Going camping off the grid...

[MickinOz]

You must be single.
I can do without most of it, but my wife's idea of a good trip away from home involves room service, TV, fridge, ensuite bathroom, air conditioning, etc.
So the teardrop had to have a certain level of fit out. It had to be quite a significant step up from a swag on the ground.
I got away with no AC wiring, but had to have lights and TV.
I'm still shaking my head over being allowed to omit the air conditioner....
Doin it again, I'd have less wiring but still some.

[Bezoar]

I struggle as I am planning my build with just what slow points out - if this is supposed to be a step up from tent camping, How'd I end up thinking about solar power, reading lights over the bed, phone chargers in the wall, heater, air conditioner, slide out stove, etc. etc. ...

[Tom&Shelly]

My original thinking was much like Slow's--we used to tent camp, and who needs to drag around anything more than a flashlight? Heck, it's usually so bright at night I didn't even use the flashlight.

But, with this "hard sided tent" (aka teardrop), maybe one or two lights would be handy. After all, there are low powered LED lights nowadays, and I am an electrical engineer, after all.

Ah, but once we told my Mom about the build, she insisted we make our first long trip one back East (from New Mexico to Upstate New York) to see her. While camping in the West, we simply go up to cool down, but crossing the Midwest in summer means either dragging an air conditioner along, or suffering. And an air conditioner means a shore power hook-up.

Well, while we have shore power, why not use it to charge the battery?

Oh, and solar panels are now so much less expensive, and wouldn't that be neat?

And so it goes. Our 'lectrical system is now only about as complicated as certain NASA spacecraft.



Tom

[tony.latham]

i am thinking life's so easy now days...

Slow:

You kinda remind me of a bank beaver.

Which is a bachelor beaver that digs a den up under the stream bank. No lodge. No dam. No need for such foo-foo. He spends his nights eating aspen bark which is kinda like a T-bone and a cold beer for a beaver. Life is good, eh?

And then one day something changes. A female beav comes down the creek. He hasn't seen her, but her scent is everywhere.

With this grand fragrance, he spends his nights damming the creek. I'm talking logging with teeth. Sundown to sunup. Toiling away. When it's done, he builds a lodge. Thousands of sticks and maybe a half-ton of mud.

All to lure the temptress...



Tony

[Tom&Shelly]

All to lure the temptress...

Dam beavers!

[bdosborn]

And so it goes. Our 'lectrical system is now only about as complicated as certain NASA spacecraft.

Thanks for reminding me about Reddy Kilowatt, I've got a couple of stickers ordered and on the way from eBay. Pulled the trigger yesterday and ordered the van, Reddy will look awesome on the rear doors.
Bruce

[western traveler]

Slow,
Thank you for posting this. It is a great perspective on KISS.

Relative to Tony’s beaver story there is also a male bird that builds his nest before she appears.

I have arrived at the place of; better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.
Hopefully I can hit a happy medium between the two with my first build.
I am already repeating the advice “don’t over build, don’t over build” on a regular basis. Knowing myself I probably will...

[RJ Howell]

Slow, I may tease every once in a while, but really, I do so cause.. it's like teasing myself!

I'm a minimalist and build accordingly. My water supply is 2.5 gallon carboys, gravity feed (open the bottle and out it comes). My cooktop is a Coleman 2 burner or or my fancy Grill/burner Campchef unit, both on 1lb bottles. Hot water means boiling. Heat means an extra blanket. Cooling means moving to higher elevation or oceanside. I do have a LiFePo4 battery to keep these cool toys charged.. I do have my vices.. I no longer carry my solar stuff, yet did install a DC/DC charger to keep my DC Frig running, another vice... like my food and beverage to stay cold.. Cheaper overall then buying ice (MHO).

You are far from alone..

[Socal Tom]

I built a pair of 120v outlets into my cabin, they only get used if I camp in a powered camp site ( which is becoming rare) the power inlet is handy for keeping the battery charged when at home, but it wouldn’t be hard to just hook up a charger.
Honestly if I did it again, I’d use the money I spent on the power converter/charger on solar panels and a cheap PWM charge controller. Since I’ve mounted mine the battery is just about self maintaining ( if it was parked outside it wouldn’t be hooked to power and stay charged)

[tony.latham]

And so it goes. Our 'lectrical system is now only about as complicated as certain NASA spacecraft.

Thanks for reminding me about Reddy Kilowatt, I've got a couple of stickers ordered and on the way from eBay. Pulled the trigger yesterday and ordered the van, Reddy will look awesome on the rear doors.
Bruce

We finally flipped the switch on our grid-tie solar today... so I just had to order a Reddy Kilowatt sticker.



Tony

[bdosborn]

We finally flipped the switch on our grid-tie solar today... so I just had to order a Reddy Kilowatt sticker.

Very cool! I just got my stickers in the mail today!
Bruce

[tony.latham]

Very cool!

It is exciting. I lost track of how many times I checked to see how many watts we were producing.

Tony

[Tom&Shelly]

We finally flipped the switch on our grid-tie solar today...

Tony

Tom

[Sparksalot]

Like you Slow, I've scaled back some of the systems in Rose as well. Originally I had an 88Ah UPS battery in her. I could run a whole bunch of stuff. That battery took a dump at somewhere around 12 years old. In the meantime, all the lighting had been switched to LED lamps, I discovered I only using the fantastic fan for a few minutes at a time to circulate air, and I never really added much load. The new battery is a ginormous 35Ah unit the runs lights and fans for a bunch of days the way I'm using them.
I do have a simple solar charger installed, because it helps with a bit of battery monitoring, and I can plug a panel in if I feel like it. I have 15 watts of small panel. A larger one would be nice, but it takes a spot to store, and as just mentioned, I'm not using that much power anyway.
My 120V system is still just a computer rack mounted power strip with 6 outlets in the cabin and 6 in the galley. Mostly used at home in the garage where Rose is my man cave. I haven't camped with shore power in nearly 3 years. The microwave is mostly out these days, so that spot gets used as more pantry, or to hold water jugs.
I had the full size bed for a long time, then some door seal likes while driving 200 miles in thunderstorms did that in. At one of the WTW events, Sagebrush mentioned using a truck sleeper mattress. Brilliant. I have a 7" memory foam sleeper mattress, plus room in half the cabin to get in without getting all over the mattress, plus my dog has a spot for her bed too. I'm also using a sleeping bag more often.

[bdosborn]

I'm going the other way, I'm just finishing up a new battery. 400A-h of ever lovin' LiFePO4 power!





Bruce