I just saw via Gear Junkie that Goal Zero, the company that makes “solar generators” (i.e., portable battery banks) and solar panels is making a gas generator. The thing is, it’s not a traditional gas generator. You don’t plug things into it directly but plug your Goal Zero battery bank into it. The generator then charges the battery bank, and you run all of your electronics from the battery bank. According to the Gear Junkie article (go there for pics and more info), this setup is 20 (!) times more fuel efficient than a traditional generator.

The knock against Goal Zero stuff is always that it’s expensive compared to what you could make yourself, but for those of us who don’t have much interest in cobbling together our own battery banks and charging setups, I think they remain a good solution.

While we’re on the subject, I’ve been eyeing this enormous battery bank by Anker. I’ve used Anker battery pack products in the past and had good experiences with them. This particular battery bank can charge a laptop 15 times, and that’s exactly what I’d use it for. It’s also much smaller and lighter than the Goal Zero equivalents.

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In other news, my trip down to the desert has been delayed by a couple of days because of the weather. It’s snowing outside right now as I type this (we’re getting an uncommonly high amount of snow this year in northern Utah), and I want to wait for the snow to stop and the roads to clear a bit before I make a run for it. And if you’re not already doing so, consider following my new @SUVRVing account in Instagram.