Here is a gallery of shots of the exterior of the rv since I painted her white.
Exterior shots gallery
New coat of paint for the living room (Finished!)
So I got the weekend off and got the itch to paint over the funky hippie rainbow living room, thank god, coat one is near done and it wont look good until I get another two or three on there!
*update* I finished the last coat today, and wow I didnt realize how vast the improvement was until I looked back at how it used to be. Jesus it looks so much better white.
Flat screen LCD arm mount upgrade!
The Issue of TV is pretty common in the RV world, and while I dont use it much, I like having the option to watch streaming movies and shows on netflix or amazon prime. In my quest for Energy efficiency I needed a low draw solution and I wanted to keep the space consumption down to a minimum. The obvious choice seemed to be converting one of my existing desktop LCD monitors into a “tv”. I choose my Samsung 22″ LCD as its got a 1080p resolution and has a really nice picture in a package that draws .8 amps when on.
Another appealing aspect was that the bottom stand completely comes off and its standard VESA 100 mountable. I found this arm mount which fit my needs perfectly and was super affordable. Here are some before and after installation shots. I find this mount to be sturdy and the knobs seem to tighten well, but its new so time will tell. I’ll update this post after tripping around with it to let you know the real outcome.
Here is the arm mount installed and a shot of it up on the wall. I had to move my Broom holder to the left to make room for the tv add on, and I have to peek around to see the temperature of my fridge now, but both are pretty minor changes to my routine. The fridge still has clearance to open and if I swing the tv out I can get it open even more. Here is the combo VGA/mini jack 1/8th audio cable I got to run from the screen and speakers to the laptop for video/extended display work.
heres another shot from dead on
the vaxrv gets a tech update
I returned home last night to find all my Amazon toys arrived. I set about getting the new stuff installed before heading to work. The coolest new addition has got to be the Cradlepoint 3g router which I got off amazon for about the same price as a usual home router, but its wayyyyy better for mobile applications. It doesnt take hardly any power (and can easily be ran on 12v) It accepts most 3g/4g usb modems and then routes the signal into wifi. It can have a guest and a protected network so you can have one for filesharing/printer sharing and one for friends to pop on when you have guests. It also allows you to take another wifi network signal and use it as your internet source (which was a unique feature and one of the reasons I got it besides enabling sharing my 3g modem). You can even use its built in RJ-45 lan port to network a desktop in, or you can use it to plug in a cable or dsl modem or other internet source.
All those features in a router thats a little bigger than a deck of playing cards. Its pretty amazing and its got alot of bells and whistles built into the netbased setup interface, you can even enable gps tracking/logging/ and periodic reporting in standard GPS formats, which is particularly of interest to me since it will be in the rv and could enable even more geolocation possibilites for the blog.
Here it is mounted on the wall net to the couch (which yes, still needs a paintjob, BAD)
Rawr
testing geolocation from the iphone app.
New Toys
I’ve went ahead and bought some upgrades.
First up is a Alfa 1000mw usb wireless card with a standard screw in antenna port (so later on I can upgrade antennas) Its also got a 15 foot extension cable enroute with it. should improve my ability to find random hotspots = ]
Second upgrade is this lcd tv mount to mount my flat screen samsung lcd to the wall. I’m still debating placement and height, as I want to be able to see it from the bed above the cab but also ideally have it usable as an eternal monitor when working down below from the sofa. will post pictures and a blog on installation once it arrives.
Solar!
Here is the preliminary rundown on my solar rig for the curious.
The gear I’ve got is
2 sunmodule mono 250 watt pv pannels (roughly 250 watts @ 31 volts each for a combined total of 500 watts @ 31 volts)
4 trojan t105 deep cycle golf cart batteries (6volt @ 225 amp/h in pairs for a total of 450 amp/hr @ 12 volts)
a xantrex C35 charge controller (upgrading to a mppt charge controller soon for better yields)
a prosine prowatt 2000 watt invertor for 110 ac in the rv
a trimetric meter to monitor the energy usage and battery levels
all LED lighting in the house (uses less than an amp when all the lights in the whole rv are on) and a holiday chest freezer with a fridgemate relay keeping it at fridge temps so it kicks on maybe 5 minutes every other hour or so (only uses about 14 amps when it does)
Here are some photos
This is the battery bank and charge controller area the trimetric meter is mounted on the wall
the prowatt invertor and the red switch is for switching to current from the alternator for charging the bank
the panels and ghetto mounting system (and former owner)
thats the basic rundown of my rig. once I upgrade to a mppt (maximum power point tracking) charge controller I’m going to output the log data up here so I can keep track of the solar yields.
Before and After Shots Part 1
Here is some before and after shots to give you an idea of how much work has went into the vaxrv so far.
Here is a shot of the kitchen before I went to town on it.
I know it looks like a 16 year old got loose in there with some paint. Here it is after 3 coats of killz2 primer
heres another angle
this area has since got another coat of white and is looking alot cleaner than in this shot. Also all the drawers have now been painted as well. follow up shots coming soon!
New Project 1975 Dodge Sportsman Tioga
And the website is born.
1975 Dodge Sportsman chassis Tioga Motorhome
360 v8 engine
500 watts of sunmodule solar cells on top
450 amp hours worth of trojan deep cycle batteries in the house
Xantrex (soon to be a mppt) charge controller
Prosine 2000 watt invertor for my 110 needs.
It all starts as a dream. I’ve always wanted independence, it started by leaving home for california on pretty much a whim. I’ll find work, I’ll figure it out. And I did. 8 months of grinding at a 4 star hotel later, and I’m looking at my options. I can keep paying half my take home pay in rent, or I can figure out a way out. After searching craigslist endlessly, I find her, a old beast that needs a bunch of work but is already well on her way to being a boondockers dream. This is the story of fixing her up and the adventures that follow.