Here is a gallery of shots of the exterior of the rv since I painted her white.
Exterior shots gallery
Tag Archives: nomad
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.