I used to have a Coleman folding oven I used for stuff like this, then foolishly gave it away before moving into the van.

I've tried baking biscuits in a dogbowl oven and on a flat pan with mixed results.

• Nostalgia MyMini sandwich press, part of my gear for cooking with excess solar power
• Walmart Great Value jumbo biscuits
• 40-something Wh. My Kill-a-Watt could only show 0.04kWh so it was somewhere between 40-50Wh.

Quite tasty, I ate them without butter or jelly. These are the best so far. There's a stripe in them because the sandwich grill has a diagonal line in it for making triangular sammiches.

I heard from my brother that people who install high power sound systems often get a high voltage alternator to power it without killing the starter battery. I was thinking about this for my electrical system. I'd like to get a deep cycle house battery and isolation/charging circuit for it. Does anyone have experience doing this kind of conversion? Or recommendations for alternators and charging circuits?

Honestly, having some privacy provides so much mental space. It give you the ability live without being as stressed out by fears of what other people might do when they see you. With these black window covers, people don't see someone living in a car, they see a parked car. The feeling of security is immense, and it's so much easier to focus on other things besides the fact that you are in your car.

That said, the covers I made have started to wear out after about 6 months of use, but they are pretty easy to maintain if you keep a can of spray adhesive around. I didn't use the metal wire modification, but I might recommend something stiffish to help give them some better structure, and something around the boarder to help it grip the window frame better. They initially are the perfect rigidity and hold themselves in the windows, but now they have some issues staying in the windows sometimes.

When it gets Really Hot, one can camp on the eastern edge of a treeline. This way panels get good sun until mid-day, then shade thereafter. Distance from the treeline controls the time at which the RV becomes shaded.

This will work best for ample arrays and llithium battery chemistry which allow the bank to be fully charged by the early shade-time. Portables placed out in the sun can help.

related blog post from 2022

... at least in the northern hemisphere. :-)

I picked a representative city for North America (Salt Lake City) to illustrate the seasonal patterns for our solar harvest. The modeling is done in PVwatts. The kWh/m^2^/day figure is the same, mathematically, as Hours of Full Sun Equivalent since "sunlight" under standard test conditions are defined as 1000w/m^2^.

using the numbers

We can roughly model average harvest from unshaded, flat-mounted panels on MPPT like this:

rated array wattage x FSW x 0.85

So a 400w setup in SLC in August would average 2.285kWh/day if charging/loads demanded it.

Note: the 0.85 constant above represents overall system efficiency after various losses (cell temp derating, wiring losses, bucking losses, etc). If you know how your particular system behaves then plug in your actual number. Mine is quite close to 85% so I use that common default.

effect on snowbirds

Although summer harvest in SLC is 4.5x the winter harvest, snowbirds tend to go south in the winter. In my experience this makes the summer v. winter harvest ratio more like 2:1.

Nothing new for boondockers, but may be of some interest for the van- or boondocking-curious.

Broke camp, went for provisions, set up a new camp elsewhere upon return. Bonus drive through the Los Alamos National Laboratories complex and got inspected.

I use this guy to supplement my solar panels in the winter. It does 30a, I haven't had an issue running the microwave and ac off it simultaneously. I just finished my second year with it, so far it's just needed an oil change.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/178677

Community for people into Overlanding

Saw this come cross the "new communities" feed and thought folks here might be interested. I added a link to that comm in the sidebar.

[also, my first xpost so let's see what happens]

Howdy folks,

just throwin this out there to add more content to the community and share a bit about my plans.

I've been building a diy rv/vanlife vehicle, using a 1987 Ford/Grumman Kabmaster. the goal is to have a vehicle that I can boondock on, completely cut off from civilization for up to 2 weeks (and then go resupply). I chose the stepvan because it has a lot of headroom and 90 degree angles (no weird rounded walls like you see in other types of vans)

Linked is my youtube channel documenting the buildout thus far, in slideshow form as I have found it is much easier to take pictures than to try to shoot raw video and edit it later on (shaky cam syndrome, etc).

bought the vehicle from a local seller in my area & got some of the modifications done that I wanted before having the engine (Cummins 4bt diesel, 105hp) looked at - it had been having issues and I knew that it was in a bad way but they said "imminent catastrophic failure" - and as they were unable to source some parts due to covid and the nonsense with the train workers union strikes going on at the time, I decided to shop around and find someone who could do an LS swap & get a new engine in there.

Thus far, my stepvan has been in the shop for quite some time now - my mechanic is an older guy and has had covid/hospitalized twice, had some health issues after that and there have been delays in getting parts shipped out here, plus he had a death in the family and had to take time off for that. these kind of things always take 3x longer than you thing they're going to. anyway, I'm having the following performed:

• install new engine & new/updated components (intake manifold, radiator, hoses/tubing, etc)
• removing old manual transmission (gearing was too low really, would have cost more to keep the standard trans) to an automatic transmission + various components relating to that (universal joint, new drive shaft & rear diff/gearing)
• some suspension work
• new breaking/hydraulics system
• revamped exhaust system
• removing the diesel fuel system and installing new parts for a gasoline fuel system (gas is just cheaper than diesel these days, I remember when it was crazy cheap).
• custom dash work done for new gauges/meters (original speedometer topped out at 55mph).
• need to get 5x new tires too but probably not through my mechanic, I'll go to Costco or something.

so yeah, it's a lot of work but my mechanic said he's getting close to being done... I've been working on designing a plumbing system (interior fresh water tank & water filtration for drinking, on-demand hot water for the sink/shower, interior grey water holding tank) and an electrical system (solar, 48v LiFePO4 battery stepdown to 12v for interior appliances + inverter/charger for my 120v loads - electronics/networking gear).

its a load of planning and work to get the parts all meshing up right. when I get my stepvan back from my mechanic I will add more videos as I document the process of my buildout.

Videos at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF938X4yT0IHLy4TpFCJg-w

enjoy ;)

June 15th is the traditional beginning of the monsoon (seasonal rain) season in many areas of the southwest. In some places the summer monsoon will provide over half of the total annual precipitation.

The sudden and intense rain can strand unsuspecting boondockers:

• low areas may become impassable
• dirt roads NF and BLM lands can become extremely slick and rutted, or wash out one or both tracks
• vehicles that have been camping for many days can sink in the softened soil and be unable to drive out (don't ask me how I know this)

I encourage folks camping in the SW to pay attention to any ruts, dips, or evidence of previous water events. Carry extra shelf stable foods like beans, grains, etc in case you need to wait for the sun to dry up the roadway out of camp.

BN: water storage isn't critical because by definition it's falling from the sky and can be caught with little effort. On one memorable/traumatic afternoon in Flagstaff last year I caught 20 gallons of water off a tarp in an hour.

The "Exposing 6 LIES They DON'T WANT YOU KNOWING & Designing your PERFECT Offgrid 12v system" is getting a lot of traction among beginners. I'ma push back on some of it.

https://mouse.mousetrap.net/blog/2023-06-15-Contra-Keelan-.html

One of those "look around to see what we have" specials. What we had

• potatoes
• some plantain
• a 12.5oz can of walmart chunked chicken breast
• 3 oz of bacon over the top <-- doesn't count as fridgeless because this was refrigerated
• another 0.5c of water to make sure we had enough

cooked at pressure for 20mins, natural release. Probably could have done it in 10 but I wanted the bacon to render more fat into the starches. Plus the sun was cooperating.

About 2.5 meals worth, so will have seconds and reheat the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Not shown: cold Coors beer out of the fridge.

I've been following mild weather upward (in both latitude and elevation) and am now at 8,200ft overlooking Los Alamos. I'm hoping there's no heat dome this year so I don't have to go much further/higher.

I've been in this spot 6 days and so have another week to figure out the next move. The tree canopy is affecting solar but I'm getting ~5 hours of clear sun, enough to get back to 100% daily.

Here's a blog post about how I chose this site, for those interested in the logistics of boondocking.