Power on the Go: Jackery Explorer 500 and Accessories
Photo from Jackery
Finding a proper secondary power solution for your vehicle can be pretty complicated and leave you with a lot more questions than you started with. We found the Jackery Explorer 500 portable power station and its accessories and can see that it would be a great addition to any overlanding rig due to its capability and accessories offered. Let’s get on to the setup!
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Star of the Show: the Jackery Explorer 500
The main source of all the power in this setup is the Jackery Explorer 500 Portable Power Station. This power station provides 500 Watts so it can charge just about anything you need. It also features 3 USB-A, 110V AC Outlet, DC input and outlet, and car cigarette outlet so it has plenty of ports available to use. It also can be charged by plugging it into your car cigarette lighter, an AC wall outlet, or even a solar panel (more on that in the next section) making it super versatile and easy to charge and take with you in a hurry.
To protect your vehicle and the power station, it includes the following layers of protection so you don’t have to worry about anything:
Over-current Protection
Short-current Protection
Over-discharge Protection
Over-charge Protection
Over-voltage Protection
Thermal Protection
Keeping it Charged: Jackery SolarSaga
As an optional upgrade to keep the power station charging while on the go or while out exploring, is the Jackery SolarSaga portable solar panel. This panel is made to work directly with the Jackery 500 and almost all other Jackery portable power stations. It can lay flat as well as it has a kickstand to hold it upwards to get the most sunlight or if you want to place it outside on the ground.
On top of this, if you happen to just want to use the solar panel for a few smaller accessories, it has 1 USB-C port and 1 USB-A port.
As far as durability, the SolarSaga is rated IP65 water-resistant (not waterproof) so you wouldn’t want to completely soak it, but it can definitely withstand some water for the lifetime of the solar panel.
Helpful Accessory: Alligator Clamp to Cigarette Lighter Cable
Although this product isn’t made by Jackery, we found the KUNCAN alligator clamps to cigarette lighter cable to be a super helpful accessory if you are wanting to use the Jackery Explorer 500 to charge your vehicle’s battery. These clamps plug directly into the cigarette lighter port in the Explorer 500 and you can then connect the clamps to your battery terminals on your vehicle. It may use quite a bit of power, so I would make sure to watch how much battery percentage you have if you want to continue using it for your other accessories.