Since we are taking a more fishing focused trip this year, as opposed to the mileage and scenery, I plan to bring a fish finder (Garmin Echomap UHD2) with a Dakota Lithium 12v 10ah battery. From what I gathered I should be able to get close to 15 hours out of a single charge with the right settings (which *might* be enough for the trip). However, I was curious if anyone has come across a light-weight way of getting some sort of a charge in to the battery? Any setups as far as a solar power bank that would get a good charge over night? I've been kicking around the idea of a solar panel with USB/Alligator Clips.

8 AA batteries makes 12v. With a black and white unit, that'll last a week if you want it to. If I'm you, I bring 8 AA's as a back-up.

ccslick: "Since we are taking a more fishing focused trip this year, as opposed to the mileage and scenery, I plan to bring a fish finder (Garmin Echomap UHD2) with a Dakota Lithium 12v 10ah battery. From what I gathered I should be able to get close to 15 hours out of a single charge with the right settings (which *might* be enough for the trip). However, I was curious if anyone has come across a light-weight way of getting some sort of a charge in to the battery? Any setups as far as a solar power bank that would get a good charge over night? I've been kicking around the idea of a solar panel with USB/Alligator Clips."

One thing that helps dramatically is turning down or off backlight.

The dakota lithium solar panel/charger has worked for us.

Generally speaking the smaller the screen size of your fish finder the more efficient it will be, hopefully you have the 5" model and not the 9". If you can find a B&W unit like Lundojam, that is about as good as you will get for low power and basic functionality.

I think a solar charging setup only makes sense if you are doing an extended trip, maybe more than 10 days. On a shorter trip, you may just end up with several cloudy days, then what? I think you are better off just bringing an extra battery or two, besides you would need two batteries so you can charge one while using the other. Charging that size battery from a battery bank overnight, doesn't make a lot of sense either, as you loose efficiency from the transfer. It would be better to charge a second battery directly with solar.

I run a Lowrance Hook 4 with a Ryobi 9Ah drill battery and get just over 40 hours runtime with GPS. I bring 2 batteries for the week and run them the whole time I am fishing so that I can log my sonar for mapping. Lots of different setups and ways of fishing, but this works well for me.

I just pack a couple of Ampd Lithiums and call it good. I use em around the campsite as well.

jlw034: "The dakota lithium solar panel/charger has worked for us. "

I think this is the route I’ll be going. I was going to make a battery box with the battery, so the solar panel is more justifiable!