Where This Guide Comes From

Every part list and every wiring step in this article comes from one source video — Explore Trek Adventure's build of a portable solar generator in a toolbox, filmed as they actually assembled it for their rooftop-tent trailer. The parts they chose, the order they wired them, and the problems they hit (and fixed on camera) are all below, transcribed from the video rather than written from a spec sheet. If you'd rather watch the build before reading the breakdown, the video is right here:

Explore Trek Adventure — "DIY Solar Generator - Portable Lithium Battery Box Build - Part 1"
Watch on YouTube →
611K+ views. A 100Ah lithium battery, a Ridgid 22-inch toolbox and a handful of off-the-shelf parts turned into a solar-powered power station.

The goal of the build is simple: a big version of a Jackery — a battery box and solar generator combination that lives in a rooftop tent trailer, charges from a solar suitcase, and powers the 12V loads of camping. The build deliberately skips an inverter, which turns out to be one of its smartest decisions. Below is the full build, step by step, with the exact parts and the reasoning behind each one.

What You're Building: A Box-Style Solar Generator

This build starts with three core components: a 100Ah lithium battery, a 200W solar suitcase from Renogy (the pair is sold together), and a Ridgid 22-inch toolbox to hold it all. The battery is genuinely well made, but it's also heavy — the toolbox keeps it protected and portable, which matters for a system that travels in a rooftop tent trailer.

The toolbox is part of Ridgid's stacking set, and the 22-inch is the middle size — just about perfect for a battery. You can even lay the battery on its side and it fits neatly inside. For an inexpensive box it's surprisingly rigid, and the top handle folds completely flat, which keeps it compact when it's packed away. If you want to grow the system later — a second battery, or a cart underneath — the stacking latches leave that door open.

Parts List: Everything That Goes Inside

Here's the full parts list straight from the video, so you can see exactly what the finished box contains before you start cutting holes:

Wiring Order: Fuse Block First, Always

The video wires the system in a specific order, and that order is the part worth copying. Directly off the battery terminal goes the terminal fuse block — in this case a Blue Sea unit with a 50A fuse. The 4AWG wires from the battery connect to it, and from there to the battery cutoff switch.

Why the fuse first? If anything downstream shorts, the fuse at the battery terminal is the thing that stops a fire — it's the closest protection to the energy source, and everything else hangs off it. From the cutoff switch, the wiring feeds the 12V fuse block with six positions, and each circuit connects via ring connectors that come with heat shrink built in, so you don't have to buy and fit separate heat-shrink tubing.

The build wraps up with a 10A fuse on the distribution side and a first-power-up moment on camera: no sparks, which is the correct result, and the panel lit up immediately. The battery arrived already charged, but the meter confirmed power was flowing through the whole chain.

The 12V Side: Sockets, USB and Anderson

The finished panel holds a USB port and two 12V sockets, plus the battery cutoff switch on the outside. Two details from the video are worth stealing for your own build. First, the sockets they picked have an outer mounting ring, so the socket fixes to the toolbox wall with screws rather than floating loose in a hole. Second, the sockets come with their own cables and ring terminals — but the rings were "conveniently just a little too big," so they cut them off and crimped properly sized ring connectors instead. If your sockets have oversized terminals, do the same: a snug ring on a clean stud is what keeps resistance (and heat) out of the connection.

The video also shows a lesson in layout: they originally planned more sockets in one spot, but an internal structural bar inside the toolbox blocked the space, so the plugs moved to a different position. Cut the holes only after you've confirmed there's nothing inside the box behind them — the ribbed internal structure of a molded toolbox is easy to forget until your drill meets it.

Charging: Solar First, Victron as Backup

This system is primarily charged with solar, and the charging hardware reflects that. The solar suitcase plugs in through a flush-mount Anderson connector on the side of the box. For the times when solar isn't available, they added a Victron Energy BlueSmart 15A charger — but deliberately did not mount it inside the box. Because it isn't the primary charging method, it stays loose, so the same charger can be used for other projects and even to charge the battery in the car.

That's a genuinely useful design decision for a DIY build: keep the backup charger portable. A mounted charger adds weight and wiring to the box forever; a portable one is available where you need it. The charger came with alligator clips, a quick disconnect, and ring terminals, so it can hook directly to the battery or the box terminals depending on the situation.

Why There's No Inverter (And Whether You Need One)

You may have noticed there's no inverter in this setup — and that's deliberate. The builders have camped for years with their rooftop tent trailer and rarely need AC power. When they do, they use a tiny 200W inverter that comes with a Jackery they already own. For their use case, an inverter would be dead weight and wasted space.

That's a useful question for every build: what actually needs AC? Phones, tablets, cameras, 12V fridges, LED lights and USB gear all run fine on DC. If you genuinely need AC — a CPAP, a laptop that won't charge over USB-C PD, or a small power tool — the video notes you can mount a larger inverter on the box lid or a small one inside. But if your loads are DC, skipping the inverter saves cost, weight and complexity, and keeps the box small enough to live in a rooftop tent.

Cutting and Mounting: The Fiddly Half of the Build

The second half of the video is honest about the fiddly work. They marked out the cutoff switch position, mounted it through the panel so the battery can be switched on and off from outside, and added a piece of wood inside as a mounting surface for components — a trick that turns a plastic box into a proper panel. The big battery leads were meant to come out the top, so both corners of the cover got trimmed; then the base went in, and the plug sockets slid in and screwed on from the back.

One clever detail: the sockets didn't come with mounting hardware, but they found spacer hardware that happened to be exactly the right size — so no screw pokes through the inside of the box. The rubber seals on the sockets sealed well; the USB port's prongs need a little patience to align, but it stays in place once seated. These are the small things that decide whether a build looks finished or looks like a weekend project.

Winter Storage and the Finishing Touches

The finished build has one feature that pays off every winter: the battery cutoff switch means the whole system can be turned off completely and isolated when the trailer is parked for the season — no parasitic drain, no worrying about the battery sitting at a bad state of charge. Combined with the battery's own BMS, that's a genuinely safe storage configuration for a lithium pack.

The remaining items at the end of the video: a strap to hold the battery down inside the box, and the flush-mount Anderson plug for solar. Everything else — the fuse chain, the distribution panel, the USB and sockets — was already in place and tested live. It's a clean, complete 12V system in a $50 toolbox.

Bottom Line: Is This Build Right for You?

This build is the practical middle ground between a commercial power station and a full camper electrical system. You get the convenience of a Jackery-style box — carry it, plug in solar, power your gear — with the freedom to choose every part, at a fraction of the cost of a comparable off-the-shelf unit. The trade-offs are equally clear: you're doing the wiring yourself, there's no AC output, and the box is heavier than a purpose-built power station.

It's the right build if your loads are 12V and USB, you camp where solar works, and you're comfortable crimping a ring terminal and cutting a hole in a toolbox. It's the wrong build if you need AC power or you want something you can leave alone for years without touching it.

And if you'd rather skip the assembly entirely — or you're building your own power station line and need the battery inside it — that's what we do. Dajiu Energy is a Chinese manufacturer building LiFePO4 batteries for RVs, homes, golf carts and portable applications since 2017. Our product range covers LiFePO4 drop-in replacement batteries, EV and golf cart batteries, wall-mounted home storage, portable power stations, commercial energy storage and battery swap cabinets — explore the full lineup in our product center, or browse more buying guides. Tell us your voltage, capacity and size, and we'll engineer the pack to hit it.

Reviewed by Dajiu Energy Engineering Team — a Chinese LiFePO4 battery manufacturer building LiFePO4 batteries for RVs, homes, golf carts and portable applications since 2017, serving OEM/ODM projects with CE, UN38.3, MSDS and ISO9001 certified builds.

What Viewers Are Asking (Top Comments on the Video)

These are the most useful of the video's top comments, with our practical answers. The original creator did not reply to these threads, so the answers below are ours — written the way we'd answer a customer on the shop floor. Thanks-only comments were left out on purpose; these are the ones with actual information in them.

@mperdue12 · 29 likes
"I did the exact same thing but went with the biggest box of the ridged system that has the wheels and handle. The extra space gave me the room for an extra battery an inverter and a few different electrical plugs and connectors. Going on 4 years absolutely zero regrets. It powers my conversion van 90% of the time but when camping or hunkering down for a hurricane the portability is priceless."
Our take: Four years of real-world use is the best review any build can get, and his choice points at the main design fork in this project: the bigger-wheeled box trades a little portability for room to add a second battery and an inverter later. If you're building for a van or expect to grow the system, the larger box is worth the extra size; if it's purely for a rooftop tent, the 22-inch keeps the weight down. Either way, the core electrical design — fuse block at the battery, distribution panel, ring terminals — is identical, and that's the part that keeps a box like this safe for years.
@rickbaier1042 · 28 likes
"What total cost did you have in your amazing build?"
Our take: The video doesn't give a running total, but the parts list is public: roughly $350–$450 for the Renogy 100Ah battery + 200W solar suitcase pair, $50–$80 for the Ridgid 22-inch toolbox, and somewhere around $100–$150 for the electrical parts (Blue Sea fuse block, cutoff switch, 6-position fuse block, 4AWG wire, sockets, USB panel, Victron 15A charger, Anderson plug). That lands a complete build in the $500–$700 range — well under a comparable branded power station of the same battery size, and you keep the freedom to choose every component.
@russharmon6635 · 15 likes
"The battery box I have built, I added a led strip light to the outside. It is very convenient to turn on and is able to provide enough lights for a lights out situation."
Our take: An LED strip on the outside of the box is a genuinely practical add — one small strip on its own switch turns the whole box into a camp light with zero extra battery drain worth worrying about. If you copy the idea, wire it through the distribution panel (not directly off the battery), add an inline fuse, and pick a 12V strip rated for the current it needs. A dollar of parts buys a lot of campsite convenience.
@AmiApache · 5 likes
"Nice setup. I did have one build for testing purposes without the inverter. I did build one based in a 5Ah 18V Ryobi One Li-Ion battery with a 200W solar panel. The test did draw the power directly from Victron Bluesolar 75/15... Works well for small scale devices like the 12V-cooler. The charging was done with 3A with specific settings to the Victron MPPT charger. It did work well, but charge current wasn't enough to run 12V cooler with all my drinks on it and charging it on the fly."
Our take: His small-scale test makes two useful points. First, the same Victron charger logic scales down — a tiny 5Ah 18V system with a 200W panel will happily run small 12V loads like a cooler, which proves the architecture works at any size. Second, his real finding: 3A of charge current wasn't enough to run the cooler and recharge at the same time. That's the classic solar sizing trade-off — a cooler pulling 65–75W while it runs needs a bigger panel or a bigger battery buffer than "enough solar for average use." Size the panel for your worst day, not your average day.
@ConspiracyBear · 6 likes
"If u heat up a box cutter knife tip w a propane torch. It slices thru plastic like butter. Only get an inch or two... Just reheat it again.. repeat. Toss blade away after cooling. Great idea on wood for mounting. Spray paint it black and it looks nice."
Our take: A hot blade trick that works — heat the tip of a box cutter with a propane torch and it melts through toolbox plastic cleanly instead of cracking it. Two safety notes if you try it: work in a ventilated area (melted plastic fumes are worth avoiding), and don't breathe them in; and expect rough edges that need a quick cleanup with a file or sandpaper. The tip about spray-painting the wood mounting panel black is also a nice touch — it makes the inside of the box look finished instead of like a scrap of lumber.
@beetooex · 1 like
"EDIT- I was mistaken. These are actually PWM controllers. Aren't the Blue Solar charge controllers only PWM? I think it's a false economy not going for a mppt charger. The output of your solar panels will be a lot lower."
Our take: Worth clarifying because the same confusion comes up in every solar build: the Victron BlueSmart charger used in this video is a battery charger for backup AC charging, not the solar charge controller — the solar side runs through a separate controller in the system. On the PWM vs MPPT question itself: MPPT gets more energy out of a panel, typically 15–30% more in real conditions, and for a 200W panel the premium is usually worth it. But the bigger point for a DIY build is matching the controller to the battery chemistry and the panel voltage — a good PWM on a correctly sized system can still be perfectly adequate, especially at this small scale.
@majorbrighton · 1 like
"Nice with the toolbox. My suggestion, maybe a 200A fuse instead? So you can use a drill for example. Not shore how your converting the power though."
Our take: The suggestion gets the right instinct (bigger loads need bigger protection) but the fuse needs to match the wire and the load, not just be bigger. A 50A fuse on 4AWG protects the battery cable; if you want to run a drill through an inverter in this box, the fuse at the battery still protects the cable, while the inverter gets its own correctly sized fuse on its own circuit. The safest rule: fuse every circuit for the wire you actually ran and the load you actually plan to draw — never upsize a fuse to "make something work," because the fuse's only job is to protect the wiring from overcurrent.

Source video: Explore Trek Adventure — "DIY Solar Generator - Portable Lithium Battery Box Build - Part 1" (youtube.com/watch?v=en-0OwEYAHQ). Comment excerpts are quoted verbatim from the video's top comments; the original creator did not reply to these threads, so all answers are Dajiu Energy's own. Build steps and parts are transcribed from the video.