debit.servus
Well-known member
I am currently writing this post inside San Jose Trucking School with an instructional DVD paused about the Air Brakes test. I am becoming a trucker to earn money and get ahead in life. I expect to have a CDL by the End de February 2017.
I went places of distance this year, more than 500 miles from San Jose. The furthest point away from San Jose was Peace river, AB. I traveled in an climate controlled van, slept on a real mattress, and could start the generator anytime to run the A/C which I did as temperatures were hot and humid (upper 80s).
Las Vegas was inhospitably hot without climate control as usual in the summer months, and 10,000 BTUs took 20-30 minutes to bring the van down to low-70s. My base in Las Vegas was the auto parking lot at Craig Road Pilot truck stop in North Las Vegas. I was in Las Vegas for 9 days, with most of the time spent in the A/Ced van. Every 8 hours I refueled the Honda genset and prematurely woke up for two of the days due to the genset running out of fuel. During the day; I would refuel the genset, start it, let it run for 30 seconds to 2 minutes without load, plug in the van, AC auto starts, wait for the compressor to kick on and switch to eco mode to minimize noise. I wasn't the only van in the truck stop running a generator, I saw two conversion vans and I could hear their generators running, for the same reason I was.
Running the genset from full tank to empty on eco mode had about the same runtime as full mode, meaning there isn't much fuel being saved. The Honda genset has a 1.1 gallon tank AFAIK. 1.1 gallon x 2 (I would say 16 hours a day I ran the genset for A/C) equals 2.2 gallons a day. Say 5-7$ to stay cool each day courtesy of moms fuel subsidy/loan.
Later in the trip I bought an extended run kit from Ebay and it's worth every dollar. It was a long story to acquire it; I ordered it in Dillon Mt on June 28 (My itenerary had just 4 things on it for a 2 month trip) shipped it to Sweetgrass Mt (it arrived on July 2nd) and picked it up on July 4th dog legging it from Redcliff as shipping this to my relatives in Canada would cost a small fortune provided the eBay seller would even ship to Canada. Plus I would rather spend a day picking it up than deal with international shipping hassle (if I had money I would have bought it before I left San Jose).
I can now run the Honda nearly 2 days straight on a 6.6 gallon WEDCO Canadian gas can with the extended run kit. This is how I ran it in BRC. I bought WEDCO gas cans in Calgary after two of the American scepter gas can bounced off the back platform in Calgary and scraped on the pavement, leaking fuel and totaling the gas cans. Tight bungee cords aren't enough. I bought rope to tie the wedco cans down. Canada isn't beaver backwater.
Overall, the van set up evolved throughout the trip, as I lived and traveled in the van. The most prominent mods are:
-a front cargo platform built by Me and my uncle Jake Wolfe. Pictures and how to are coming ASAP.
-Installing boat loops to tie ropes that suspend the back platform like a drawbridge.
-space efficient shelf supports using 3x3" flat iron and 14" steel tube welded at 45 degree angle. Uncle Jake did the welding and I did the drill pressing, installing, and basically everything else. Pictures coming ASAP.
-pipe straps to suspend a king size black sheet to act as a bed canopy.
A lot happens on a two month trip, and this is just a portion of my experience. But what's important is I went places of distance while in reasonable comfort, on my own schedule and while sleeping in my own bed. This is what I spent 5 years aiming for from the day I settled on a van due to the cost and licensing.
In 2017 I desire to go even further. And I am working for it. I am currently in trucking school so I can get ahead via trucking, earning money with every mile while scouting parts of the country that are worth spending time in. I am shooting for Easter 2017 to be back in Canada, so the sooner I am hauling loads the better. I'm not going to be a trucker for the rest of life, it's a job for me not a career.
I went places of distance this year, more than 500 miles from San Jose. The furthest point away from San Jose was Peace river, AB. I traveled in an climate controlled van, slept on a real mattress, and could start the generator anytime to run the A/C which I did as temperatures were hot and humid (upper 80s).
Las Vegas was inhospitably hot without climate control as usual in the summer months, and 10,000 BTUs took 20-30 minutes to bring the van down to low-70s. My base in Las Vegas was the auto parking lot at Craig Road Pilot truck stop in North Las Vegas. I was in Las Vegas for 9 days, with most of the time spent in the A/Ced van. Every 8 hours I refueled the Honda genset and prematurely woke up for two of the days due to the genset running out of fuel. During the day; I would refuel the genset, start it, let it run for 30 seconds to 2 minutes without load, plug in the van, AC auto starts, wait for the compressor to kick on and switch to eco mode to minimize noise. I wasn't the only van in the truck stop running a generator, I saw two conversion vans and I could hear their generators running, for the same reason I was.
Running the genset from full tank to empty on eco mode had about the same runtime as full mode, meaning there isn't much fuel being saved. The Honda genset has a 1.1 gallon tank AFAIK. 1.1 gallon x 2 (I would say 16 hours a day I ran the genset for A/C) equals 2.2 gallons a day. Say 5-7$ to stay cool each day courtesy of moms fuel subsidy/loan.
Later in the trip I bought an extended run kit from Ebay and it's worth every dollar. It was a long story to acquire it; I ordered it in Dillon Mt on June 28 (My itenerary had just 4 things on it for a 2 month trip) shipped it to Sweetgrass Mt (it arrived on July 2nd) and picked it up on July 4th dog legging it from Redcliff as shipping this to my relatives in Canada would cost a small fortune provided the eBay seller would even ship to Canada. Plus I would rather spend a day picking it up than deal with international shipping hassle (if I had money I would have bought it before I left San Jose).
I can now run the Honda nearly 2 days straight on a 6.6 gallon WEDCO Canadian gas can with the extended run kit. This is how I ran it in BRC. I bought WEDCO gas cans in Calgary after two of the American scepter gas can bounced off the back platform in Calgary and scraped on the pavement, leaking fuel and totaling the gas cans. Tight bungee cords aren't enough. I bought rope to tie the wedco cans down. Canada isn't beaver backwater.
Overall, the van set up evolved throughout the trip, as I lived and traveled in the van. The most prominent mods are:
-a front cargo platform built by Me and my uncle Jake Wolfe. Pictures and how to are coming ASAP.
-Installing boat loops to tie ropes that suspend the back platform like a drawbridge.
-space efficient shelf supports using 3x3" flat iron and 14" steel tube welded at 45 degree angle. Uncle Jake did the welding and I did the drill pressing, installing, and basically everything else. Pictures coming ASAP.
-pipe straps to suspend a king size black sheet to act as a bed canopy.
A lot happens on a two month trip, and this is just a portion of my experience. But what's important is I went places of distance while in reasonable comfort, on my own schedule and while sleeping in my own bed. This is what I spent 5 years aiming for from the day I settled on a van due to the cost and licensing.
In 2017 I desire to go even further. And I am working for it. I am currently in trucking school so I can get ahead via trucking, earning money with every mile while scouting parts of the country that are worth spending time in. I am shooting for Easter 2017 to be back in Canada, so the sooner I am hauling loads the better. I'm not going to be a trucker for the rest of life, it's a job for me not a career.