|
Atticus_1354 posted:what a child draws when they draw a truck I thought that was the Cyber truck.
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2022 02:15
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 21, 2024 03:02 |
|
|
Ambassadorofsodomy posted:I thought that was the Cyber truck. I know what test I'm running on my nephews next time I see them.
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2022 08:16
|
|
|
I have begun camping again and it is lovely. Boondocking/dispersed a couple of weeks ago:   about 20 feet away from this:  (would have camped on the edge but smol kids can't be trusted) we played toy cars  checked out some graffiti   Met a cool greybeard that was camping in his teardrop adjacent to us from the Chicago area. Out on a 1+ month adventure. He goes hiking and picks up wood for carving. Gifted this to us and told the kids it would keep our camp safe. Very awesome.  Then for a change of pace tried a "Reserved" camping spot through Recreation.gov Originally we planned to go with our friends that have a Happier Camper but then they got engaged and are getting married this week so they backed out of the camping trip as they had more planning and prep. There were some nice views; decent toilet, kind of nice to have an easy flat space for parking. Picnic table was a nice touch. It was really close (like ~35 minute drive).   That said - it was too close to the road and too close to the entrance of the canyon and we heard cars/trucks/side by sides/motorcycles the entire night. ALL night. It never stopped. One in the morning? Two in the morning, FOUR? Seriously the whole night. I got up the next morning absolutely loathing every side by side in existence. I did not have a high opinion of them before, but after that night I hate them. So loud - and not like a good kind of loud. Think of the Harley Davidson south park meme, and then dumb it down and make it even worse. Prob will stick to boondocking OR will vet out the location of the campsite more thorough next time (this was picked by our friends). Mountains and hiking were fantastic. I will do a more thorough write up in my thread in AI when I get the chance.
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2022 22:40
|
|
|
We basically only ever use state parks with groomed spots to park in and our first year was just trial and error of finding good parks or finding the good spots in the parks we went to. I think when my kids are older we might do remote boondocking but we aren't there yet.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2022 02:03
|
|
|
Me and the kids were at Topsail state park in Florida the other day and it seemed like an ideal camp/rv spot with no chance of cars running all night. We will be bringing a camper down for sure (I have a state park pass we were just there for the afternoon)
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2022 02:40
|
|
|
I haven’t camped since I was very young but just driving through public campgrounds in the middle of the day makes them seem like miserable places to stay. 100% full even February to November in Arizona it seems.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2022 04:06
|
|
|
Rick posted:I haven’t camped since I was very young but just driving through public campgrounds in the middle of the day makes them seem like miserable places to stay. 100% full even February to November in Arizona it seems. Get north of Phoenix at all and it's just as bad or worse in the summer. I never camped at any of those myself as a kid but I remember driving by on the way to more remote scouting campsites and seeing the general public ones packed all the way to the highway.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2022 05:04
|
|
|
Love this setup. When we purchased our travel trailer I had been planning to work remote while we were on the road, so having something with a dinette I could sit and work at for a few hours comfortably was a requirement. Now that I'm planning to take some time off work while we travel I'm regretting that we didn't go for a smaller teardrop like this. Stupid question, but: when you're boondocking in a place like this and don't have a toilet on board, where do you poo poo?
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2022 06:50
|
|
|
You have a spectrum of devices from a 5 gallon bucket and a trashbag to cassette toilet to composting toilet. You can even get a neat little tent to put around the toilet.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2022 16:07
|
|
|
Wow, omitting the noble Shovel from the list
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2022 17:57
|
|
|
Jato posted:Love this setup. When we purchased our travel trailer I had been planning to work remote while we were on the road, so having something with a dinette I could sit and work at for a few hours comfortably was a requirement. Now that I'm planning to take some time off work while we travel I'm regretting that we didn't go for a smaller teardrop like this. Completely relevant question! We use a "Luggable Loo", which is just a 5 gallon bucket and an injection molded toilet seat lid. They make special bags that have some deodorizing powder that gels down the waste etc. There are some that you can get that are biodegradable as well. We have a small privacy tent that pops up quickly like this:  Honestly it is not terrible? It is better that almost all pit/vault style toilets. A flushing toilet is great and all but a real big goal of our camping setup is as minimalist within reason and for a quick getaway. Adding extra steps like dealing with septic is something wholly unappealing to RV camping - plus those systems are not great long-term requiring a fair amount attention in the future and ew. The Bean trailer being a fiberglass trailer should last a very long time and we plan to keep it long term (forever). I think I posted an image gallery of the interior of the Bean earlier in this thread, but the mattress folds into a little love seat and a table pops up. I forgot to get a photo of the table:  Here is a stock photo from the Bean site  Bloody posted:Wow, omitting the noble Shovel from the list Noble, sure but people rarely do this the "correct" way including digging a cat hole to the recommended depth and/or trying to adhere to a good guideline of "Leave no Trace"
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2022 20:15
|
|
|
Yeah, plus the regulations that vary from one public land to the next, it's not as trivial as it sounds (but still a great option w/ a backup bucket!)
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2022 20:46
|
|
|
cursedshitbox posted:You have a spectrum of devices from a 5 gallon bucket and a trashbag to cassette toilet to composting toilet. You can even get a neat little tent to put around the toilet. And which one is a cursedshitbox? Somewhat Heroic posted:<toilet chat> Thanks! Good to know how that works, seems pretty manageable. Will look into it if we do eventually decide to trade for something a bit more minimal.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2022 21:27
|
|
|
Jato posted:And which one is a cursedshitbox? A suitcase sized drybath.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2022 21:57
|
|
|
Anybody else trying to sell a camper at the moment? I’ve got my 1996 Jayco popup listed and am hardly getting any engagement, even though it’s priced pretty much exactly where other clones are at the moment. I assume gas prices have a lot of people saying “gently caress no I’m not towing anything this summer!” Also why why why why the gently caress do people ask “Why are you selling it?”  , I want $3000 more than I want a camper at the moment.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 19:40
|
|
|
I have someone coming in 2 hours to see a camper from a couple hundred miles away! I do see quite a few people trying to sell pull behinds to buy a boat so maybe the market is flooded a bit?
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 19:51
|
|
|
Market seems pretty saturated right now post vanlyfe. I wouldn't even want to try and sell a rv at the moment despite hankerings for another bus.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 20:52
|
|
|
I would have thought with rent skyrocketing right now van life would be increasing. But then again it’s been a really warm summer and it’s not summer yet so maybe that is making people tap out.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 22:01
|
|
|
I drove 9 hours yesterday with temps constantly over 40 celcius in the cab of my van, so I wouldn't blame them. Also then had to try and sleep with the temperature in the back sitting around 35. I am glad yesterday is over.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 23:13
|
|
|
Fingers crossed the guy is supposed to come back in the morning with a cashiers check for ask. He spent about 2 hours with me and the camper this afternoon
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 00:22
|
|
|
Oh poo poo I may have sold mine too. Couple says they'll be back tomorrow with cash, banks were closed today for Juneteenth. Zero dickering, absolutely no mention of price. Now to start saving up and finding a Casita or Scamp. Anyone got experience with them or other small hard-sided campers? We're looking for something that's easy to pull behind a V6 Tacoma. This Jayco I'm selling is a little over 6' wide, 12' long, and 5' tall. It's 1875 lbs empty, so likely a bit over 2000 lbs fully loaded. I want something no heavier than that, maybe even a little longer (this popup is egregiously sensitive to any weight behind the axle, and equally simple (no toilet/bathroom, no fridge, maybe even no heater?).
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2022 05:08
|
|
|
I hope this is the right place to talk about converting a van to a "tiny home" to live in for a few years (I work 100% remote) But not just any van, the plan is to buy one of these as soon as Ford ups the battery size.  Yeah, that a Ford EV Transit. Right now they have about the same range as my recumbent bicycle ... a bit over 100 miles. Why go electric? Well, electric vans typically have 110v outlets which makes using induction stoves and heat pumps easy. I also got an EV car in 2020 and I really like driving it. Oh and cost per mile of running the thing. But yeah, right now the range (on the vans) is not acceptable. As to conversion I'm looking at some kits specifically for Transits, where you get all the pieces precut and assemble it yourself. This company looks interesting: https://www.vantopiavans.com They have an interesting bathroom/shower setup where the toilet (cartridge or composting) slides out of a compartment so you don't have to shower with a toilet in the room. If there's a van life thread and this isn't the right place to talk about such things, please let me know.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2022 20:18
|
|
|
VideoGameVet posted:I hope this is the right place to talk about converting a van to a "tiny home" to live in for a few years (I work 100% remote) The EV transit starts at 43k and I don’t know the tax credit deal. So let’s pretend you got a base $43k and those component kits are usually $5-10k. So you are over $50k to start. For 100 mile range? Just makes no sense to me but I buy and sell diesel campers for way way less so who knows…
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2022 21:50
|
|
|
VideoGameVet posted:
Would you be adding any additional power capacity? 100 miles is bad enough without heating your house and cooking your breakfast cutting that down also.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2022 22:05
|
|
|
Officially gave up on trying to buy a half ton or even smaller truck anytime soon, and decided to cancel my Escape 5.0 preorder for next spring. The math didn't make sense trying to buy a new truck and spend about the same on a camper while still allowing wiggle room in my budget to well, actually do things. Long term I want to full time rv, but near term there's too much poo poo to do with the house and pets it realistically doesn't make sense for me. I did however wind up buying a used Subaru Outback, since it has 4x4 and a roof rack to chuck my kayak up on. The towing capacity is pretty limited at 2700 pounds, but I'm pretty interested in teardrop trailers so I think it should work all right. I especially love the bean travel trailer, but since Utah is about a day's drive away for me, I'd love to actually take a good chunk of time off work and tool around the area when I pick it up, which probably means waiting for another year to max out my vacation days. I'd love to get a travel trailer for this year though, and I've been poking around at different options. Nucamp CS-S or Tab/Tag seems like it might be a good option for me, but they're still kinda pricey when a bean isn't significantly more and seems significantly better. I'm sort of interested in DIY trailer kits, though I realize it's probably a bigger project than I really need to take on right now. How bad of an idea is it to look at DIY teardrop kits? Alternatively, I just stumbled on this listing and it seems like it might be more along the lines of what I'm looking for. Is something like that a good compromise? I just want to get outside more often, and bringing the wife along also tends to bring lot of creature comforts (that I enjoy as well), which is just a headache to pack and repack for a 2-3 night trip. I feel like a teardrop might be easier to keep packed with everything we need so we only have to mess with food and a popup canopy to hang out at camp, and I love the idea of being able to do some dispersed camping with the trailer.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2022 00:18
|
|
|
I am a legit moron and enter Omaze contests for pretty much every car and then I will spend hours planning out my favorite road trips but if I had an electric car because I love the idea of electric cars . Let me tell you that 350 miles of range still is not enough to make some of them possible. 100 miles feels really bad. That’s like a charge every hour and a half. I dunno maybe I am missing something.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2022 08:40
|
|
|
I love the idea of an electric camper, but 100 miles range is going to really be challenging for road trips. As in there will be stretches that are simply impossible due to gaps between chargers. If you've got that figured and it fits the trips you want to do though then fair play, it'd be interesting to see it done.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2022 08:53
|
|
|
Even something like the 300 miles a Rivian or F150 Lightning has would be a bit iffy as soon as you start loading it down. Would still love to see the F150 Lightning (or hell, even the F150 hybrid with the generator option) drivetrain guts stuffed into an RV chassis for electric camping. For house loads, you can get away with rooftop solar and batteries, it's not even exotic tech at this point.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2022 17:11
|
|
|
luminalflux posted:For house loads, you can get away with rooftop solar and batteries, it's not even exotic tech at this point. Yup. 100 miles of range before your house loads is going to put a hell of a limiter on your effective range. A van sized solar array to recharge the traction battery isn't really feasible unless you intend to stay put for a month or better.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2022 17:19
|
|
|
everdave posted:The EV transit starts at 43k and I don’t know the tax credit deal. So let’s pretend you got a base $43k and those component kits are usually $5-10k. So you are over $50k to start. For 100 mile range? If OP is tiny-homing it, I could see driving to a campsite, living there for a few weeks keeping the battery topped off with the site's electrical hookup, and then driving to the next site a few hundred miles away over a weekend. It's nowhere near as off-grid as you can be in a gas-powered vanlife mobile, but it's a lot more feasible if you're explicitly living from there and moving a few charges at a time rather than using it as a camper and driving 1000+ miles on a weekend for a week-long stay at a national park.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2022 18:54
|
|
|
luminalflux posted:Even something like the 300 miles a Rivian or F150 Lightning has would be a bit iffy as soon as you start loading it down. Would still love to see the F150 Lightning (or hell, even the F150 hybrid with the generator option) drivetrain guts stuffed into an RV chassis for electric camping. Towing cuts the range down for sure but is supposed to be a rather good drive. https://www.instagram.com/reel/CfC64jlJmBO/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2022 21:51
|
|
|
OSU_Matthew posted:Officially gave up on trying to buy a half ton or even smaller truck anytime soon, and decided to cancel my Escape 5.0 preorder for next spring. The math didn't make sense trying to buy a new truck and spend about the same on a camper while still allowing wiggle room in my budget to well, actually do things. Long term I want to full time rv, but near term there's too much poo poo to do with the house and pets it realistically doesn't make sense for me. Wait wait why is marky mark selling campers
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2022 00:36
|
|
|
OSU_Matthew posted:Officially gave up on trying to buy a half ton or even smaller truck anytime soon, and decided to cancel my Escape 5.0 preorder for next spring. The math didn't make sense trying to buy a new truck and spend about the same on a camper while still allowing wiggle room in my budget to well, actually do things. Long term I want to full time rv, but near term there's too much poo poo to do with the house and pets it realistically doesn't make sense for me. There are a number of people in the Bean community that are using an Outback/Bean combo. One has a Meaner Bean and tows it behind their outback. I am now 1+ year into the Bean and it still is one of the most fun "toys" I have bought. I have seen a few other small trailers while out on the road. The T@G seem cool, but not as off road capable. Much larger units. I have to say...some of the smaller ones I have seen like the nucamp just seem odd/cheap? Like a small apartment looking AC unit stuck in the wall and cabinets out of your grandparents bathroom just bolted in place. The microwave is weird as hell and looks totally out of place. I don't know. For what it is worth I have been compiling some "b-roll" video clips to assemble a comprehensive review to post on YouTube since there is not a ton of user generated content. Bean has been cranking out trailers though. they are into the 600's on chassis numbers now and it was just over a year ago I took delivery of #270. HenryJLittlefinger posted:Now to start saving up and finding a Casita or Scamp. Anyone got experience with them or other small hard-sided campers? We're looking for something that's easy to pull behind a V6 Tacoma. This Jayco I'm selling is a little over 6' wide, 12' long, and 5' tall. It's 1875 lbs empty, so likely a bit over 2000 lbs fully loaded. I want something no heavier than that, maybe even a little longer (this popup is egregiously sensitive to any weight behind the axle, and equally simple (no toilet/bathroom, no fridge, maybe even no heater?). I also have a a thread in AI where I have posted more photos and  with relevant Bean postings starting on page 17Our friend with the Happier Camper still loves her little trailer and we are scheduled to go on a camping trip in the next month together. Casita/Scamps are a little bigger and seem to be really excellent and proven at this point. DR FRASIER KRANG posted:Wait wait why is marky mark selling campers TIL the same thing as you and I am very confused.
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2022 03:55
|
|
|
everdave posted:The EV transit starts at 43k and I don’t know the tax credit deal. So let’s pretend you got a base $43k and those component kits are usually $5-10k. So you are over $50k to start. For 100 mile range? I'm not buying until I see over 250 mile range. The $25k tax credit is for businesses that buy vehicles over 6000lbs GVW. quote:The 6,000-pound vehicle tax deduction is a rule under the federal tax code that allows people to deduct up to $25,000 of a vehicle's purchasing price on their tax return. The vehicle purchased must weigh over 6,000 pounds, according to the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR), but no more than 14,000 pounds. The question is will "remote office" + "advertising vehicle" qualify. The alternative is to convert a used diesel Transit box truck like this:  The nice thing about that is the size. I don't know how well it would do on gravel roads or boondocking in general.
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2022 20:40
|
|
|
Atticus_1354 posted:Would you be adding any additional power capacity? 100 miles is bad enough without heating your house and cooking your breakfast cutting that down also. First off, as above it makes no sense until the range is over 250 miles preferably 300. Look how the Winnebago EV thing had to do on a long trip: https://newatlas.com/automotive/winnebago-e-rv-electric-camper-road-trip/ quote:Using the e-RV's estimated 125-mile (201-km) range, the trip had to have involved at least 11 charging stops along the way. At an average of just over an hour of charging per stop, that's over 11 hours worth of charging time to 26 hours of reported behind-the-wheel driving time. Some of those stops certainly coincided with overnight stays or meal breaks, but rolling at an average speed of 53 mph (85 km/h), the team definitely didn't need to stop every 2 hours and 21 minutes to sleep or eat. Ford spec'd the EV Transit for local deliveries, which makes sense in a way. But you really don't want a camper like that. So say you have one with 2x the battery pack, that would be about 140kwh. If you want to have 2kw of solar on a roof or even more deployable, you will need some way of feeding that into a level 2 charger for the van. So yeah that means a few kWh battery for that purpose unless you're clever enough to wire the solar to a charger directly with a controller that turns it on or off depending on the power. The appliances are less of an issue since the van has 110v outlets. I thought about a Lightning F150 with the 330 mile range with a trailer, but the trailer probabily takes you to 150mile range. I'm not doing this until at least 2024 so I'm hoping to see some progress in these vehicles.
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2022 20:48
|
|
|
VideoGameVet posted:The alternative is to convert a used diesel Transit box truck like this: It'll do fine with careful choice in line. Carry traction boards. Without a significant solar/generator setup expect your gravel range to be about 1/3 rated highway for safety overhead. larger tires/all terrains will drastically reduce range. Do an aluminum underbelly skid, that will help reduce drag and provide some armor. VideoGameVet posted:First off, as above it makes no sense until the range is over 250 miles preferably 300. WB doesn't specify how much power is available on their system's power output. Assuming standard 3.6kW service that's good for two high-draw appliances, if its a 12kW coach, several. The E-Transit supports a 2.4kW Pro Power system built in. Ford states for the F150 Lightning 2.4kW(120V) and 7.2kW(240V) for a system total of 9.6kW. Using its '2.4kW' service you could easily have one large appliance, but not two. Using its '7.2Kw' service, you could have four large appliances in operation. If you integrated Ford's intelligent backup power system into your coach you could make use of the full 9.6kW. To enjoy numerous amenities in a 30A coach you'll need to be aware of your power budget on a regular basis or build a system to do this for you. With some advanced inverters and more than one power source you can have a system that delivers more power than its rated design for a short time. There be dragons here. Boondocking and recharging. A 2kW fixed array will put out 8-10ish kWh/day in the summer depending on latitude. That's 14-17 days to recharge the depleted 140kWh traction battery if you are not running anything in the coach. burning 2kWh of power per day? that is now 17-23 days. Say you get clever, fold out array with a heliostat. 4kWh installed, 20-25kWh/day. 5.6 days to 7 with no draw, 6-8ish realistically. A larger array really starts to pull ahead here however you're signing up for an engineering project. Feeding this generated power back into the traction battery is relatively straightforward. Solar >> solar inverter >> onboard L2 >> traction battery. In the winter you will generate at best half this but factor at about a third.
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2022 23:12
|
|
|
VideoGameVet posted:
Today I did 10s of km of dirt road to jeep track in a 20 year old FWD, long wheelbase, open diff, 120hp Renault Master on Michelin Crossclimates. If you use your brain and carry some basic recovery gear just in case you'd be surprised where a vehicle will take you. 
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2022 00:04
|
|
|
The most important thing is remembering you also have to get back out. I've seen more people stranded because of that than because they tackled an obstacle that stopped their forward progress.
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2022 00:32
|
|
|
Theres that one goon in AI that does a bunch of rough terrain/off road poo poo in his minivan too. Toyota Sienna of death.
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2022 01:01
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 21, 2024 03:02 |
|
|
Ambassadorofsodomy posted:Theres that one goon in AI that does a bunch of rough terrain/off road poo poo in his minivan too. I had the same Sienna, color and all, from 1999 to 2003. So excellent.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2022 00:55
|
|