Goal Zero Ranger 300 Solar Panel - Portable - 300 Watt

Video Transcript for Review of Goal Zero Portable Chargers - Ranger 300 Portable Solar Panel - GZ66FR

`- Hi there. I'm Michael with etrailer.com. Today, we're going to take a quick look at this Gold Zero Ranger 300 Portable Solar Panel. Now, this is going to be a 300 watt monocrystalline solar panel that's going to use the sunlight to provide an off-grid charging solution, so that you can charge up your Gold Zero power stations, such as your Yeti 1000X or larger. This is a monocrystalline construction, So it is going to be the top of the line with the highest efficiency available on the market. So you are going to be getting the most of your time in the sun.

Now this is designed to be portable. Obviously it looks pretty massive right now as we have it unfolded, but once we get it folded up, it will be very easy to carry around. It is very lightweight. They use a ethylene tetrafluoroethylene instead of a glass, so it's going to be lighter weight. And then the frame is an aluminum construction.

So it's only gonna weigh about 39 pounds, just under 40 pounds. And so it will be decent to carry around. Obviously 40 pounds isn't anything to scoff at, so it will be a little bit of weight there to transport from place to place, but it's much easier than a lot of these larger solar panels that would give you the same amount of power, So it will be pretty easy to get this set up in the sun, allow you to go sit in the shade where it's nice and cool, while everything charges. They do include this six foot long power cord here. This is a high power port cable, so it's going to connect to your power station, but this is only six feet long, so I would recommend maybe picking up an extension.

We've got a 15 foot long, a high power port extension cable, or a 30 foot long extension cable. You can find those part numbers on the screen there. To find those on our website, Just to give you a little bit more range so that again, you can put this out in the sun where it's gonna be getting the most rays, and you can stay back where it's gonna be a little bit cooler for you. This does provide an open circuit charge voltage of 23 volts, maximum power point of 19.3 volts. So for your different applications, if you've got a Yeti 1000X, you're looking at a four to eight hour charge time, again, depending on how sunny it is, how overcast, if you've got a Yeti 1500, it's going to be six to 12 hours.

A Yeti 3000 X is going to be a 12 to 24 hour charge time. And a Yeti 6000 X is going to be about 24 to 48 hours of charge time. When we have it fully extended, like this, we're going to be 30 and five eighths of an inch tall. Our width is going to be 105, just shy of 106 inches wide. And then our thickness or depth is only about seven eighths of an inch, just shy of one inch thick. Our built in handles on the sides here are going to make it very, very easy for us to fold this up. So I'll show you that process here. Now, it is very large and I've got it propped up on a table, so it is going to be kind of difficult for me, but I'll show you the process. So we'll fold in the side portions. Like so. Then that center folds together. You can see on the backside here, we do have these carry handles, we wanna make sure that our cable is tucked up out of the way as we close this. We do have these magnetic closures. So it's going to kind of snap together for us like so. Make sure it's all going to be very compact for us. If I open up this back side, we'll be able to see that a little bit better. Our stand here, our support leg is going to expand out. It's going to very easily fold up, and then we extend it out. We'll extend it out like so, so that we can then lean it back on that leg, like so. It's going to give us that angle, so that we can make sure that we are catching the sun's rays. Now, if you do want to lay this down flat, you can disconnect the leg here. Very simple, just lift up this little tab here, and that allows the legs to be clipped onto the back of the panel. Those little spring loaded tabs on either side will allow you to hold the legs in place. If I can get the tab up. So, like so, so then you could lay it down, completely flat if the sun is directly overhead, and that sort of thing, but very easy to work with those legs to get them to automatically fold out. When you're opening up the panel, it's got this tab here in the center, you pull that back and allow those two pieces to fit together so that that leg will stand and support that weight like so. When we have it completely folded up, then make sure that that cable is up out of our way, as we're closing that up. We're going to have the same height it's going to be that same 30 inches and 30 and five eighths of an inch tall. Our width is obviously going to be much smaller. We're down to a 26 and three quarters of an inch, not counting those handles, just counting this main, square portion here. And then our thickness, will obviously have gone up considerably. So we're looking at three and five eighths of an inch thick or deep, however you want to classify that. Now, once we haven't folded up like this, they do include this travel case so that we can get our panel put in place and protected. It's got kind of a canvas exterior, and then a smoother interior, something this large it's obviously not gonna be super easy to get this all put in place, but it will be nice to have that all situated, when you're traveling from one location to another, make sure that your solar panels aren't going to get scratched and that sort of thing, as we slide this in place. Cover up those corners, and then we've got zips on both sides. You can zip that up. So we still have those handles accessible so that we can very easily carry this from one place, to another. Like I said, it is right about 40 pounds. So definitely not something that you're gonna wanna carry for a long distance, but it is pretty easy to move from your storage area out to get it set up at your campsite. So that's gonna complete our look at this Gold Zero Ranger 300 portable solar panel. Again, I'm Michael with etrailer.com. Thanks for watching..