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Sorry for the delay dudes, got busy with work but i'll try and catch up on all of these questions.quote:Does the fuzz ever hassle you Strangely enough i've never been hassled at night, but i've had two encounters during the day. In both cases the cops are polite and just want to make sure that i'm not planning on camping out all night. This is probably becaues I tend to spend my days near the ocean or near some of the more rural parks - all places that have strongly enforced "no camping" rules. I did have this really strange encounter where some old-guy yelled "THERE ARE BYLAWS!" at me while I was cooking up an omelette on the back of my van one morning. quote:Outside of like, being injured, how do you feel about a worst-case-scenario out there on the road? Do you have people who could wire you money/be of any support if your van goes down and you are essentially homeless? I assume the oil money is that good that I think I know the answer. I guess I can see the sequence of events necessary for me in order to get into this lifestyle but I still fear its a pipe dream unless you are of some socioeconomic status. If I worked fulltime in the oil field money wouldn't be a concern. But with the way that I spread it out over a year, these worst-case-scenarios are definately a concern. If the van needed a $1000 repair, I could definately manage it. But it's not the repair itself that's the problem. It's things like finding accomidation for a week while the van is in the shop, and all of the last-minute changes i'd have to make to account for an unexpected change in itinerary. Fortunately, I do have a pretty solid support network. But rather than finances, I just have people that could hook me up with a couch to crash on or a yard to do some work if I needed to. I'm lucky enough to know people all over the province, and most of my travels have been based around this network. At almost every destination, i've had at least one person who I was planning to visit. This way I can break my trip into smaller managable chunks. Instead of "oh poo poo, I broke down and i'm 1000 km away from anyone I know," it'd be more a matter of getting a tow to my next destination. quote:Compared to your girlfriend's van, how's noise and thermal insulation? It's hers much better than yours, or more or less the same? The insulation is much worse on my van. I did sprayfoam all of the walls, and the floor is insulated as well. But my van has single pane windows all the way around, which is the biggest problem. To compensate, i've got a brand new heater and it's a small enough space that it ends up being pretty warm and cozy. Her van technically has better acoustic insulation, but she has a high-top. This creates a lot of wind drag and results in hers being much noisier on the road. Mine is much louder than a commuter car, but still quite comparitively. quote:Also, have you ever considered switching for anything more modern? If I was to go back and start over, i'd probably get an express van. But since i've got my current van set up exactly the way I want, upgrading would be more of a hassle than it's worth. quote:Fortunately the alternator can provide 20-40amps of charging, depending on the state of charge of the battery (it's easier to charge a battery the more empty it is). I'm glad to hear that solution works for you. Do you find that the alternator is able to charge the batteries fully? My understanding was that because an alternator isn't a proper three-stage charger, it doesn't reach the voltages required to charge a lead acid battery beyond 80%. I rarely discharge mine below 60%, so i've just been using an external IOTA smart charger to plug in during the overcast-winter months. I also have 2 x 120 watt solar panels which worked great in the summer. I'd regularly add 50 amp hours per day to my 240 aH battery bank. That's all i've got time for today, i'll try to respond to the rest of your comments tomorrow. also thanks to whoever bought me the avatar!
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Dec 23, 2017 09:39
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Super86 posted:I assume there are batteries without all these drawbacks, just they're more expensive. Am I right? lithium does a lot of stuff better and weighs a lot less but is way more expensive
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Dec 26, 2017 15:30
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They like to blow up in pretty spectacular ways if you mistreat them, but that's just like, more heating in this situation. Win/win.
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Dec 26, 2017 19:10
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Man_of_Teflon posted:lithium does a lot of stuff better and weighs a lot less but is way more expensive Holy poo poo. I googled them. Like 10 times more expensive!
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Dec 26, 2017 20:13
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Assholes aside, how much do you wind up spending on gas?
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Dec 27, 2017 00:02
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What's wrong with the river?
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Dec 27, 2017 09:18
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At some point would it make sense to get a van with better MPGs? Is such a van even available? I get around 35 mpg right now, and the thought of doing so much driving in a gas guzzler makes me ill.
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Dec 29, 2017 03:47
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CountFosco posted:At some point would it make sense to get a van with better MPGs? Is such a van even available? I get around 35 mpg right now, and the thought of doing so much driving in a gas guzzler makes me ill. A full-sized van suitable for living in is going to get terrible fuel mileage no matter what, due to it's weight and aerodynamic drag. The best mileage you could possibly achieve would be a from Transit or Sprinter mid-roof with a turbodiesel option, and those vans are $50K new with a bare interior shell, with used, beat-to-poo poo examples going for $20K. And you still wouldn't get more than low-mid 20's on the freeway, less around town.
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Dec 29, 2017 19:35
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How do you clean dishes? I'm planning to make a career change to Over The Road Trucking, and this is seriously one of the biggest things I'm worried about.
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Feb 18, 2018 19:18
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Monocled Falcon posted:How do you clean dishes? I don't live in a van but I am an eagle scout, when we were car camping in boy scouts we'd just set up three basins: soap with hot water, plain hot water (rinse), and room temperature bleach water. You don't need much bleach, just like a capful in a 4-gallon (or whatever it is) basin. Have the water in the hot one's as hot as you can stand, but with the bleach basin you don't really need to worry about the hot water doing any sanitizing. Scrub in the soapy water, rinse the soap in the plain water, sanitize in bleach.
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Feb 19, 2018 06:38
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If you can put your hand in without being instantly scalded, then its not hot enough to do any worthwhile sanitation. Hot water cleans better, but unless you get it unsafely hot it won't help sanitise. n.b. the bleach basin needs to be not-hot. Hot water will make the bleach break down too quickly. The Lone Badger fucked around with this message at 07:18 on Feb 19, 2018 |
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Feb 19, 2018 07:14
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Consider paper plates.
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Feb 19, 2018 16:07
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https://twitter.com/frankrquotes/status/453480085761183744?lang=en
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Feb 19, 2018 16:40
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What are you doing for an internet connection? do you have one of those mobile hotspot things?
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Feb 26, 2018 00:06
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Now that you have some months of experience: If you were to buy a new van right now, what would be the three most important factors you would consider in order to choose which one to buy?
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Mar 25, 2018 11:17
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What do you mean by "express van"? What kind of training is required to do your job?
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Mar 31, 2018 15:11
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Tsyni posted:What do you mean by "express van"? Likely this or something in the same class: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Express
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Mar 31, 2018 17:08
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Awesome van! I want to do something similar in the future, but just for travel (2-3 months at a time maybe), not full time. I've got my truck right now, with a sliding bed set up in the shell. It works pretty well! I also struggle with the humidity though. And I'm in Florida, land of humidity. Damprid bags work well in the cab (and getting rid of food smells/long trip funk), but is a bit too slow to handle night time humidity. Have you ever considered getting a lug-a-loo for the luxury of pooping indoors in shity weather? It's a 5 gallon bucket with a bag of Porta potty chemicals, open only when you need to, and easy disposal. Or you can go the all natural route and replace the chemicals with pelletized horse bedding (aka pellet kitty litter).
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Apr 7, 2018 16:44
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Oh hey a van thread. I'm currently working on camperizing my own B250 - not to live in, but to let me travel more freely than I can in my car. Going from 20 to ~15 MPG hurts, but costs less than 20 MPG + even the shittiest roach motel along the highway, and "what if you break down" can also happen in my car, which is of comparable vintage and mileage. The math makes sense. I didn't specifically choose this van for any reason other than it was a good deal when I was looking, but I'm finding as you did that parts are cheap as gently caress and readily available, which is a big plus. The done thing among the #vanlife instagram people is rigid foam insulation, but that looks like a giant pain in the dick to actually do so I'm looking at options. I've read good insulation is a tradeoff - retaining heat longer in winter also equals it staying roasting hot longer in the summer. So my question is in that regard - how did you insulate yours and what do you think of the results? You mentioned sprayfoam and doing something to the floor, just looking for more details.
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May 5, 2018 00:40
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Javid posted:The done thing among the #vanlife instagram people is rigid foam insulation, but that looks like a giant pain in the dick to actually do so I'm looking at options. I've read good insulation is a tradeoff - retaining heat longer in winter also equals it staying roasting hot longer in the summer. So my question is in that regard - how did you insulate yours and what do you think of the results? You mentioned sprayfoam and doing something to the floor, just looking for more details. I think sprayfoam is quite expensive in comparison to foam boards. Also, a hell of a mess. I would highly suggest checking out this guy, he's DIYing a van conversion and puts together quite a good video. He also lives on a narrowboat in the UK, which is a whole 'nother guilty pleasure of youtubery for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BwZlVcm73s /\/\Fixed. This starts on his Sound Deadening project, then goes on to adventures in insulation in later videos./\/\ Suspect Bucket fucked around with this message at 02:21 on May 5, 2018 |
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May 5, 2018 02:12
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That video link is broken. I'm not (mainly) concerned with cost, more fitting non-flexible sheets of foam to a curved interior surface. I plan to use rigid foam on the floor for sure.
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May 5, 2018 02:15
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I cut rigid foam to roughly fit in my van, and then filled in the gaps with cans of great stuff and taped over it with aluminum tape. Then I unrolled sheets of prodex (like reflectix but closed cell foam instead of bubble wrap, a little more durable) over it all.
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May 5, 2018 18:10
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This thread brings back good memories. I lived in an Astro work van I got at a city surplus auction years back when I was in Western Alaska. Great times. The hardest part for me was the noise factor. I had converted the van fairly well but anytime it rained it just sounded like my van was getting shot up by a gang of kids with BB guns. It'd keep me up all night until it subsided. The other hard part, as you alluded to, was storage. I had to keep all of my hiking and outdoor gear in a storage locker because I didnt have room in the van. Aside from those two main concerns the only other hardship was waking up early enough to make it to the rec center to get the single shower stall so I didnt have to shower in the group shower with the gold miners and fisherman.
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May 12, 2018 04:29
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