Hello Mike and Jen, my husband and I have been camping in travel trailers for over 30 years. A Change is coming. We are so excited to take our first trip in our new Class B next week. I agree with Jen, I prepare as many meals as possible ahead of trip time and freeze them. This makes meal prep and cleanup very easy because we can’t carry as many extras in the Class B. Also, frozen meal in the fridge will keep other perishable foods at cold temperature for longer time in our 12V fridge. Sorry about your broken window! After I heard of a similar event with another CZcams family, we always carry 30 gallon, heavy duty trash bags and duct tape for repairs. Happy Trails!
I enjoyed your interviews, my only issue was your talking to a sales man. Another channel installed 12,000 watts in their roof. When it was all installed they wanted to go camping. It was overcast for three days so they couldn’t boondock but had to stay at an Rv park for power. Amazing after they spent $25,000 on solar. For that money you can stay at a lot of campgrounds for many years. Unless you are staying in a state with historicaly a lot of sunny days then it might come up short. If you camp In Seattle, well stay plugged in. In a side note, you don’t mention that many rvs are moving away from 12 volt refrigerators. Residential units are becoming more common place. No I’m not a fan for the cost spent.
Mike & Jen, when giving advice about the food & refrigerator, there is one more tip to give: If you can't cool down your refrigerator before the trip, take a frozen gallon of water in your cooler and put it in the refrigerator when you get to the location or while you are driving if the fridge is on. That gallon of ice will cool down the refrigerator quickly and you don't have to wait long for it to be cold.
That is exactly what happened to me in my 2016 Monaco TREK. Traveling on the Florida Turnpike heading north, I looked at my driver’s side mirror and saw that the latch had come loose and the pane was swinging loose from the the top hinges. I was approaching the first Service Center so pulled off asap. Looking out again, I realized the window pane had fallen off the rig. Hopefully it did not cause damage to anyone. Making use of what I had on hand, I made a temporary window cover and drove on to my destination where the my warranty paid for a new window. This was not the first window problem I have had with frameless windows and hope that the industry changes to a different window design.
I fell it's a disservice to say you can just drop in new lithium battery's to replace your old ones. Lithium battery's charge at a higher voltage so that has to be taken into account, and your old battery level indicator will be useless. You indicator would always show full charge, until the battery was dead.
Mike & Jen: We had a similar experience with a broken window in our LTV Unity. Wind in Moab, UT took out our side door and shattered the glass window. Lots of tape to salvage what was left. I found a glass shop “in town” who had a scrap piece of Lexan as a temporary fix. Called LTV, and the replacement arrived at our home in N. California by the time we return a week later. Very disturbing.
Excellent topic, guys. This is soooo important. The first thing you need to know is what are the appliances or systems in your RV that need electrical power. Over a say, how often and how long do you use them. This will give you the amount of power that draw from your batteries and defines the ‘size’ of them. This will also give the approximate size of your inverter especially when you have a coffeemachine or an airconditioning that draws major power when starting up. Sam made an excellent comment about to get airco with softstart. Then of course the sizing of the solar panels to adequately fill those big batteries with energy, even when for a few days, the sun is blocked by clouds. This Al is true regardless of the size f your RV, Class A, or f you live the vanlife in a ProMaster City type van. You start with the all the electricity drawing systems and go from there. And like Mike says, this does not mean that you can boondock forever.
To cool a fridge and freezer quickly I recommend through some dry ice. Put a block of dry ice in bottom (furthest from thermistor) of fridge and top of freezer. As soon as fridge and freezer gets cold enough you can take food from cooler and put in fridge and freezer. If dry ice disappears from freezer before fridge move dry ice from fridge to freezer.
How quickly does your battery bank recover once the sun rises? Do you expect that it will be at or close to 100% after a typical day on solar only (not augmented by a traditional generator)?
Good info. We’re planning on adding solar panels to our new coach and swap the stock batteries for lithium but the coach manufacturer is telling me that doing this will void our warranty. Have you heard this before?
Any way to know the make and model of the AC unit the guys were using inside the shop for that demonstration that was showing the energy drain on the phone app? We are going to be putting a 12V Dometic RTX2000 in a Promaster and was just curious if it would be comparable? Not even sure if it's a "soft start" - going to have to look into that!
Flextape all day. However why wouldn’t you see that in your mirrors when you’re driving? That seem very weird not to see. Maybe your mirrors aren’t wide enough or you don’t look enough.
@12:30, absolutely false. You can run down FLA batteries to far below 50%. It will reduce your lifespan/total cycles at a faster and faster rate, but you can do it. LiFePO4 batteries can also be run far below 50%, but the same principle applies. Once you get below 20%, you will be drastically reducing their lifespan/total cycles. LiFePO4 is better in depth of discharge, but FLA is better at the top end. You can keep cycling FLA at the top and not have it affect your total lifespan very much. LiFePO4 do not like to be cycled at the top. That actually reduces their lifespan quite a bit more than FLA at the top end of SOC. So, ideally, you would use your LiFePO4 batteries somewhere between 30% and 90%, if you are wanting to maximize the combination of lifespan and usable capacity. Slightly different between manufacturers, but its something around that. The best use range of FLA's is 50% to 100%. Therefore, in reality, the usable capacity while maximizing lifespan between the two is not that far apart in reality. There are many good reasons to pick LiFePO4 over FLA, but sadly this is not it.
Hello Mike and Jen, my husband and I have been camping in travel trailers for over 30 years. A Change is coming. We are so excited to take our first trip in our new Class B next week. I agree with Jen, I prepare as many meals as possible ahead of trip time and freeze them. This makes meal prep and cleanup very easy because we can’t carry as many extras in the Class B. Also, frozen meal in the fridge will keep other perishable foods at cold temperature for longer time in our 12V fridge. Sorry about your broken window! After I heard of a similar event with another CZcams family, we always carry 30 gallon, heavy duty trash bags and duct tape for repairs. Happy Trails!
I enjoyed your interviews, my only issue was your talking to a sales man. Another channel installed 12,000 watts in their roof. When it was all installed they wanted to go camping. It was overcast for three days so they couldn’t boondock but had to stay at an Rv park for power. Amazing after they spent $25,000 on solar. For that money you can stay at a lot of campgrounds for many years. Unless you are staying in a state with historicaly a lot of sunny days then it might come up short. If you camp In Seattle, well stay plugged in.
In a side note, you don’t mention that many rvs are moving away from 12 volt refrigerators. Residential units are becoming more common place.
No I’m not a fan for the cost spent.
Mike & Jen, when giving advice about the food & refrigerator, there is one more tip to give: If you can't cool down your refrigerator before the trip, take a frozen gallon of water in your cooler and put it in the refrigerator when you get to the location or while you are driving if the fridge is on. That gallon of ice will cool down the refrigerator quickly and you don't have to wait long for it to be cold.
That is exactly what happened to me in my 2016 Monaco TREK. Traveling on the Florida Turnpike heading north, I looked at my driver’s side mirror and saw that the latch had come loose and the pane was swinging loose from the the top hinges.
I was approaching the first Service Center so pulled off asap. Looking out again, I realized the window pane had fallen off the rig.
Hopefully it did not cause damage to anyone.
Making use of what I had on hand, I made a temporary window cover and drove on to my destination where the my warranty paid for a new window.
This was not the first window problem I have had with frameless windows and hope that the industry changes to a different window design.
I fell it's a disservice to say you can just drop in new lithium battery's to replace your old ones. Lithium battery's charge at a higher voltage so that has to be taken into account, and your old battery level indicator will be useless. You indicator would always show full charge, until the battery was dead.
Thanks for this video on Solar. I learned valuable information. Always enjoy your video’s.
Mike & Jen: We had a similar experience with a broken window in our LTV Unity.
Wind in Moab, UT took out our side door and shattered the glass window. Lots of tape to salvage what was left. I found a glass shop “in town” who had a scrap piece of Lexan as a temporary fix.
Called LTV, and the replacement arrived at our home in N. California by the time we return a week later.
Very disturbing.
We almost lost a window for the same reason. As part of our interior departure checklist, I make sure those latches are secured before we leave.
Great info on the solar, sorry about the window.
Excellent topic, guys. This is soooo important. The first thing you need to know is what are the appliances or systems in your RV that need electrical power. Over a say, how often and how long do you use them. This will give you the amount of power that draw from your batteries and defines the ‘size’ of them. This will also give the approximate size of your inverter especially when you have a coffeemachine or an airconditioning that draws major power when starting up. Sam made an excellent comment about to get airco with softstart. Then of course the sizing of the solar panels to adequately fill those big batteries with energy, even when for a few days, the sun is blocked by clouds. This Al is true regardless of the size f your RV, Class A, or f you live the vanlife in a ProMaster City type van. You start with the all the electricity drawing systems and go from there. And like Mike says, this does not mean that you can boondock forever.
Carry mine with we plan our meals out .
To cool a fridge and freezer quickly I recommend through some dry ice. Put a block of dry ice in bottom (furthest from thermistor) of fridge and top of freezer. As soon as fridge and freezer gets cold enough you can take food from cooler and put in fridge and freezer. If dry ice disappears from freezer before fridge move dry ice from fridge to freezer.
I lost a whole emergency window going through Chicago!! The old style latches weren't very reliable. It took three months to replace my window.
a 12 volt cooler in the back seat is a good idea to transport food
Yes!
I would love to hear about health care while traveling and keeping up with prescriptions. Thanks in advance.😊
We love our solar upgrade. Can’t wait to go west and do more boon docking
How quickly does your battery bank recover once the sun rises? Do you expect that it will be at or close to 100% after a typical day on solar only (not augmented by a traditional generator)?
Good info. We’re planning on adding solar panels to our new coach and swap the stock batteries for lithium but the coach manufacturer is telling me that doing this will void our warranty. Have you heard this before?
No. I have never heard that!
Great information.
WHAT 'S YOUR TOW VEHICLE AND HOW ARE YOU ADAPTING TO FUEL PRICES????
Any way to know the make and model of the AC unit the guys were using inside the shop for that demonstration that was showing the energy drain on the phone app? We are going to be putting a 12V Dometic RTX2000 in a Promaster and was just curious if it would be comparable? Not even sure if it's a "soft start" - going to have to look into that!
It would have been nice to see how much power you’re getting out of your 1200 watts of solar after your upgrade.
Flextape all day. However why wouldn’t you see that in your mirrors when you’re driving? That seem very weird not to see. Maybe your mirrors aren’t wide enough or you don’t look enough.
How much something like this cost???
I never actually saw what you had to say about Solar and Lithium batteries, because 7 minutes into the video you haven't discussed it.
The inverter converts to 120v, not 110v.
@12:30, absolutely false. You can run down FLA batteries to far below 50%. It will reduce your lifespan/total cycles at a faster and faster rate, but you can do it. LiFePO4 batteries can also be run far below 50%, but the same principle applies. Once you get below 20%, you will be drastically reducing their lifespan/total cycles. LiFePO4 is better in depth of discharge, but FLA is better at the top end. You can keep cycling FLA at the top and not have it affect your total lifespan very much. LiFePO4 do not like to be cycled at the top. That actually reduces their lifespan quite a bit more than FLA at the top end of SOC. So, ideally, you would use your LiFePO4 batteries somewhere between 30% and 90%, if you are wanting to maximize the combination of lifespan and usable capacity. Slightly different between manufacturers, but its something around that. The best use range of FLA's is 50% to 100%. Therefore, in reality, the usable capacity while maximizing lifespan between the two is not that far apart in reality. There are many good reasons to pick LiFePO4 over FLA, but sadly this is not it.