We arrived at 4:00 PM on Saturday and because Rio Grande Village campground was 3 spots from being completely full overnight we took the first campsite we came across. The following morning, Linda went for a walk to scout for better campsites as soon as it was light. By 8 AM Sunday morning a number of people had already packed up and left leaving some good sites that didn’t need reservations available.
We jumped on the opportunity and took a nice campsite on the edge of the campground away from popular restrooms and outside the generator zone.
We are camping in the NO-generator zone. We don’t have a generator with the new camper but we still needed electricity to run the RV systems as well as my medical CPAP device. The camper came with a 90 watt solar panel providing enough energy for some but not all of our needs. We supplement our solar generation with a 160 watt portable solar generator. The solar generator combines solar panels and a battery charge controller.
Portable Solar Panels
Charge Controller
Camper Connection
We bought the portable solar charger from Amazon. It is a Zamp Solar 160P Solar Portable Charge Kit and includes portable solar panels, a waterproof charge controller, the clamps shown above and a dandy carrying case. I chose the 160 watt model because it is the heaviest charger that I’m comfortable carrying. The 200 watt model is just too heavy for me.
One thing I did learn on this trip was that we needed another Zamp extension cord (Zamp Solar BDCEXT15 Extension Cord) so that the solar charger could be placed even further from the camper.