Get some mason jars, preserve a ton of meals canning them, have home cooked meals on the road with a couple days work at home base. Got about 100 mason jars for my family.
Ah, ok. We have plenty of food storage as it is and mason jars are heavy. We have a bunch of reuseable plastic containers that stack nicely in the fridge for leftovers. We tend to cook as we go and if we have leftovers we'll store and reheat it the next day to reduce waste.
Yeah we have a water bladder we can use and 2x20L jerry cans. The reality is a GVM upgrade is just around a corner that should give us more capacity than we’ll ever need.
How much did it cost for the for the install on the the van itself, as I am looking at putting a 200watt solar panel o my Cruiseliner so that I can charge my 120am agm battery because I have a sleep apnea machine that can run on 12v power alone and I’ve been using a 200w solar panel and chasing the sun as the earth revolves around the sun. The solar has a 25amp mmpt solar regulator and it takes about 5 to 8 hours to charge the 120 amp hour battery, this isn’t bad but just annoying to say the least. Look forward to hearing from you.
We did the install ourselves so really, it cost us nothing but time. I would have well over 100 hours work in our install, from design to build to finish. Rates vary but generally the cost of the gear plus hourly rate and consumables. It really depends. A 200W panel that chases the sun will be more efficient than a 200W that’s fixed, and will depend on where/how you park the van to make sure the roof is in the sun. I would recommend the 310W Sunman eARC, as you’ll typically see 200-250W on “good” days, paired with a 20A Victron controller. But neither of those are cheap. Sorry we couldn’t be more help on the install side of things.
Thanks mate for you prompt reply, and the information you provided. It’s all good. And it’s interesting to know that chasing the sun, although annoying is probably the better option for us a we don’t have kids or pets. I have borrowed a 2,2 inverter generator this time as we will be going off grid in a couple of days for three weeks and it’s going to be there if we have no sun for the solar panels. We are from Tasmania and the sun isn’t as strong as on the big island ( Australia ). So we will give that a try and go from there. Cheers mate Happy Christmas and Happy New Year to you too. Happy Holidays to you and your family. 👍
Havent checked in on you guys for a bit and wow you have really done a good job!
Good job
It's been a pretty long steady build but we're pretty happy with where it has ended up.
Get some mason jars, preserve a ton of meals canning them, have home cooked meals on the road with a couple days work at home base. Got about 100 mason jars for my family.
Home base could be a shed on some land, just for cooking.
@SarahStuff-p5u I’m not sure what either of those has to do with our setup?
@@rubitherubicon22 Mostly suggestions to extend the vacations, enjoy what you have longer.
Ah, ok. We have plenty of food storage as it is and mason jars are heavy. We have a bunch of reuseable plastic containers that stack nicely in the fridge for leftovers. We tend to cook as we go and if we have leftovers we'll store and reheat it the next day to reduce waste.
Maybe get a water tank that will fit in the truck to supply trailer, easy to refill.
Yeah we have a water bladder we can use and 2x20L jerry cans. The reality is a GVM upgrade is just around a corner that should give us more capacity than we’ll ever need.
How much did it cost for the for the install on the the van itself, as I am looking at putting a 200watt solar panel o my Cruiseliner so that I can charge my 120am agm battery because I have a sleep apnea machine that can run on 12v power alone and I’ve been using a 200w solar panel and chasing the sun as the earth revolves around the sun. The solar has a 25amp mmpt solar regulator and it takes about 5 to 8 hours to charge the 120 amp hour battery, this isn’t bad but just annoying to say the least. Look forward to hearing from you.
We did the install ourselves so really, it cost us nothing but time. I would have well over 100 hours work in our install, from design to build to finish.
Rates vary but generally the cost of the gear plus hourly rate and consumables. It really depends.
A 200W panel that chases the sun will be more efficient than a 200W that’s fixed, and will depend on where/how you park the van to make sure the roof is in the sun. I would recommend the 310W Sunman eARC, as you’ll typically see 200-250W on “good” days, paired with a 20A Victron controller.
But neither of those are cheap. Sorry we couldn’t be more help on the install side of things.
Thanks mate for you prompt reply, and the information you provided. It’s all good. And it’s interesting to know that chasing the sun, although annoying is probably the better option for us a we don’t have kids or pets. I have borrowed a 2,2 inverter generator this time as we will be going off grid in a couple of days for three weeks and it’s going to be there if we have no sun for the solar panels. We are from Tasmania and the sun isn’t as strong as on the big island ( Australia ). So we will give that a try and go from there. Cheers mate Happy Christmas and Happy New Year to you too.
Happy Holidays to you and your family. 👍
@ enjoy your travels. Be keen to see whatever solution you end up with.