EDIT: I live here year round and own a house. I use the van for work mornings. I like to go to the coast weekends where it works fine. This was more about telling those who need it about the limitations and to be careful with the batteries.

When I bought my 1994 Coachmen RV, I was more worried about the engine, suspension, tires, etc. All have been fine. The roof AC pushes out 58 degree air and the front AC is new. All good, right?

Wrong. The rooftop AC an't keep up with desert heat at all. Best it can do is cool to 99 degrees when it's 110 out. Why? The insulation in the old rigs is woefully inadequate and let's not even discuss how hot the doors are on the sunny side.

I've got the windows protected with Reflectix and no obvious issues with the sidewalls. The real problem is the roof. It was radiating 105 yesterday and very warm to the touch.

My intent for buying this rig was use to for work during then week then go to the coast on the weekends.

I may try to re-insulate the roof this fall or winter and see what I can do about the door panels.

FYI, the rooftop unit is 13.5k Btu's and operates normally. No AC unit can cool that heat load. I have to remove my Aefiry P280 every day around noon when I'm done with work because right now, with AC off, the van climbs to 122 or so with vents open. My location is Palm Springs.

I’ll be starting the electrical part of my build and came across these cheap hybrid inverters that combine inverter + battery charger + MPPT solar controller in one unit.

Seems pretty tempting compared with buying all 3 components separately.

But I’m wondering about the downsides.

Has anyone here actually used one of these in a campervan/RV?

Would you go for an all-in-one like this, or stick with separate inverter + MPPT + charger?

Thank you all

Can you help me sanity-check my electrical plan?
The solar setup might change, as i will have to check if i can fit the panels after mounting other things.
And i might get a second dc-dc charger

GM Brightdrop Zevo 600 AWD electric stepvan⚡️🚐

Hello Everyone,

A few weeks/months ago someone posted a website app for designing your van electrical system. You can choose which items you wanted to include and it would tell you the specifics of how to wire and the wire sizes needed for your system. I thought/swear I saved the url but it seems to be lost...

Does anyone know the site?

Thanks!!!

MODS: can we sticky this :)

https://morevanlessmoney.com/

I'm getting a van to live in while I travel looking for work. I saw old refrigerated trucks used by a grocery store. I've previously had a heat stroke from passing out in my car when I lived in it, so it seems like this should make life a lot easier with it being air-conditioned. From what I hear the ford transit line is pretty good. One thing that concerns me is the cost of gas. My goal is to get into a plumbing apprenticeship which usually requires in person applications. My planned places to look are on the east or west coast, and maybe Ohio, so I need to be prepared to drive thousands of miles.

My thinking is that a refrigerated and larger back portion would allow me to work more difficult jobs, have an easier time cooking for myself, wash up without driving all the way to a gym if one isn't near by, and depending on the city I'm in, ride a bicycle to not even use gas except to move the van occasionally to avoid getting towed.

How much more would it really cost to maintain and drive one of these than a standard transit 150? Do you think it is worth it?

I grew up in what I would call a "road trip" family. There were times, sure, when we would travel to specific destinations by plane, like the trip I took in 1996 to visit New York City with my mother, or a visit to London after 7th grade (which, admittedly, would be a difficult drive from the US). Still, every summer it was normal for all 5 of us (mom, dad, two sisters, and me) to pile into the family suburban and drive from our home in Austin, Texas to the small town of Onekama, in northern Michigan.

This is why, about a decade ago when I experienced an impactful break-up and the end of a contracted job, I took to the road. I had a loose plan to visit some of the places my parents had shown me, to see some friends, and also the forge my own path. That trip took me to 28 states in 57 days. Since then, I've planned a few long trips each year: camping in my van on the way to New Orleans and back, hitting a wedding in Utah and Wisconsin's House on the Rock on my way home, and even "stopping by" a friend's baby shower in Boston between concerts in Philadelphia.

Full blog here: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/posts/have-van-will-travel

Just a FYI for anyone else who likes to see where they've been.

I am a map and data geek.

This summer, I drove my van from Tennessee to Alaska. I boondocked and used free overnight spots the entire way. I normally record my locations each day in my journal, but I get lazy and forget half the time.

When the trip was over, I wanted to recreate exact locations where I stopped each night, but couldn't pinpoint half the locations from memory.

Google Timeline from my phone came to the rescue.

I converted my Timeline data into GeoJSON using Python, and loaded it into QGIS. With QGIS, it was easy to filter the data and isolate the locations where I was between 11 PM and 6 AM each day.

In a few instances, I had to fine-tune the locations manually, but overall, the geolocations were accurate.

Pretty cool that all the data is retrievable from your phone even when you forget where you where.