Miles from Utah

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grizzzman
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Re: Miles from Utah

Post by grizzzman »

T1 Terry wrote:
Dot wrote:The good old days hey? But those lyrics appear to make the Boon docks sound like the "wrong side of town" like Broadmeadows (Melb) Elizabeth (SA) etc
:o So it's a step up from Strath then Dottie? Welcome to the forum Grizzman, we aren't all bad, not quite sure how to get my name out of list though :? Tell us about BoonDocking in the US, something I've always been fascinated in because the climate can be a tad cool over that side and freezing is a serious issue over there, water pipes, and tanks, even the Propane in the tank from some of the stuff I've read, so how do you work around that when free camping? I've seen electric warmer blankets over water pipes both in and out of RV's and warming blankets for Propane tanks, they'd have a fit if we were to do something like that over here.
Followed the travels of a pair in a converted bus called the Technomads or something like that, but they don't really seem to freedom camp in the sense that we do, so hopefully you can clear up any misconceptions when it comes to what BoonDocking US style really means.

T1 Terry
Thanks Terry. Well a lot of full time Boondockers are what we call "snow birds" In the summer head north for cooler weather and in the fall head south to the warmer winter weather. My Father in laws trailer has a corrugated plastic belly pan. the furnace pumps some of the heat to the underbelly. the propane tanks are mounted in the side wall and receive some heat through the walls.My trailer has electric 12 volt heaters on the tanks and valves. Unfortunately my trailer has about 13 feet of water line from the tank to inside of the trailer that i need to figure out what to do. i still have more projects to do on this trailer.
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grizzzman
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Re: Miles from Utah

Post by grizzzman »

Wilbor wrote:A mate of mine and fellow member of the All American Car Club of Cairns (in North Queensland for Grizzman) has been to the US a number of times and on his last trip sent some photos at a car race, NASCAR I think. In the photo, as well as the track, were dozens of big RV's, not one had a solar panel on it.

What is the solar use really like on RV's over there Grizzman, it's very well used here, I have 1050 watts on the roof and 150 on the toad
Most campers here go from park to park. many Boondockers use generators here. I see few solar panels on trailers or M/Hs its becoming more popular as panels have come down in price.
2019 F150 Ecoboost SuperCrew
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Boondocking is my game
"If you are not learning, you are dying"
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T1 Terry
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Re: Miles from Utah

Post by T1 Terry »

native pepper wrote:Terry, we have a wood heater in our bus and it never gets below t-shirt temps, even when snowing. It was 2deg on the day and below freezing over night. Carry a powerful electric chains saw and no one knows your cutting wood, we get ours of the side of the roads mostly. Or some nice person whose venue we've just played at, gives us some wood.
Love the wood heater NP, can you start another thread to tell us about the design and install and if you can run it while travelling, stuff like that.

T1 Terry
A person may fail many times, they only become a failure when they blame someone else John Burrows
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T1 Terry
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Re: Miles from Utah

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Freedom campers use solar and the latest innovation is lithium batteries. I started out testing the suitability around 6 yrs ago, lots of threads on lots of forums where I've posted our progress. We have group of early adopters who joined a private forum for the purpose of sharing pros and cons and experiences without the constant harassment from the arm chair experts. 6 yrs on and no failures apart from cell murders but that is all part of the learning curve.
What type batteries do you use and how do you recharge them apart from the solar? With the sun not being quite as good solar wise over there I would have though much bigger solar system would have been the go, but maybe it's just a bit slower to catch on over there.
Heat is the big killer when free camping over here, diesel heater, gas heaters and now NP has shown us a wood heater look after the cold but reverse cycle air con with lithium battery power is starting to gain a foot hold. OK on the main land as long as you avoid the really cold areas (anything close to 0*C is considered really cold over here) and the reverse cycle air con works well, they claim they will still work down to -7*C but the outside unit freezes up much below +2 or 3*C, so the diesel heater is the more reliable.
One of the vehicle fuels over here is called Auto Gas, a mix of butane and propane and depending where you buy it as to what the mix is so there is no way of knowing just what you are getting. Some take the risk of filling their gas bottles with autogas rather than pure propane as it is less than half the price, the catch is butane returns to a liquid at 0.5*C so a real risk in the cold areas of the butane separating out after the pressure regulator and arriving at the gas jet as a liquid. The result is the liquid expands 270 times when it returns to a gas, big flames, the other risk is carbon monoxide poisoning because the appliance is jetted for propane not butane. Propane is expensive over here once you are away from the major city centres and often had to find, so here is also a trend toward big solar and big lithium battery systems and changing to all electric, cooking with induction cook tops, electric water heating and reverse cycle air cond even among the free camping people, anything like that happening over there Grizzman?

T1 Terry
A person may fail many times, they only become a failure when they blame someone else John Burrows
If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine. – Jim Barksdale, former Netscape CEO
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Dot
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Re: Miles from Utah

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native pepper wrote:Terry, we have a wood heater in our bus and it never gets below t-shirt temps, even when snowing. It was 2deg on the day and below freezing over night. Carry a powerful electric chains saw and no one knows your cutting wood, we get ours of the side of the roads mostly. Or some nice person whose venue we've just played at, gives us some wood.
I want one, I really need one of these heaters :D (to keep my pussy warm) ;)
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Wilbor
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Re: Miles from Utah

Post by Wilbor »

Dot wrote:
I want one, I really need one of these heaters :D (to keep my pussy warm) ;)
And there is nothing like a warm pussy, hey Dot ;)
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native pepper
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Re: Miles from Utah

Post by native pepper »

T1 Terry wrote:
native pepper wrote:Terry, we have a wood heater in our bus and it never gets below t-shirt temps, even when snowing. It was 2deg on the day and below freezing over night. Carry a powerful electric chains saw and no one knows your cutting wood, we get ours of the side of the roads mostly. Or some nice person whose venue we've just played at, gives us some wood.
Love the wood heater NP, can you start another thread to tell us about the design and install and if you can run it while travelling, stuff like that.

T1 Terry
Yep, will do that in nuts and bolts, it can be moved if that's not the right place.
grizzzman
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Re: Miles from Utah

Post by grizzzman »

T1 Terry wrote:Freedom campers use solar and the latest innovation is lithium batteries. I started out testing the suitability around 6 yrs ago, lots of threads on lots of forums where I've posted our progress. We have group of early adopters who joined a private forum for the purpose of sharing pros and cons and experiences without the constant harassment from the arm chair experts. 6 yrs on and no failures apart from cell murders but that is all part of the learning curve.
What type batteries do you use and how do you recharge them apart from the solar? With the sun not being quite as good solar wise over there I would have though much bigger solar system would have been the go, but maybe it's just a bit slower to catch on over there.
Heat is the big killer when free camping over here, diesel heater, gas heaters and now NP has shown us a wood heater look after the cold but reverse cycle air con with lithium battery power is starting to gain a foot hold. OK on the main land as long as you avoid the really cold areas (anything close to 0*C is considered really cold over here) and the reverse cycle air con works well, they claim they will still work down to -7*C but the outside unit freezes up much below +2 or 3*C, so the diesel heater is the more reliable.
One of the vehicle fuels over here is called Auto Gas, a mix of butane and propane and depending where you buy it as to what the mix is so there is no way of knowing just what you are getting. Some take the risk of filling their gas bottles with autogas rather than pure propane as it is less than half the price, the catch is butane returns to a liquid at 0.5*C so a real risk in the cold areas of the butane separating out after the pressure regulator and arriving at the gas jet as a liquid. The result is the liquid expands 270 times when it returns to a gas, big flames, the other risk is carbon monoxide poisoning because the appliance is jetted for propane not butane. Propane is expensive over here once you are away from the major city centres and often had to find, so here is also a trend toward big solar and big lithium battery systems and changing to all electric, cooking with induction cook tops, electric water heating and reverse cycle air cond even among the free camping people, anything like that happening over there Grizzman?

T1 Terry
Hi ya Terry! The way I see it you Aussies are ahead of the game when it comes to freedom camping and I'm hoping some of your experience will rub off on me :D About 3 1/2 years ago while researching solar I found Lifep04. Cool stuff for sure! I may put together 100AH and see if I can use it without killing it
:lol: I'm running two CG2 208AH 6 volt batteries. I'm sure glad I don't have to worry about propane here. It would be nice to have propane as a " back up" system though. Higher end all electric MotorHomes are coming with lithium battery banks. But its on the slow side with upgrading on older units due to cost.
I have followed Technomadia's van conversion, it is a great example on how to "not" to do it. But it appears that they have learned what they were doing wrong
(I for one am not a fan of active balancing) what stops you when free camping water grey tank? Black tank? Food?
.
2019 F150 Ecoboost SuperCrew
2016 Rockwood Mini Lite 2504S Trailer
640 Watts solar ElectroDacus SBMS0 3 DSSR20 (TS60 backup)
150 AH Lifepo4 3P4S 208AH CG2 hybrid system
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Dot
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Re: Miles from Utah

Post by Dot »

Mr Grizzman, have you been to Australia?
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T1 Terry
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Re: Miles from Utah

Post by T1 Terry »

grizzzman wrote:
Hi ya Terry! The way I see it you Aussies are ahead of the game when it comes to freedom camping and I'm hoping some of your experience will rub off on me :D About 3 1/2 years ago while researching solar I found Lifep04. Cool stuff for sure! I may put together 100AH and see if I can use it without killing it
:lol: I'm running two CG2 208AH 6 volt batteries. I'm sure glad I don't have to worry about propane here. It would be nice to have propane as a " back up" system though. Higher end all electric MotorHomes are coming with lithium battery banks. But its on the slow side with upgrading on older units due to cost.
I have followed Technomadia's van conversion, it is a great example on how to "not" to do it. But it appears that they have learned what they were doing wrong
(I for one am not a fan of active balancing) what stops you when free camping water grey tank? Black tank? Food?
.
Depends if the rig is big enough to have a toad (towed small vehicle) or a van and tug (tow vehicle) or if a single unit type motorhome. Fresh water would be no1 I'd say, then black water and last of all grey water, maybe food in there some where but that would be collected during the trips to sort the other problems. Generally an all inclusive trip combined with a sight seeing venture takes care of long stay problems once properly set up for it. A water bladder in the rear of the toad for fresh water, dual cassettes for the cassette type toilets or a tote tank to empty part of a black tank/grey tank or a suitable drainage pit dug for the grey water to allow it to soak away without leaving the smell and other issues that grey water can produce. That one is a rather hot topic among the free camps at the moment with the uptake of grey water tanks being a much resisted addition for many, but I can already see clear evidence that the days of just dropping grey water on the ground are coming to an end. Too many people taking up the free camping thing resulting in the next person setting up camp in what you dumped before you left, then complaining that the new site that night was smelly and boggy like a septic pit :roll:

For the smaller campervan type vehicles it would be black water, fresh water and then food as storage and weight is a big issue in these units as well as the smaller caravans.

Free camping over here is broken up into the just off the tar road with a good dirt entry or hard stand set up with a few amenities, to bush camping fully self contained and a bit of an adventure getting in, to the 4WD full off road van or motorhome with enough ground clearance for a tribe of pigmies to camp under that go really bush over tracks I'm not sure I could walk along without ending up climbing through bit on all fours, so there is a bit of rivalry between who the real freedom campers really are. One of the funnies that appeared on another forum explains the whole oxymoron of free camping quite well
Free Camping:
Where you spent outrageous amounts of money to live like a homeless person

T1 Terry
A person may fail many times, they only become a failure when they blame someone else John Burrows
If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine. – Jim Barksdale, former Netscape CEO
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