Hey

I have a small camper van and travelling in Europe can be quite chilly these days. I was looking for some neat solution where I don’t have to adjust my van too much. I did not want to do some super install and also did not want to have the heater inside.

This toolbox is a perfect solution. I bought it on aliexpress in some “back to school” deal for like 120 burger bucks/ 100€. It has BT, many heating modes, remote, 6L tank, 2m air tube and long exhaust pipe and some other material.

It fits nicely under the van so I just put the tube in through some holes, create an output and it was ready to go.

It supposed to be 8kW but who knows. I can get my van from 13°C to 22°C in 10min in the lowest heating mode. It takes around 8-10A in startup and then it holds around 0,9-1A/14W when it runs. There is a thermostat function but I don’t use it because I believe it stop and start the heating during the drops/reach of temp.

So if anyone is looking for similar solution, I can recommend. Of course it is still cheap chinese heater but at least you have the box after and you can easily replace parts inside

Good to go!

PNW for the summer, worst I saw was 2 full days of clouds. Not too bad. House battery just barely survived a 3 day onslaught of ZERO sun on the panels.

I was running my fridge on the AC outlet, full time. Plus and extension cord for miscellaneous. What a lesson. Don't do that lol. Today I got up a 6am and ransacked my electrical and now every swing d...utility is on D.C.

With it somewhat cloudy my battery ran up to 100 around 2pm. I fear I may have done some damage to the power station. But, lesson learned.

Don't be me, use D.C. for EVERYTHING!!!

I have a Chinese diesel heater. It has an internal tank (1 gallon). For obvious reasons I no longer want to bring diesel inside my van to fill it up so I want to put a jerry can mounted on the back of my rear door and have the fuel line going to it. Are there any recommendations on how to do this? Also, I noticed the original tank does not have a vent (I think). Is this needed for the other tank/jerry can I want to have the line running to? Any recommendations on how to do this?

How would you install solar panels to this roof?

I prefer not to drill, would glueing two strips of L shapped aluminium with 3M marine sealant 5200 to the roof be strong enough? Would I have to scrape the gelcoat for it to properly glue?

Hello, is it an issue to install a non isolated victron orion 12/12-30 in a T5 2012 TDI 2.0?

Some people says that the non isolated makes the trigger hard for a smart alternator.

Would you have an advice concerning the choice between isolated and non isolated ? Thanks

I’m currently in Oregon and I’ve been on a quest to find a nice forest spot within 30 minutes of the coast AND has cell service. Sounds crazy, but I’ve found a couple of spots. I found one that was perfect and had an amazing view, except I wandered out of the NF boundary and was on what I assume is timber company land. It was a clear cut that looks to have been replanted in the last 5-10 years. No one bothered me, but I only stayed one night. The road I came in on also had several pullouts before you hit NF. I didn’t see any signs of activity beyond recreation in either spot. So wondering what others experience is with this. I can’t see why anyone would care as long as you leave no trace, but who knows.

Beautiful night at Hoffmaster State Park in Michigan.

I have a 2000 Ford Econoline E150. I have a portable AC unit that works well for camp sites where RV power hookups are available. Right now, I use a little plywood piece that mounts to a rear window to vent the hot air output of the unit out the window, but have been brainstorming a way to make a "pluggable porthole" in the doghouse so I can prevent air from the engine bay from flowing into the cabin while traveling, but connect on the hot air exhaust tube when parked and camping. Want to do it this way so I don't have to route an exhaust tube thru the rest of the van and can have more of a discrete setup. Also want to use the doghouse so its less of a significant modification (i can always pick up a junkyard replacement vs trying to plug a large hole somewhere else in the body of the vehicle).

Has anyone done anything similar and have advice? Thinking about trying to epoxy some sort of PVC coupler to the doghouse, and cap it with either a screw pvc cap or just a pvc cap with a small bit of PVC that i can just press fit it on to close it.

Open to any ideas!

Day 1 how it started + the moment I plugged in to my own source of energy, about 2 weeks ago. Still a wonderfull feeling!

I am looking to insulate before winter hits basically without any carpenting.. Still figuring it out.

Still enough work that I will probably only set up if staying a couple of days at a site. But allowed me to work outside during hot summer days.

Planning a roadtrip through the Yukon and Alaska soon. I’m from an area where black bears WILL break into your car for food, and am accustomed to keeping anything scented out of the vehicle while dispersed camping. How does it work for vanlife? In grizzly-prone areas like Canada and Alaska - do you keep scented items/food in the van and just hope for the best? I can’t imagine most people take it all out and store it in bear canisters when dispersed camping.

Any I missing something?

20,000 CDN for a van with 455,000 km (282,723 Miles)

is this absurd?

My partner and I are living out of a Honda HRV that I built out to have a bed and drawers. It’s a little crowded though, and we’re hoping to build out a van to live out of full time. We’re both teachers so we’re a little broke.

I was wondering if y’all had any info on good places to buy non-built out vans, specific makes and models of vans to avoid or look for, and just any general tips for newbies. We don’t know much, but are stoked to start building!

Got this idea back when I was driving for instacart. There was a local HVAC company that would come and park an SUV covered in company branding in a parking spot next to the entrance of Costco where everyone would be forced to see it.

Perhaps a similar service could be offered on a van. It would also give legitimate reason to be parked in parking lots.

Van build is (slowly) coming along, but I really needed a break from all the long build days and video editing🙃 So I packed up and headed out for a short camping trip to a beautiful Swiss farm🇨🇭 First night sleeping in my new van and I might have already found my favorite camp spot ever!!

Hello, I am having trouble understanding how to wire the hot, neutral, and ground through the Bluesea Double Pole AC Breaker. Per my diagram below, is it correct to have the ground wire skip the breaker and go straight to the ground into the inverter/charger? I just don't see any other connections on the breaker so I assume that this is the way.

Also, for the AC distribution, do I wire the neutral wire to the same side that I wire the hot to? Bluesea's diagram is a bit confusing with the AC neutral wire. I added the photo so you can see it better:

And lastly, is the way I ran the hot, neutral, and ground to the fridge correct?

None of this is wired yet as I don't want to die :) Thanks for helping!

Hey guys finally got around to building a battery bank in my van setup and being new to all this I bought a Vevor charger. Unfortunately the Vevor DC to DC charger is only pulling 14 amps at the most when it is rated for 30amps. I not sure if just a poor quality charger or if my alternator just cant give it any more power. My alternator is supposed to be a 130amp alternator, which I think is enough, but I have no way to properly test it myself unless I remove it and take it to O'reilly so they can bench test it. Not really planning on doing that any time soon. I'm thinking the only way to know if the Vevor is bad is to return it and get another one, but if I'm gonna do that I might as well go for a Vitron 30 amp charger, which I'm starting to see is a more commonly used brand. Was just wanting to know if anyone had any experience with Vevor and if they are bad quality items or if I missed something that isn't allowing the charger to pull more than 14 amps. Cause it would be a waste of time if I get the Vitron and then have it also be limited to 14 amps and the problem lies elsewhere and not the charger. The Vevor is putting out the correct 14.5/14.6 voltage just at half its rated amps, so the charging of a 200 AH battery is way too slow. If I happen to discharge the battery then it would take something like 15 hours of driving to completely restore it lol.

Can I use seatbelts bolt to ground my bus bar to ground and then install both negatives to the bus bar of my isolated dcdc charger to use it as non-isolated? Or should I carve the wood from under and install the ground directly to the bar under the plywood. Or is it best to just install both negative and positive to starter battery?

272 miles of range ought to work for most of my trips and I feel like chargers are popping up all over the place... If I covered the entire roof in solar I could probably recoup ~20-30 miles / day in summertime. Maybe throw a generator in the back and use it as a range extender. There's so much room in this van!

Hallo, van family! Vanmily. Whatever. I should like to get everyone’s opinion on a problem in my community.

There is a Westy that appears to have been abandoned in front of one of our local shops. She has been there several months, long enough to have developed a coat of dust and her tires have gone flat. One of her windows is a bit open, and I am able to see there have been no persons or animals inside for, apparently, quite some time. I’ve asked the shop owners if they have seen any activity or noticed anything strange; they have not. I noticed no odd smells or fluid leaks, have seen no signs of entry or exit.

I’ve asked around some of the other folks in the local scene and nobody is familiar with the owner. I don’t like to get involved with this sort of thing, but I know some people in our situation disappear and we often don’t have anyone else looking out for us. Has anyone got suggestions for this situation? I don’t want to potentially cause problems for someone or take away their home, but I also don’t want this attracting attention or complaints in a community that is already tetchy about vanlife folks. I really do not want to get involved with law enforcement but I am not sure what else I can do.

Reallyyy craving more solar power so I can spend longer off grid 😅 Thanks in advance! 🙏🏻

I’m thinking of purchasing a 90’s era Chevy G20 van. It’s in a bit of rough shape outside but inside is pretty decent. I’m not especially handy. Is this rubber strip pretty doable to repair myself? Is there a specific name for it?

I'm currently on a van road trip coming up on 2 months now. i've been to altitudes as high as 10k feet and, tho my vevor diesel heater (supposedly) has a altitude adjuster, i cannot get it started at between maybe 6k and 10k feet altitude (despite multiple attempts).
I am currently in Denver (at about 5280 feet altitude) and finally got it start but had to drive and rev my engine while it was starting (I'm guessing it was maybe providing extra amps from the alternator to the heater or something).
I am able to easily get it started in my hometown of Tucson at maybe 2400 feet too (without alternator/driving assistance).

I have been thinking about injecting some oxygen into the combustion chamber at the high altitudes (6000+ feet) to see if it will aid in getting this thing started. Has anyone tried this and been successful?

Thanks.

After three incredible years of living full-time in my vans, I’ll sadly be closing this chapter of my life and moving back into an apartment. I was lucky enough to pour my heart and soul into two beautiful builds, and every adventure I had with them was unforgettable.

I recently received my dream job offer in NYC, so I’ll be leaving van life behind at the end of this month. Rigby, my current build, will carry me through until my two-day road trip in a sedan, (which will feel like such a downgrade).

I want to take a moment to thank this community. Being able to share my builds, experiences, and questions here has meant more than I can express. To the few of you I got to meet in person, it was amazing connecting with like-minded people.

Van life will always hold a special place in my heart, and I’ll be following along from my cramped NYC apartment as this incredible community continues to inspire me and make me a little jealous. Good luck to all of you, and if anyone ever needs advice on electrical, plumbing, or anything else, I have two builds under my belt and would be more than happy to help.