Improvements 2023

We made several major improvements this year that:

reduced our energy consumption,

expanded our water system,

improved our internet connection,

lightened our load,

and improved the space for our dogs and for us.

Our fridge was a massive energy eater. It was a basic AC dorm fridge and it would deplete our fully charged battery 60-90% overnight. This meant we couldn't stay in an off grid place for more than a day if it was cloudy or raining. So we upgraded to the dometic (dc powered) fridge and now we're using only 10-30% of the battery overnight. Huge difference! Now our battery will last a few days- even in a rainy or shady spot.

We found a good deal on ebay for our fridge and recommend looking there for this type of purchase. We got it for half price and it was new in opened box.

Changing the fridge from AC to DC power involved rewiring. So while Sean was at it, he added some extra USB ports and we got this oven. It is also dc powered and takes very little energy (less than the fridge!). The trade-off is that is doesn't get really hot (heat takes lots of energy!). It's top temperature is 350 degrees F.

So we cook things for longer. We can pop in a lasagne and drive to our next destination and it will be ready when we get there. And it uses so little power that we can cook when not driving too. Such a treat.

Another thing that kept us moving was our water supply. The way we had our tank mounted and the vent attached made it so we could only fill to the vent connection and only drain to the pipe connection (see the full/empty lines in the picture below). We're guessing we lost around 6 gallons of water. Now the tank drains from the bottom, the vent is attached to the top and we can fill/use the entire tank of water. The extra 6 gallons means an extra few days not driving.

This wasn't an easy process. Lifting the freshwater tank meant not enough room for the gray water tank. So Sean rerouted and mounted the grey water tank under the van. Bonus- this gave us room for the water filter that we've been dreaming about. Now all of the water tastes good!

Figuring out the best solution for the internet is ongoing. We started by using our phones as hot spots. But many times the signal was weak.

Our upgrade this year was an outside puck antennae, a booster box (adds 2 bars), inside puck antennaes and a modem. The outside antennae picks up the signal, sends it to the booster box (not pictured yet), then to inside puck 1, inside puck 2, the modem box and then finally back to puck 2 which broadcasts the signal in and around the van. This is a system we can turn off- and I like to do that at night. We bought a sim card and data from at&t but the data goes fast and it turned out to be an expensive option based on what we needed. In 2024 going we're going to try an unlimited plan with verizon to see how that works. It's priced about the same as our home internet. We'll report back on speed, connection, etc.

Starlink seems to be the choice many travelers are making but it's still very expensive and we don't like the idea of supporting exponentially growing satellites/ excessive space trash. We now see them regularly when star gazing and it's not fun (in my opinion) like seeing the international space station.

With all of the things we were mounting on our roof, our tent's motor was struggling. We also had a few instances of broken pulley lines. So lightening the roof load was very important. Our tent is rated to handle 55 lbs on the roof. We pushed past the limits when we added the fan. We found these solar panels and can fit all of them on the roof.

As it happens, this switcheroo wasn't as simple as swapping panels. We now have 6 panels (each 100 watts) compared to our previously 4 panels (also 100 watts a-piece). Because our solar charger box only handles 100 volts of power, we had to lay 2 of the panels in parallel and keep the other 4 in series so that we had a total of 5 panels- each bringing 20 volts to our solar charger box with a limit of 100 volts. This layout allows more amperage to come into our system without overloading the voltage.

The new panels are 2 pounds each whereas our old panels were 13 pounds each. So all six of our panels now weigh less than one of our panels then. I feel much better about the weight above us now. And we're getting more power and better gas milage too. Win, win, win.

Our next improvements were for our dog Rambo- and also for us. He likes sitting in the front and seeing out the window. Now he has his own seat and we get ours back too.

The bowls were added because Rambo was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis. He now has to eat with elevated bowls. Phoebe might as well have her bowl off the ground too. We need to work on a hidey hole for her travels next- she prefers being wedged in somewhere while driving.

The last thing we added was an extension to our counter. We find the extra space is just enough for cooking inside when it's not good cooking weather outside.

We of course have more ideas for improvements for 2024 and will post another update again next year.