A road trip must: Portable car battery chargers

portable car battery charger, courtesy of 452-engines.com

Road trips bring us together—literally. In fact, it's hard to get much closer when you squeeze nine kids into a Nissan Quest. But, when taking a road trip, there’s a few things you need to consider for your general safety and wellbeing before hitting the road.

First of all, you need to make sure your car can handle a road trip by getting it tuned up. Changing the oil, aligning the wheels, topping off all major fluids, and buying a new battery are all really good things to do. But, a new battery can be fairly expensive, so if you want to get the most out of it, you might want to consider buying a charger instead. There are lots of portable car battery chargers out there on the market, so here are a few tips on what to look for when shopping for a charger.

You’re definitely going to want to find a charger with a light source integrated into it, so if you do break down on the side of the road way out in the sticks, you won’t have to guess at what’s in front of your face. Also, having a flashlight of some kind is nice to have even if you’re not broken down.

Another thing that’s really nice to have in a portable charger is an air pump. If you have a slow leak in the driver’s side rear tire, and are about 20 miles out side of town, you’ll be able to pull over and easily pump some air into that tire until you can get it permanently fixed. It will also come in handy for blowing up beach balls when you finally get to Myrtle Beach, or blowing up an air mattress when you get to your campsite in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Power inverters are essential to the modern portable charger. This will keep your technologically dependent road trippers happy as a clam, because you can use the inverter to power and charge all sorts of electronic gadgets like cell phones, PSP, portable DVD players, and just about anything else your heart desires.

A great product that can do all of these things is the Energizer All-in-One that goes for around $150. Regardless of the brand you decide to go with, make sure to look for all of these features in your portable charger, so you won’t be left with buyer’s remorse.

—AJ Register

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