it so you can plug in hydro if the campsite has that option. But usually the best sites are service free without electricity or water. I'm good without power, however I do like a fan running when I'm sleeping. Especially with the crazy temperatures we've had so far this summer. I also like the fact that I can easily charge my phone and other devices.

One thing I would like to do is have the rear cigarette lighter powered at all times. Is this something that can be easily done? I've been charging my phone from this outlet by turning the key to the accessory position. It would be easier to just always have the power there when needed. My other question is do cell phones draw much battery power when being charged up? I don't want to kill my batteries by having the key on all the time.

Maybe I should add a solar panel on the roof? Or perhaps I should by some type of battery pack that can be recharged? I hear they make some pretty good ones now that are not too big and deliver a lot of juice.

If anyone has some thought's on this, I'd appreciate hearing from you. I think I'll be mostly off grid camping for the rest of the summer, and I'd like to keep it as civilized as possible.

Hope everyone's having a good summer:)

Phil

[Ralph in Winnipeg]

You can easily wire a 12v socket directly to your batteries with a little inline fuse. The risk is, as you mentioned, draining your batteries with these appliances. A phone doesn't require much power but a fan might. You could do the math and determine the number of amp hours the appliances require and the amp hours your batteries store. If you mounted (or placed on the roof when parked) a solar panel and you had a separate RV battery in the back, you would avoid the risk of draining the battery that starts your vehicle.

[sk66]

I just run an external battery that recharges off of that outlet. I was running a 12v SLAB jump pack with built in USB/inverter; but it was about useless at actually jumping the 4D56 with a dead battery.
I now use an Audew 2000A 20Ah battery. It charges off of a USB outlet plug while driving. And it has a 12v cigarette type outlet adaptor for anything with that type of plug (like a small inverter). I can also use an outlet to outlet jumper cable to plug it into the rear lighter and it powers all of the vehicle accessories (clock/radio/etc) w/o the key being in/on. And, it will actually spin the engine quite impressively even with the main battery disconnected.

[philmeup1]

Thanks for your input guys. I just got back from an epic 3 week trip all over Ontario. Once again, the best campsites were of the non electrical type. I like what you've come up with Steven, and I think that's probably what I'll end up doing. I clicked on that link for the Audew, but it says it's no longer available in my country. The price seemed very reasonable for this thing. I'm going to see if I can purchase it on Amazon.

I've seen flexible solar panels and wondered if you could cut something to fit the entire crystal lite roof. Enough to really provide plenty of power from the sun. I've looked at newer Japanese campers that seem to have this set up where the whole roof looks like one giant solar panel. Probably crazy expensive if it's doable at all.

Anyway, I'm home for a few days, and then off again for another few weeks. Thanks again guys for your insights:)

Cheers, Phil