A solar blanket only works where the sun is, and that’s rarely where you want to park. The shady spot under the trees is better for the fridge, the rooftop tent and everyone sitting under the awning. An extension lead fixes that: the blanket goes out in the sun, the car stays in the shade.
That’s what we use the Kings 6 m solar extension lead for: it’s our backup for when the solar panel on the rooftop tent is parked in the shade. I paid $45 for it.
What’s in the box
A 6 m black twin cable with a grey Kings Anderson-style plug at each end. There’s nothing else to it: no box, no fuse, no adapters. The cable is printed along its length with what it is: a 12V extension lead, 6 metres, two cores of 2.5 mm².
What we like
- 6 m: panel in the sun, car in shade
- Anderson-style plug at each end
- Works as a backup or fitted for good
- Plugs rated to 50 A
- Heat and water-resistant sheath
- Long enough, yet still packable
What we don’t
- 2.5 mm² is thin for high currents
- No dust caps on the plugs
- No strap to keep it coiled
Quick Specs
| Spec | Details |
|---|---|
| Brand | Adventure Kings |
| Length | 6 m |
| Cable | Twin core2 × 2.5 mm² copper |
| Plugs | Anderson-styleRated to 50 A |
| Sheath | Heat resistantWater resistantAbrasion resistant |
| Warranty | 1 year |
The plugs
Both ends have the same grey plug with the Kings name moulded in, and plus and minus marked on the housing. They’re the genderless Anderson-style type: any plug pushes into any other plug, and they only go together one way, so you can’t connect them the wrong way round.
The plugs are rated to 50 amps, which is far more than a solar blanket puts out.
What they don’t have is a dust cap. The contacts sit open at the front of the plug, so sand and dirt can get in when the lead is lying around at camp. It pays to keep the ends off the ground.
How we use it
One of ours lives in the back of the car as a backup. The solar panel on our rooftop tent does the charging most of the time, but it only works when the car is in the sun. When we’re parked in the shade, we get out our Kings 240W solar blanket, connect it to this lead and plug the other end into the Kings BatBlock25 battery box in the back of the car to top it up. The car, the awning and the rooftop tent stay in the shade, and the blanket lies wherever the sun is. In full sun in the middle of the day, we measure between 12 and 14 amps going into the battery box through this lead. For which panel or blanket to pair it with, see our camping solar panels guide.
Six metres is a nice balance: the lead is still packable, but long enough to reach a sunny spot away from the car. Coiled into a flat ring, it lies in the bottom of a drawer in the back of the Prado. There’s no strap or bag with it, so a velcro tie or a spare bit of cord keeps the coil together. We actually have two of these leads. The second one is fitted permanently: it runs from the flexible panel on the roof, underneath the rooftop tent, back into the rear of the car to the BatBlock, so the panel charges the battery continuously. That job is described in our guide on how to mount a flexible solar panel on a rooftop tent.
Cable thickness
The cable has two cores of 2.5 mm². For a solar blanket of this size that works, as our 12 to 14 amps show, but it’s on the thin side for a 6 m run. A thin cable loses some voltage along the way: by my sum, about one volt at 12 amps over this lead. Our battery box has a built-in DC-DC charger at the battery end, which copes with that. It’s a reason not to join several of these leads together unless you have to, and not to use it for heavy loads like a compressor.
The print on the cable also says it’s for DC use only and not to disconnect it under load. In practice that means unplugging at the panel end, or turning the blanket face down first.
Conclusion: Kings 6m Solar Extension LeadConclusion
The Kings 6 m solar extension lead is a simple part that makes a solar blanket much more useful: the blanket goes in the sun, the car stays in the shade. At 6 m it’s still packable but long enough to reach a sunny spot away from the car. It has an Anderson-style plug at each end, plugs straight into Kings solar gear and carries the 12 to 14 amps from our 240W blanket without trouble. The plugs have no dust caps, there’s no strap to keep it coiled, and the 2.5 mm² cable is thin for high currents. For the $45 I paid, it’s well worth having for anyone who camps in the shade and runs a battery in the car.
A 6 m twin-cable extension with Anderson-style plugs that lets a solar blanket lie in the sun while the car stays in the shade.
Plug in and it works. No dust caps, and the 2.5 mm² cable is thin for high currents.
- 4WD tourers
- Car campers
- Caravanners
Yes. I paid $45, and it’s the part that lets us camp in the shade and still charge. If you run a solar blanket, you want a lead like this.
