Portable Power Pack

Loz · Aug 8, 2016

I have read a few threads about power and running fridges in a beach etc so I thought I would post up a small DIY project I did a couple of years ago to allow us to run a fridge and freezer in our Touareg whilst wild camping on our overland trips.
The unit is basically a standalone unit that has an AGM leisure battery, a 25A CTEK marine charger and CTEK D250 split charge unit and a NASA battery monitor.

Enclosure is a Stanley FaxMax 20" HD toolbox.

Next was to make a stronger base plate from phenolic coated 9mm board (Hexagrip)

Then mounted the Ctek 25A charger and the Ctek D250S split charge unit. MXS25 D250S

Then fit the Battery and ABX AGM 31-800 90AH with M10 terminals ABXAGM 31-800

Then installed the Nasa Battery Monitor BM-1 BM-1

It now has:

2 12V accessory outlet for the Engle & Waeco Fridge
2 12v din sockets for led striplight and 1 spare
1 dual 2.1A USB outlets for charging ipad and phones etc.
2 solar panel inputs
Nasa Battery Monitor
25A Ctek Charger
Ctek Split charge unit
passive cooling
90AH AGm Battery
Fuse panel for each circuit
16A mains hookup lead
60A Anderson lead for connecting to Vehicle Battery

The unit is capable of running the Engel freezer at -18 for 60 hours.

When camped the unit and freezer can be moved into a driveaway tent and can be connected to EHU with a suitable extension cable.
You ca also connect 2 solar panels to the small jack plug sockets above the monitor as the Ctek D250 has built in solar panel controller.

Npf1 · Aug 8, 2016

Very neat. I'm tempted to do something similar, but might do a fixed install under the driver's seat. How are you connecting the D250 to the alternator? Did you run a dedicated cable for it?

Loz · Aug 8, 2016

Npf1 said:
Very neat. I'm tempted to do something similar, but might do a fixed install under the driver's seat. How are you connecting the D250 to the alternator? Did you run a dedicated cable for it?

Yes, on the Touareg the battery and Primary fuse panel is under the passenger seat so it was fairly easy to connect to a spare fuse way with a large fuse to protect the cable.
The primary fuse panel has a set of fuses soldered on so I added a small 60A fuse to protect the cable and made up a short heavy duty cable with an anderson plug to connect to the powerpack but you wouldn't need this with a permanently wired solution.