62 with wunderlust

[ZoNiE]

Hi Patrick46, I live in Bedford,VA. I plan on trying it out close to home first to see how it goes but I really want to travel to all the lower 48 states. I have a 13 yr.old dog whom I love dearly. I'm hoping he will be able to travel with me. I love most animals and belong to a couple of rescues here in VA. I don't really have any hobbies right now. I'm hoping this new life will kick start some new interests.

You may find that transporting rescues to new homes in other states is something you can do to keep busy. A lot of rescues will cover your fuel, at least...

There is always a need for this.

 

[Kathryn]

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I have tried to respond to a message to Guy about 5 or 6 times and have failed miserably each time.  I need to figure out how to reply in messages somehow.

I do have a 3 port USB adapter that plugs into my cigarette lighter in the front, and charge my phone, power bank, and e-cig with it.  Then I have a charger in the back cigarette lighter for my laptop.  When I drive a few hours I am set.  The problem is when I stay in the same city for awhile.  I don't drive enough then to charge everything up.

The van only charges when the keys are turned on in the ignition.  Otherwise there is no power to the cigarette lighters.  I don't mind that really, as I don't want to take a chance of draining my starter battery and getting stranded.

I wish I had an auxiliary battery and when I get to Houston this fall I plan to see how much a conversion company would charge me to install one.  And hopefully add some solar panels to charge it up with.  I'm afraid it will be a lot of money, but I am not technical-minded and if I tried to rig something up I'm certain I would blow myself up

Sorry for the hijack!  I will try to learn how messages work after this!!

That's ok. I learned something too.

 

[BC Guy]

Do you mean something like this?

http://www.goalzero.com/mobile/p/140/Goal-Zero-Yeti-1250-Solar-Generator

I've considered it, but for that price I think I could get mounted panels on my van, which I would prefer over portable.  I think the risk of theft is less that way...

Here is one that Bob recommends:
 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...&tag=cheaprvliving-20&linkId=RYYMVF2XILNBNACJ
You can find this (and others) on the blog page.  http://www.cheaprvliving.com/blog/
You will need to get a battery separately.

 

[jl75]

That is much cheaper. I wonder if the panels could be mounted to the racks on top of my van. Seems a hole would have to be drilled into the van for the cord as well. I am definitely going to need to research this as I would love to be able to charge my phone and a fan. If I could do that I think I would probably stop tent camping and van dwell full time

 

[WriterMs]

If you go to the second menu line at the top of this website, you'll see a heading "Solar and Wind" that, when clicked, will give you tons of good basic info. The forum also has many threads in the Electrical section.

In one or more of Bob's blogs, I believe he goes into the pros and cons of fixed solar panels (like on your roof rack) vs portable. Like if you camp in hot climates a lot, you can park in the shade yet put your portable solar panels in the sun. If you are going to be in a town/city and stealthy, I can see why having the panels "nailed down" would be important.