I was building this to go live in the forest so wanted lots of water and power and storage for both.
First I racked it up with an old set of tent poles just to get a feel for the inside height and set up the shelving.
I had to be able to reach everything easily without unloading. 2 Stainless Steel Drums for water. One for fresh/ cold and one for fresh/ Hot.
8 Ginormous AGM 110 AH 6V storage batteries at 95 lbs. each. Yikes. Racked up both sides, centered just forward of the axle and under the water barrels.
2 Inverters. One 3000 watts and one 10000 watts for the big tools. 2 x 250 watt windmills and 3 x 220 watt Solar Panels. The over production from the windmills feeds a 12v water heating element in one of the drums.
I always had hot water if I kept 20 gallons or less in the tank.
My original plan was to cover it in camo. and reed fence. I even added some Gypsy flair to it but decided it needed to be a fully covered Vardo.
Took the wood from an old game booth and made a quick frame.
Skinned it with Luann. The frame hides doors and shelf's and a side opening for the sink.
The red pipe on the right is the Hot water system. Gravity fed to a sink right there.
All covered and sealed. Cool Sealed the crap out of the roof and good exterior paint on the outside.
The Solar Panels fold up to make an awning and the door splits so you can open it without crashing into them. They fold down flat and get ratchet tied for travel.
The windmills are on 2 piece 36' masts that stay on top of the RV when not in use. 1 man can set them up and raise them to attach on the back corners of the Vardo.
Hitched it up to my gigantic Tioga and loved every minute of it. Wholly self contained. It produced far more power than I needed, with a fridge and TVs and computers and hot water.
It was a little heavy, I had 6 months food and a lot of tools in it.
My little gas bike was always the last thing loaded so I could pull it out and cruise around. It's sitting at a friends in Tahoe right now. I'll pull it back to the campgrounds next season. I love having my own power station! lol
