Say hello to "The Prairie Schooner"!

[surfmore72]

[img=600x800]https://www.dropbox.com/pri/get/van...JVfqxX51O-funDMRPX6rMQAb_WSCOIA7yxBF31Q[/img]
Well... First off I want to thank this community for sharing, helping, and creating a wonderful place where we can learn and grow our dreams! 
We've been on the road for a month now and all systems are working great!
We started with a 99 chevy express 1500 conversion van.  Ripped everything behind the front seats out and just went crazy!  Reflectix and 1/4 inch ply wood for walls and ceiling.  Maxxair fan and reinstalled the blinds that came with the original conversion.  Built a pull out bed with storage underneath.  Sink with 7 gallon fresh water tank and 5 gallon gray tank. 150 watt renogy solar panel connected to 2 golf cart batteries through the new prostar 15 gen 3.  All kinds of useful storage including fancy clothes closet (for interviews and a few weddings this summer).  Built a display panel for monitoring amps going into batteries from solar and alt.  I'm sure I'm missing stuff... So stoked though!  In Santa fe now and headed to Fort Collins CO for the holiday.  Then a big loop around the west!  Thanks again for everything!  I hope I can give back even a small fraction of what I learned here over the past year (lots of searching and stalking with only a few direct inputs)!  Hope to see some of you on the road! 
E

 

[Sabatical]

Sounds awesome! Wish i could see the pic...broken link in Tapatalk, and in webview it's wants a Photobucket sign-in.

Sent from my SCH-I435 using Tapatalk

 

[Queen]

Congrats on your accomplishment, it sounds like you're having a ball!

 

[John61CT]

move the photo to imgur

 

[surfmore72]

[img=600x800]
Used drop box the first time...

 

[AbuelaLoca]

Congratulations!! Glad you're having fun! We need pictures of the inside too,though!

 

[rvpopeye]

Welcome aboard and to the posting side E !
Looks like you're well on your way to being ,,,,well on your way !

 

[exnavyabfc]

[img=600x800]https://www.dropbox.com/pri/get/van...JVfqxX51O-funDMRPX6rMQAb_WSCOIA7yxBF31Q[/img]
Well... First off I want to thank this community for sharing, helping, and creating a wonderful place where we can learn and grow our dreams! 
We've been on the road for a month now and all systems are working great!
We started with a 99 chevy express 1500 conversion van.  Ripped everything behind the front seats out and just went crazy!  Reflectix and 1/4 inch ply wood for walls and ceiling.  Maxxair fan and reinstalled the blinds that came with the original conversion.  Built a pull out bed with storage underneath.  Sink with 7 gallon fresh water tank and 5 gallon gray tank. 150 watt renogy solar panel connected to 2 golf cart batteries through the new prostar 15 gen 3.  All kinds of useful storage including fancy clothes closet (for interviews and a few weddings this summer).  Built a display panel for monitoring amps going into batteries from solar and alt.  I'm sure I'm missing stuff... So stoked though!  In Santa fe now and headed to Fort Collins CO for the holiday.  Then a big loop around the west!  Thanks again for everything!  I hope I can give back even a small fraction of what I learned here over the past year (lots of searching and stalking with only a few direct inputs)!  Hope to see some of you on the road! 
E

Congrats. Would love to know what you are running off the solar and how it is working. Thanks.

 

[surfmore72]

Congrats. Would love to know what you are running off the solar and how it is working. Thanks.

Mainly running 120v freezer, water pump, maxxair fan, magic bullet, laptop when needed.  Working pretty well so far! We drive almost every day however...so alternator does a lot of the heavy lifting.  We get 10amps from the panel at noon in full sun (when battery can take it). 
Prairie Schooner
That's a link to a bunch more pictures. 
e

 

[PineyCruisin]

Congrats on your new life! Love the interior conversion you did....beautiful job! We purchased a conversion van specifically to have a 360 view of the outside so really appreciate seeing how you worked around the windows. 

I can't tell from the pictures if the solar panels are installed on the roof (is it just the fan vent I see or are solar panels in front of it) or if you are using portable panels. We're thinking about solar but have yet to research about what to do with a curved high top. Another reason that we were thinking portable would be best is because all of our travels will be in forested areas on the east coast so will need the ability to catch the direct sunlight as needed.

Thanks for sharing your pictures with us.

 

[CautionToTheWind]

NICE! Interior, what I'm targeting for. What's brand name on the freezer? Know the amps by chance?

P.S. I'm from the prairies, so I like the name!

 

[drysailor]

Mainly running 120v freezer, water pump, maxxair fan, magic bullet, laptop when needed.  Working pretty well so far! We drive almost every day however...so alternator does a lot of the heavy lifting.  We get 10amps from the panel at noon in full sun (when battery can take it). 
Prairie Schooner
That's a link to a bunch more pictures. 

One thing about this forum that has really surprised me is the talent and ability of many of the posters. I might expect work like this from someone who's been doing it for years, but it's impressive to see it from just regular folks.

 

[Ballenxj]

Prairie Schooner eh? That's what I used to call my old 4x4 suburban.  
I absolutely LOVE the way yours is set up. Lot's of storage everywhere, and very inspirational.

 

[surfmore72]

NICE! Interior, what I'm targeting for. What's brand name on the freezer? Know the amps by chance?

P.S. I'm from the prairies, so I like the name!

Stopped by the gtg in Colorado and had some questions about the freezer too. 
 Avanti makes it.  It's the smallest(2.4 cubic feet) , most efficient chest freezer I could find.  160 bucks.  I run it with a 12v temperature controller (inkbird) and a dedicated 400 watt Inverter (bestek(sp?)).  The controller turns the Inverter on and off (and thus the freezer as well) with use of a solinoid (100amp I think).  When running... It pulls 5 amps (that's including Inverter and controller).  When not running it uses 0.04amps).  When in camping mode (stationary) i set controller to 20° F.  The controller allows freezer to warm to 23° then cools to 20. The 3 degree difference can be changed but I haven't bothered.  At 80° ambient it runs 40% of the time.  So in a 24 hour period it uses about 51amps dc).  In practice... Once the battery bank goes into float and if there is sufficient sun I turn freezer down to 9 degrees and then back to 20 for night time.  I do the same when driving (turn down to 9°). It's been working really well for us. 
We freeze water bottles (have 18 in rotation) and switch out every other day (depending on what we have in cooler and ambient temp) 
We also do frozen fruit for breakfast smoothies, bacon, fish and shrimp, occasionally a small thing of ice-cream (have to keep freezer at 9 to keep it hard),  ice for drinks(we usually buy a 10lb bag which lasts...depending on how much Tonic and lime we have)  :angel:  ,  beer for a couple hours if warm, etc etc...
We don't keep things in there long (2 weeks max) so don't worry too much about the changing temps stuff. 
All together... It cost us about $230 without wiring.  And works great for us. 
Hope this helps 
-Erik

 

[Charlie The Tuna]

That looks like a great setup. I really like it.

 

[John61CT]

All together... It cost us about $230 without wiring.  And works great for us. 

Definitely higher electric usage than the 12V native units, but **way** cheaper capital investment up front! I also like the changing temp settings by timeframe to make good use of solar excess production.

Dunno if you saw this, maybe an idea to try
https://vanlivingforum.com/showthread.php?pid=313648#pid313648