Help on portable solar panels?

[ElCapitan]

I am hoping to spend some time on the road this upcoming summer visiting some national parks. Not exactly sure what my timeframe will be, but it is possible I could spend as much as a month in a park (either Yellowstone or Yosemite).I will be living out of my car or tent, and may not always have access to electricity.

I have seen in many outdoor magazines, ads for roll-up and portable solar panels to charge cell phones and ipods and what not. My need would be to charge up my camera batteries as well as my laptop battery.

Does anyone have any suggestion on brands, models, and inverters?

[sk66]

If the vehicle will be near by, I say skip it. If I were buying a new inverter I would look at the Samlex pure sine wave inverters. (they can also be used to power studio type strobes etc)

If you feel the need for solar charging at the vehicle I'd look into a panel to charge the vehicle battery and use the inverter for my needs.

If away from the vehicle I'd be looking at one of Powerfilm's rollable panels... probably the 14w version. There are cheaper options but this has the best combination of features for "camping" IMO...no experience with it though (I had a Brunton which died prematurely and I didn't "love" it). In this scenario you would not need/want an inverter. What you want is a "car charger" that takes the 12vdc of the car and regulates it for the device being charged.

[lil red bird]

I would go with the inverter plugged into your car and if yoiu still really want solar panels then try some thing like this:http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brows....jsp?locale=en hooked to your car to keep it topped up.