Finding Free Books On the Road

Paul enjoys a glass and a read with his Android phone in NM

I’ve always been a voracious reader. It’s my favorite thing to do in the wee hours before sleep and I usually get through at least one or two books a week. We had a huge library in our old stix house and losing my books was actually one of my biggest worries getting on the road…how was I going to feed my need to read??!

Well our first year out I broke down and bought a Kindle which immediately made my reading life 1000% better (I’m a huge fan now). Since then I’ve read many hundreds of free books and discovered a bunch more ways to get free books on the road. Here are a few of my favorite tips:

1/ Electronic Books With Expired Copyright

P.G. Wodehouse is one of my favorite all-time classic comedy writers

Anyone can download and read electronic books, even if you don’t have a Kindle. You can use your smartphone, your Nook, your PC or your iPad. One of the easiest way to get titles is from older books with expired copyright (anything pre-1923 is open game, although more modern books can qualify too). Many have been converted to electronic format and these are legally free and available to everyone -> IF you know how find them. Here are my favorite links for snagging them:

• On Your Kindle: The Kindle has tons of old classic books for free. Just look-up old authors and go banana’s with downloads. I use this method when I know what I’m looking for. Otherwise I go to the internet.
• On the Internet: Archive.org is the gateway to the internet’s largest collection of copyright-free books with over 3 million titles for download in just about any format you want for any reader you want. Browse and download titles through the nice, searchable interface at openlibrary.com or link to any of the sub-collections like Project Gutenberg.
• On Your Smartphone: If you have a smartphone you can download cool apps like Free Books or Wattpad that give you instant access to thousands of classic free titles right on your phone.

2/ Amazon.com Daily Free Listings For Kindle

This is a fabulous resource for Kindle users that I only discovered recently. When new titles are listed on Amazon.com they’re often offered for free for a few days before going on regular sale. In a similar vein some authors may offer one book of a series for free or do a few free days to promote sales. There are literally hundreds of contemporary books listed like this everyday covering any and all topics from fiction to investment to cooking. The key is to catch them while they’re free!

My new FAVORITE site!!

You can find these books directly on your Kindle (under “Best Sellers” there’s a link ”Top 100 Free”), but I find it hard to sort through them that way. A much better option is to use an online search engine like eReaderIQ. Sign-up for a daily list of top 25 free books with description and ratings included and you’ll get a handy-dandy e-mail everday sorted by topic. You’ll literally never out of stuff to read this way!

3/ Physical Bookswaps

The free bookswap at Quartzsite, AZ

For those of us who still like to have the paperback in hand (and I do every now and then), bookswaps are a great way to get real books on the road. Many private RV parks will have a small local bookswap and some towns will too.

We found a huge bookswap at the laundromat in Quartzsite, AZ and a hidden swap in the mailbox at Peg Leg Monument in Borrego Springs, CA. The locals usually know where to find them (as will people where you’re staying) so ask around to find those hidden book-gems.

4/ OnLine Bookswaps

There are tons of online bookswap sites where users can exchange used books (sometimes CDs & DVDs too). Typically these items go slow-mail and take a few weeks to get to you so they’re best suited for when you know you’ll be sitting still for a while (e.g. a winter spot?). Before we packed up our stix house we used paperbackswap.com to get rid of a ton of old books and ended up with over 80 credits that we’ve been slowly using on the road. Other good swaps sites are BookMooch and TitleTrader.

I read most of my stuff on the Kindle and have been going banana’s with new titles ever since I discovered #2. My need to read has been freed

Got any tips to finding free books of your own?

5 Tips To Creating & Growing An RV Blog

To blog...or not to blog....oh the eternal question

As you probably know by now I really enjoy blogging. I started my blog, as most people do, just to keep friends and family up to date on our travels but the thing evolved to a journal & mini-comnmunity of like-minded people. We’ve met new friends through the blog, reached out and inspired “newbies” to make the jump to fulltiming and touched folks as far abroad as Italy & Australia, I’m always amazed and I truly love it!

You might also notice that I don’t monetize my blog. We have no ads or paid links and this is purely a personal preference. My blog is an unbiased view of how I experience this lifestyle, and we are fortunate enough to make our income elsewhere, so for the time being this is a free & unadvertised resource.

But what about newcomers who want to start a blog? What are the ins and outs? How about those folks who DO want to monetize their blogs? I’m no expert by any means, but having grown a blog over the past 2 years from only ~10 hits/day to ~30,000 hits/month (yeah!) I’ll be more than happy to share my meager experience. Maybe it’ll inspire you to start a blog too?

1/ Decide on a Platform -> Free or Hosted?

The most basic decision you need to make up-front when you start a blog is whether you want use one of the free fully-hosted platforms out there or you want to host it yourself. There are advantages and disadvantages to each:

Signing up for a free account only takes a few minutes & you're ready to go!

Free Platforms – Free platforms do absolutely everything for you -> just sign up for a free account and off you go! And for the vast majority of bloggers it’s all you’ll ever need. Blogger & WordPress.com are the 2 most popular platforms. I’ve used both in the past and they are both super-easy and similar to use. Blogger allows a little more integration (for example with Picassa for pictures) and has the advantage of allowing advertizing & affiliate links (so you can monetize it), but can be unstable at times. WordPress is a much more stable platform and has more design flexibility,  but doesn’t allow advertizing or affiliate links. The nice thing about a free platform is that, no matter how big your blog grows or how much traffic you get, the free host takes care of everything. I’ve never had any complaints, delays or problems with WordPress & would recommend them anyday.

Wordpress.org is a fabulous software solution if you're looking to self-host

Hosted Platform – You can host your own blog using your own unique website and your own hosting service, but you do need to pay $$ here. The main advantage of this is that you get TOTAL design control, TOTAL advertizing control and can do super-cool things (especially with plug-ins) that you just can’t do on a free platform. WordPress.org has a desktop version of their software that you can use for self-hosting which also has a ton of outstanding plug-ins (it’s the platform I would use if I self-hosted), but there are plenty of other software platforms out there. If you go this route chose a reliable host that can handle traffic (if your blog grows) and make sure you have a great back-up strategy for your blog.

2/ Decide If You Want To Monetize Your Blog

Decide if you're going to monetize your blog up-front

If you want to monetize your blog there are plenty of easy ways to do it, but you should decide this up-front. As I mentioned above the free WordPress platform does not allow advertizing & links, so if you’re using a free platform and want to monetize you should consider Blogger. If you self-host you can do anything you want, of course. The easiest money-making links are Amazon Affiliates or banner ads like AdSense or Tribal Fusion, but there are hundreds of other options out there. Too many ads can be distracting/annoying so plan up-front how many avenues of links you want to include. Also don’t expect to get rich quick on this scheme. You need a solid traffic stream to make any kind of significant income through advertizing/affiliates, so plan for other income streams while you put in the time and energy to get your blog growing.

3/ Link To Sites & Grow Your Readership

Hitch Itch is a great RV resource

I actively participate in RV forums. They are FABULOUS resources for any RVer.

I LOVE having readers. To me, the bigger my readership the bigger the “community” we’re creating on-line…and all of it for the love of RVing!! The support keeps me motivated to blog, and provides so much valuable feedback and love. It is just SO COOL! So I do look for ways to keep readership growing. When I first started out I told all my friends and family about my blog. Then I started looking for other free linkups specific to RVing. HitchItch is a great RV resource and I get a ton of regular referrals from there. RV Resources and RVThereYet are two other free places to link up. I also participate in RV forums on an active basis and put my blog link as a signature on all my posts, plus I publicize my posts on Twitter & Facebook. And finally, I share links with other bloggers (in my blogroll section – which is badly in need of an update!). There are lots of other ways to create traffic to your blog.

4/ Find Your Own Voice

Find your own voice

If there was only ONE piece of advice which I could give any new blogger it’s this -> try to find your own voice. It’s great to be inspired by other blogs (I certainly am), but don’t try to copy them. No matter what kind of writer you are, or what kind of photographer or what kind of experience (or not!) you have, finding & expressing your own perspective will be key to growing your blog. The truer you are to yourself, the more likely you are to attract readers. So focus on things & experiences that are interesting to YOU and write about them. Really I mean it!! I’ve seen this over and over. People are attracted to experiences that are real and they can sense this in your writing (and photos). If YOU are passionate about what you’re doing & experiencing, no matter whether it’s rock-collecting or wine-tasting or photography, your blog will show it! It’s like everything in life, love and adventure….be yourself and good things will come your way.

5/ Write, Write, Write

Seize and use whatever inspiration gets you writing!

Once you decide to do a blog commit to keeping it up. People want to be part of the adventure (while it’s happening) so that means keeping everyone updated on what you’re doing while you’re doing it. You don’t have to blog everyday and not every blog has to be spectacular, but make a commitment to blogging on a regular basis and keep your blogs up to date. Also the more you write, the easier you’ll find it is to write. By the mere act of regular writing you will “find your voice”. Trust me, you will!

If you DO get inspired to blog, feel free to link to it in my comments. I always love discovering new blogs. And of course, if you’ve got your own tips to share, let ‘em loose!

RV Tank Sensors &The GEO Method

Working tank sensors....pricelss

Almost every RVer I know complains about their tank sensors. It’s almost a given that after a few months the sensors start acting up and giving false readings showing tanks that are full when they are really empty. For anyone who dry-camps alot this is kinda annoying, and most end up just “living with it”. But there is hope! We’re not tank wizards by any means, but in 2 years of RVing we’ve managed to keep our black tank sensors working perfectly with our grey sensors OK most of the time. And most of it is thanks to the GEO method.

Typical tank sensor set-up. From dmbruss.com

Now to understand why tank sensors go bad it’s worth understanding a little about how they work. Most RV tank sensors are basically just 4 screw probes that stick into the tank. When liquid hits the screw it makes contact & completes a circuit that turns the LED light on your panel on. Over time crud and slime covers the screws causing connectivity when there really is none (so sensors “think” the tank is full even if it’s not). It’s a really poor system, but it’s a cheap one which is why it’s so widely used. So, the key to making these things work again is simply to clean off that grime. Easier said than done, right?

The Horst Miracle Probe -> a great little sensor upgrade

There are a ton of cleaners, tank chemicals and what-not out there each of which have their passionate supporters. Also there are much better sensors such as Horst Miracle Probe and SeeLevel, both of which get excellent reviews. But for those of us with old sensors and a cheap pocket, this is the method that’s worked best for us:

1/ Never Dump Until Tanks Are At Least 2/3 Full

Waiting until your tanks are full before dumping helps keep things liquid and pressure high so that when you finally pull the plug “stuff” comes out rather than drying out and building up as pyramids in the tanks. So, even when we’re fully hooked-up we keep our tank valves closed until we’re ready to dump.

2/ Dump Black First, Then Grey

Always dump your dirtiest (black) tank first before dumping your grey. For those of you not in the know, the black tank contains run-off from your toilet, while the grey is run-off from your shower and sinks.

3/ Use Lots of Water & Back-Flush

Using lots of water (when you can) really helps to keep things flowing in the tanks. We’ve got a factory-installed back-flush system in our black tank and after we dump we’ll usually back-flush and re-dump before heading out again. There are after-market back-flush systems that are super-easy to install and work very well too.

4/ Clean With The GEO Method

The GEO method ingredients

The GEO method is a home-made cleaning technique that’s been around in the RV community since (at least) the early 80′s. Where the name came from no-body seems to know, but the original method is HERE. The original formula uses chlorine, but that can ruin your valves so these days most RVers use a slightly modified method with just 2 common items, both of which you can get at any big department store:

• Calgon Water Softener -> This stuff helps to break down water surface tension, clean scum and prevent hard mineral deposits. I’ve used Borax on occasion when I can’t find Calgon and find it works just as well.
• Dawn Dishwasher Detergent -> The “original formula” blue detergent is excellent at cutting grime. Laundry detergent works too.

After you dump pour 1 cup of Calgon and 1 cup detergent into the tanks. Leave them in until your next dump. Before driving some RVers will also throw a bag of ice-cubes down the tank to “scour” their walls (we’ve never done this, but others swear by it).

And that’s really it! We don’t use the GEO method each time we dump, but just whenever our sensors need an extra cleaning. Either way it’s a simple, easy and environmentally-friendly method to keep sensors mostly clean. And in a moving house on wheels that’s really as good as it gets.

What tricks do you use?

4 Tips For Creating Instant Indoor RV Coziness

We’ve had a few days of rain here in San Diego recently which means we end up doing alot of indoor stuff. You know what I mean -> hot chocolate, warm meals, watching endless reams of movies (Redbox deals of course! At $1.20 per movie they simply can’t be beat!). I don’t mind these types of days as long as they don’t last too long, which is why wintering here in the SW is sooooo nice. But all this did get me thinking about indoor tips and making your inside RV experience warm and cozy. In Danish we actually have a specific term for this called hygge -> the art of making your environment fluffy-sock-comfy-warm-inviting even on long, dark winter nights (we’re experts, don’t you know). Over the past few years we’ve infused hygge to the RV and picked up a couple of ideas which I thought might be kinda fun to share with others.

1/Add Mood Lighting

Mood-lighting in our bathroom. We hold everything down with Quakehold.

I’m a very light-sensitive person (in my cubicle days I always felt like the office florescents were sucking the living soul out of me), so I’m always looking for ways to make the lighting warm and cozy. Here’s my tips:

• Get LEDs in the right color & brightness - I spent alot of time finding exactly the right color and light when we converted our overhead G4′s and reading lights to LEDs. We’ve been incredibly happy with the results with the added bonus that these super-saving lights use ~1/10 of the power of our old halogens.
•  Use Candles – Being Danish I love real candles and we have several spots with candles and tea-lights around the RV. In a closed containers the tea-lights are safe and cozy, and will burn out on their own when done. I buy tea-light candles in bulk at IKEA, sometimes with scent too.
• OR, Try LED Candles - If you’re worried about using real candles in your RV check out some of the new flameless LED candles which are on the market. They’re battery-operated (perfect for boondocking) and the more advanced versions even have timers for the perfect mood-time. You can often find outstanding deals on these babies on eBay or in discount home furnishing stores.

2/ Decorate Your Space

Alot of RV’s have the same kind of “dullish” feel to them (what is it about RV decorators that makes them think everyone wants everything in a shade of brown?), so adding little accents of color and splash can make a huge difference to indoor feel. Here’s some ideas:

We've decorated the kitchen with burgundy-themed cooking accents

Our burgundy, teal and gold living room theme

•  Rugs, Pillows & Covers - In our rig the first change we did was get rid of our brown carpet and replace it with a burgundy red in the living room and a sky blue in the bedroom. I accented those colors with gold & red pillows on the couches and finished off the color-splash with teal Sure-Fit washable cloth covers on our (very brown) dinette chairs. Even if you don’t change our your carpet, throw rugs can be an bright, easy and cheap addition to your floor. Walmart, Target and IKEA are get spots to buy these at a reasonable price.
• Pictures & Decor - As everyone who’s ever rented a house knows, adding personal touches to decor and pictures can make your space feel more like home. We’ve put several pics up around the rig (using the 3M Command Strips), added several decor pieces (using QuakeHold Museum Putty), and hung some bigger pieces (with 3M Wire Hooks). None of these things have budged in 2 years of travel.
• Green Living Plants – I feel plants give a vibrant feel to just about any space. We have several pots around the house including a small one in the kitchen and a larger plant in the bedroom. Quakehold will keep these in place while travelling.

3/ Use Real China & Glass

Our home-made handy-dandy glass box

This is a kinda personal thing, but I feel having real china and glass in the RV adds alot to the sense of home I have here. If you package these properly they’ll travel over any terrain, and using these tips we’ve not had a single break (due to travel) in 2 years:

• Glasses – We use a wine-box lined with foam to create a custom wine, champagne & cognac glass holder. Fits any type of glass!
• Plates – For our plates we’ve lined the cupboards with a non-slip liner (the best stuff I’ve found is the thick IKEA shelf liner) and put non-slip plate separators between each item. They sell pre-packaged & cut versions at Camping World, or you can buy a whole roll of the stuff at Walmart for much cheaper and just cut it yourself.

4/ Add Some Scents

Burning some incense for our buddha in the living room

Of the 5 senses, I think smell is one of the most inviting and there’s some super-easy ways to add that dimension into your RV

• Incense - We have several simple incense burners that we use from time to time. Lots of places sell relaxing & attractive incense sticks or cones.
• Flowers – Who doesn’t love the smell of fresh flowers in the RV? We don’t buy them often, but when we do I use my handy-dandy collapsable WonderVase to show them off. Love that thing!
• Scent Spots – There are all kinds of scented cones, crystals and plug-ins you can buy out there, but my absolute favorite is the Febreeze Set and Refresh -> it uses no power, gives decent longer-term scent and you can place it anywhere. We always have one open in the bathroom.

And that’s the whole enchillada for our little family here in the rain. Time to snuggle-up and watch a movie, methinks. Got any good tips of your own?

Green and cozy in our bedroom window sill. Cat basket on the right.

We have a larger silk Chinese scroll on our wall in the bedroom

Sweeet Boondocking & Cool R-Values -> Handy Insulation for RVers

Our brand new, mucho-sweeeet boondocking spot

After 2 wonderful weeks in McDowell Mountain Park we stocked our liquor cabinet, loaded up the fridge and got ready to roam far-far-away back into the boonies where many would say we ruffians belong. Thanks to the folks on the forums at rv.net we managed to scope out yet another sweeeeeet spot on free BLM land just west of Yuma, AZ. We’ve got a view of the mountains, unlimited desert landscape and not a single neighbour in sight. I have to admit I’m starting to love winter desert boondocking.

Those may be nice, warm colors but it's gonna be a chilly night!

But our first order of business (after tilting the solar panels & having an appropriate sundowner cocktail) was to think about insulation. Those of you following the blog may remember our freezing boondocking experience just over a month ago in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. One of the things we bemoaned during that trip was our complete and total lack of proper insulation for the rig.
It’s not quite as cold down here in Yuma, but night-time temps have been dropping to right about freezing. Our rig, although equipped with dual-pane windows, is not really a 4-season performer and we get quite of bit of chilly air coming in especially through those pesky windows. So, with plenty of time on our hands and no-one to laugh at what we’re doing this was the perfect spot to geek out a solution.

Mathematically it all starts with R-values. Now thermodynamically heat is always on the move and can enter (and escape) a space via 3 basic methods; convection, conduction and radiation. RVs conveniently provide all 3 escape methods (e.g. conduction through walls, convection through the air, radiation through windows etc.) and it can get a little complicated thinking about all of them at once.

Thankfully there’s an approximate short-cut and that’s to look at thermal resistance. Thermal resistance is basically a measure of how well a given object resists heat flow and it’s summed up in a handy formula and a single number by R-value. In layman’s terms the higher an object’s R-value the more it insulates against heat-loss. R-values are standard listing on most insulation materials that you buy so you can kinda tell up-front how well it’s going to work (it gets more complicated when you layer different materials together incl. air-gaps, but the basic idea is there).

Having been educated as a Materials Scientist this kind of stuff get me pretty excited especially when you start looking at the weird and wonderful materials that haven’t yet made it into standard life. For example, Aerogels are super-light, super low-density structures that provide the highest R-values (>10) of any single material in existence. Check out this epically cool 1-min Aerogel vs Flamethrower battle here:

I have dreams of wrapping the entire RV in silica aerogel and lighting it up like a neon-blue alien spaceship, but unfortunately the stuff is pretty brittle and only really made in small quantities. However new flexible “blanket-like” composites are being made which will one day provide super-light insulation for everything from shoes to buildings. Once those price comes down we’re there, baby!

Reflectix roll-> made sure you buy the double-bubble version

The next best solution, for the average RVer, are regular insulators such as Reflectix, foam, bubble-wrap or Polartec. Our biggest heat-loss problem in the rig is currently our windows so we went with double-bubble 5/16” thick Reflectix from Home Depot (R-value 1-4 depending on whether you install with an air-gap). It not only helps with conductive heat-loss, but is also shiny (reflective) and so acts as a radiant barrier too.

Yours truly cuts out the front windshield insulator

We bought the 4-foot wide, 25-feet long version (BP48025) for ~$45, enough to make covers for all our windows (Note/ 4-foot is as wide as they make it in one piece -> the websites selling 6-foot or 8-foot versions are simply using two strips taped together so don’t get suckered into buying them).

A perfect door fit

For the front it was a simple case of cutting to shape using the Magna Shade windshield shade that we bought earlier this summer as a base pattern. Since our front window is actually ~5-foot tall we had to join two pieces using aluminum tape…easy, peasy. For the other openings I cut pieces to approx. size and then squeezed them into the windows, marked the outline with a pen and cut to a perfect fit.

And our first night with the insulation? MUCH, MUCH warmer. Rather than an almost-constant cycling of the furnace, we only had a few cycles during the night despite very similar temps. Pretty cool or rather pretty hot, either way you look at it. And all for only $45 too….

Other sealing/insulating ideas:

1/ Windows – Look at Shrink Insulator Film or try cheap and easy Bubble Wrap.
2/ Vents – Buy those nifty vent-pillows for ~$10. We use them all the time and they’re super-easy to inset & take out (e.g. when you need to cook).
3/ Openings - Any openings from the outside into the rig (e.g. gas lines) can be sealed with self-expanding foam or rubber.

Got any good tips of your own?

Fulltime RV Insurance – What’s the Difference?

You might feel very much like this when you think about insurance..

While I’m out gallivanting around on a paradise island in the Atlantic I thought I’d leave you with a post on insurance. I know, I know…it’s rather mean of me and you may want to stick your head in the sand rather than think about it (I sure know I do), but it’s one of those inevitable things that come up and just need doing. So, I thought now would be as good a time as any.

Now I should say up-front that I have no particular allegiance to any one insurance company and I rather suggest that you shouldn’t either. Insurance companies compete for business and regularly go through rate-raises (those “vanishing deductibles” always come back in $$ somehow). So, once a year I go out and shop . I stick with well-known companies, but I don’t discriminate as long as I get what I want. Our RV & car policy is currently with Geico and we’re happy with them, but if I got equal coverage at a better price from one of the other many reputable companies I’d be just as happy to leave them.

Is my baby covered?

But I DO want fulltime RV insurance, it IS a slightly different beast than regular car insurance and for those of you considering this lifestyle it’s worth understanding the difference. I’m not an insurance broker so I won’t give you detailed info, but I’ll outline the general facts so you can go off a-happy insurance shopping on your own:

1/ Liability – When you fullime your RV becomes your home, so things that might have been covered under a “homeowners” insurance now needs to be covered under your RV insurance. With liability that usually means a higher value so that, for example, if someone slips and falls inside your RV you’re covered. Ask your insurance if you’re covered in camp (while parked) as well as on the road. Some insurance companies call this “fulltime” insurance.

2/ Personal Property – Since you carry everything you own in your RV you might want to look at the $$ of property coverage in your policy. Most standard policies come with some token amount (maybe about $5,000) of coverage, but if you’ve got a bunch of expensive stuff (computers, TVs, tow-bar, satellite dish, GPS, solar etc.) that you want to cover consider increasing this value. Ask the insurance whether coverage includes stuff attached to the RV which you’ve added after-market.

Negotiating insurance company quotes can be a prickly business

3/ Replacement Coverage – If something catastrophic happens and you manage to total your RV, you should be really clear on what kind of $$ you’ll get from your insurance. Some offer purchase price replacement, but this is usually only on new coaches. Most companies will cover the NADA (National Automobile Dealers Association) fair market value of your RV.

4/ Towing - My stance is that the majority of insurance companies really don’t know much about towing bigger rigs. So I always recommend ditching whatever they offer you and getting a separate towing package from one of the “experts”. CoachNet and Good Sam’s are the most-used companies and both get decent reviews from long-time RVers.

5/ Discounts and Deductibles - Of course you should always ask for discounts (good driver, anti-lock brakes, multiple vehicle etc.) and you always want to look at deductibles. My personal feeling on insurance is that it’s there to cover catastrophic events so I want the highest deductible I can afford. Remember that every single claim you make through your insurance company can potentially increase your coverage costs (sometimes by several magnitudes!) so you have to ask yourself if it’s really worth it. Our policy is never to claim the stuff we can  afford to pay ourselves.

Rather than do all the work yourself I highly recommend going through brokers who are experienced in RV insurance and “talk the RV talk”. Here’s a couple of good names that make the rounds on the RV forums on a regular basis:

• Farm & City 800-331-1520
• Gilbert RV Insurance 888-784-6787
• Miller RV Insurance 800-622-6347

And with that I think I’ll take a tall drink by the pool overlooking the ocean….oh wait…I’m already there

RV Solar Part IV – Panel Tilting & Winter Solar Optimization

Paul and Alex go a-panel tilting

It’s been almost a year since we made the leap to solar on “the beast”. For those of you who missed the chair-gripping series I’ve got the whole exciting detail of how we decided what to buy and install in Part I (discovery), Part II (equipment) and Part III (installation). Since that time we’ve been geeking out and enjoying our panels through extensive dry-camping travels from FL to CA. I’m happy to say our panels have served us perfectly. On good sunny days we’re usually fully recharged on the batteries by noon plus the panels easily keep-up with our daytime power usage even if we’re on the internet all day. There’s honestly not much we’d change.

But there’s always an opportunity to geek out a little more. As days grow long and the sun sits lower in the sky we’ve started to think about winter solar optimization. Now solar panels actually like cooler temps (their output increases at lower temps), but they have a problem with angle which opens up all kinds of fun thoughts and experiments on tilting. And opportunities to blog, of course. So, here we go:

1/ Why Tilt Your Panels?

In winter the sun stays closer to the horizon

If you remember my lessons from last year, getting the best out of your solar system is all about minimizing loss. The same lesson applies to tilting too. The power density of a solar panel is always at its’ maximum when the solar panel is exactly perpendicular (at 90-degrees) to the sun. The further you get away from perpendicular the more power you lose and so the less power output you get. Since sun angle varies by both latitude and time of day that means your power output is varying all the time. So, how do you know what to do?

Well, in summer the sun will get pretty high in the sky and stays there for quite a few hours (as an example, here in Palm Springs it gets to ~70-degrees elevation) so your panel output will be pretty darn good even if they’re flat. However in winter everything changes -> the sun stays closer to the horizon (here it only rises to ~30-degrees) and your power output plummets. Sunearthtools.com has a really geeky cool page that’ll give you the exact angle of the sun any time of year for any direction and spot (just plug in your location):

Solar Diagram for Palm Springs, CA from Sunearthtools.com. The top line shows the sun angle in mid-summer, the bottom line for mid-winter.

How much of a deal is this, power-wise? In Palm Springs in summer you really don’t lose anything by keeping the panels flat whereas in winter you’ll lose more than 50% of your power output if you keep them flat. It’s HUGE!! To demonstrate this here’s another cool tool that’ll calculate daily flux (= an approximation of the total amount of energy hitting your panels) based on location, time of year and tilt.

2/ How Do You Tilt?

Our home-made tilt bars

The fanciest type of tilting systems are “sun trackers” that exactly track the sun all day long, but these are not exactly practical on a free-wheelin’ RV roof. Some RVers keep their panels mobile and just bring ‘em out to tilt/track the sun manually whenever they need them. With 6 heavy panels to lug around that wasn’t an option we wanted on our “beast” so it made a lot more sense for us to permanently attach the panels and look for other tilting options.

Our solution was to get the AM Solar mounts (highly recommend them, even if you aren’t going w/ AM Solar for the rest of their gear), and then add-on home-made tilting bars. Some basic 1/4″ aluminum stock from Home Depot cut to whatever length you want with holes drilled in (you can even drill multiple holes to have multiple tilt options). Combine with screw/nuts and you’re good to go!

3/ What’s The Best Tilting Angle?

If you’ve made it this far and manage to remember what we talked about in #1, then you know that what we’re looking for is to get your panels as close as possible to 90-degrees to the sun. The cool sunearthtools.com link will tell you what angle the sun gets to in your area, and some simple geometry will give you the optimal tilt angle:

At our current latitude and time of year we’re talking around 60 degrees tilt at noontime for best results. Now, obviously the sun moves diagonally across the sky during the day and rises/sets somewhat southerly in winter so that number doesn’t stay constant and the real (max. total energy) formula is a rather more complicated (the cool tool shows that). But if you face your RV East-West and tilt panels facing due south more or less at the 90-degree noon-spot you’ll get pretty darn close to getting the best out of the sun.

4/ Beware the Shadow Monster

See ma...NO panel shadows!

Tilting is just like everything in solar. You’ve got to make sure you avoid ALL shadows. Together with Marvin we were very particular when we installed our panels last year to make sure they had NO shadows from anything on the roof whether tilted or not, even with long winter shadows. I’ve seen shading models that show just 3% shading of a solar array can lead to a 25% decline in efficiency, with 10% shade producing up to 50% decline! The losses are dramatic and could mean the difference between a system that works and one that doesn’t. Even panels that have special “bypass diodes” (meant to help the shade problem) will suffer voltage loss for each cell shaded. Don’t be caught by the shadow monster!

5/ And Our Results Were….?

We conducted our little tilting experiment out in Owl Canyon BLM. Our tilt-bars only go to ~45-degrees so we knew we wouldn’t get optimal output, but we expected a pretty significant boost. Mid-morning with panels flat our 600W system was putting out ~20Amps. With the tilt we hit ~30 Amps, a 40% improvement. As the day wore on our boost got even better with the MPPT charger kicking up output to a stunning peak of~45 Amps at around noon (MPPT really shines with higher-voltage panels in colder temps). Coooool!

We plan to do even more detailed tracking experiments later this the winter and will undoubtedly share these exciting results with our readers, but for now this is a good start. There is also much more geekiness that can be done with solar so don’t expect to see the last of this sunny series.

Lessons in Cold-Weather Dry-Camping = Our Sierra Nevada Week-end

At least I have fur -> You should see the other guys!

It was going to be the COLDEST 4 nights we’d ever spent in the RV and for a wimpy-butt-chill-kitty like me that meant serious stuff. We were headed deep into the Sierra Nevada Mountains at about 7,900 feet near Mammoth Lakes. Day-time running temps were forecasted at a civilized 55-60°F  (13-15.5°C), but the nighttime thermometer was going to hit a MOST barbaric 18-20°F  (-8 to -6°C) and we were dry-camping without hookups {{swoon}} ! If it weren’t for the incredible views and stunning hikes (and the fact that everyone else thought it was a good (?!) idea) I wouldn’t be here, but as things stood I was ready to bear it out and take it as a learning experience. Very magnanimous of me, I thought…

It's all worth it for a view like this!

And a learning experience it was. As with all life experiences it turns out there were a few things we knew, but a lot we don’t know about cold-weather dry-camping. Now, we were lucky that it didn’t snow during our time in the Sierra’s and moisture levels were super-low (so, no real ice/sticking/condensation issues), but we did pick-up a few tid-bits for our next time (should I ever be so insane again) in the chill:

1/ Lead-Acid Batteries Lose Capacity In the Cold

Rough graph of Battery Capacity vs Temperature

Being an avid photographer I’ve always known that batteries go faster in the cold, but for whatever reason I hadn’t thought about it for the RV. Lead-Acid batteries are “cold-blooded” which mean they slow down (i.e. internal resistance increases) and they actually lose capacity as temps drop.  The loss is pretty dramatic and gets faster the more load you draw (something called Peukert’s Law). What that means practically is your 220AH battery bank may only be worth ~150AH at 32° F (0° C), and even less than that if it’s colder and/or you’re drawing a lot of power (e.g. running a furnace). This little tid-bit explained why our 440AH battery bank was more than 50% discharged after a chilly overnight spell, even though we only drew ~150 AH from them. It was colder and so they had less to give! For more accurate graphs see the Lifeline Battery Technical Manual (Appendix section, page 34)

2/ Windows Are Major Leaky Cold Points

I love having large windows for views in the RV, but they sure are temp-suckers. Being nice, handy radiant conductors in summer they heat up the rig to a greenhouse boil while in winter they leak warm air out and manage to allow nice, chilly leaks to ooze inside. Closing out those leaks can mean MAJOR heat savings and as temps dropped below freezing we quickly realized we were woefully unprepared in this category. Here’s a couple of ideas we put in our back-pocket for our next trip:

• Insulation Material – Our RV partners have a nice, handy foil-based Reflectix insulator on their big, front window and have Polartec material that they’ve sewed and velcro-attach to the inside of the smaller windows. Both these things made a huge difference in their rig (compared to ours) and we’re definitely stocking up on insulators before our next trip. Bubble wrap is another great, simple idea.
• Plastic Shrink Film – I’ve talked to hard-core cold-campers that swear by those window insulation films that you shrink-fit to your windows. The positive is that they really seal things up. The negative is that you can’t open for air. Not sure we’ll need to go this route, but it’s a handy tip.
• Better Shades – There are lots of shade options that do a much better job than the day/night jobs that we currently have in our RV. Old-fashioned Cellular shades or sleek, modern MCD shades can make a difference to both appearance and heat/cold tolerance. The MCD shades are on our “wish list”.

3/ Portable Heaters Rock

Our "Big Buddy" Heater

We have a Mr.Buddy (“Big Buddy“) that’s a great back-up/support heater to our furnace. We’ll often run it for a few hours before we go to bed to get a snuggly, warm temp and it turned out to be a major bonus for our Sierra week-end. You always, always need to remember to crack a window/provide ventilation with these guys (and make sure your CO detectors are working), but they’re portable, cheap and easy to use. The
Olympian Wave Catalytic Heaters  also get great reviews from RVers.

4/ Furnaces Can Suck You Dry

The fan in our furnace has a pretty significant power-draw (~10 Amps with both front and back going) and running it all night can easily suck us dry, especially when combined with other phantom draws and less battery capacity at low temps (#1). We managed to go below 50% batteries one night before we got wise to this one! We fixed this by switching to the portable heater (#3) before going to bed and sealing off our bedroom with only the back furnace on to keep us (and the pets) comfortable at night. As an additional back-up Paul set-up the auto-gen start on our generator to kick-in at 12.2V (~50% discharge point) on the batteries.

5/ Tanks Can Freeze, But It Needs To Be Reeeally Cold

It's not cold enough here for a tank freeze...yet

If you’re consistently in freezing temps you’ve got to think about tanks and hoses. Typically cold-weather RVers will insulate or disconnect/put-away hoses and keep tanks warm with a small heat source or padding. Since we were dry-camping our hoses were already safely in the bay, but we did make the mistake of turning on our tank-warmer one night which (once again) almost drained our batteries. Duh! In reality our day-time temps were warm enough that we needn’t have worried about any kind of tank freeze, and if we’re ever in a situation that we do…well…I think it’s time to move the rig.

Who wouldn't want to be here?

There are LOTS of other things that I’m sure we have yet to learn about. The good news is that our solar panels rocked the challenge (we managed to re-charge our batteries fully each day even though we didn’t bother tilting them), the cats did not turn into feline ice-cubes, and yours truly managed to survive with all fingers and toes in-tact. Oh…and it WAS worth it. The hikes, the views and the whole week-end rocked!

 

 

10 Things I Wish I’d Known Before Fulltime RVing…

Our svelte 32,220 lb monster. How little we knew when we first started out...

One of the beautiful things about aging is you carry along the wisdom of years of experience (that, and your wine gets better of course). By many standards you could easily call me but a pup in the great dog-park of life, but as our multi-year journey in RVing progresses I have managed to gleam a few gems of sageness which I can happily pass along. In that spirit, here are 10 things I wish I’d known before we went full-timing:

1/ Bigger is Not Always Better

Sometimes things are not as they seem. A fiery and dusty sunset in NM

I always imagined that you should try to buy the biggest RV you could afford. After all, who doesn’t want lots of space? Our travels over the past years, and perhaps more specifically the kind of travel we like to do (camping in public campgrounds, forests, state parks, off-the-beaten-track spots) has taught me that bigger is not always better. Our “beastly” size is super-comfortable but requires me to do quite a bit of detailed planning to make sure we can fit into the kinds of spots we like to visit. In retrospect, I would have wished for a smaller RV. For those camping mostly in private parks this is not a consideration, but for our kinda camping it sure would be nice with a few less feet.

2/ Hard-Mounted Satellite Dishes are Mostly Useless

When we first got the RV the thought of a hard-mounted, fully-automatic Satellite TV dish on our roof seemed just the ticket. Push a button and off you go….fabulous! However camping as we do in lots of spots with trees and obstacles we have line-of-sight perhaps only ~50% of the time making our dish mostly useless. In retrospect a movable dish would totally be the way to go.

3/ Most Camping Clubs Are Not Worth It

Most of the places we go don't taking club passes. This is gorgeous Eagle Nest State Park, NM

When we first started RVing we signed up to just about every camping club out there, Sam’s Club, Escapees, Club USA etc. In retrospect (again because of where/how we like to camp) these were not worth it. The only camping club I currently consider is Passport America, mostly for short stops and I do like the Escapees Days End list, but even these have mostly been replaced by overnight “freebies” when we need them. The rest of the time we’re out in nature/boonies where club memberships do not go. For some people clubs are great and they can certainly be cost saving if you make use of them, but for us they’ve simply not made the cut.

4/ Beware Heavy Slides

I love the slides in our motorhome because of the massive amount of space they give internally, but it seems some manufacturers go overboard. Our “beast” has a massive front drivers-side slide with refrigerator in the slide, something I now understand is an engineering no-no. The weight of the slide has been the cause of the only real issues on our home in 2 years. I love slides and will always want them, but in retrospect I would never buy another home with a fridge in a slide-out.

5/ Finding Great Public Campgrounds Can Be Easy

Finding great campsites can be easy. Soaking in the view at fabulous Elephant Butte State Park, NM

The first year of RVing I struggled to find the kinds of campgrounds (natural, green, spacious) that we like to visit. It was a constant battle of going to one website, through a ton of clicks, then another website, then to a map, then to another spot and back again to try and figure out which one matched our route. Early this year I discovered uscampgrounds.info and my planning life changed. If you like public camping there’s simply no better resource out there and I use it as the base for all our travel planning now.

6/ You Don’t Have to Sign Any Internet Contracts

When we initially looked at internet solutions we knew we wanted a Verizon-based system since it was simply the best coverage out there (and our experience has proved that true). We ended up w/ a 2-year 5GB/mo contract which is a little tight for our needs. What we didn’t know was that you can get a Verizon-based coverage using no-contract resale partners such as Millenicom. It’s the same coverage, but simply without the contract! You can boost it just like any system out there too. Millenicom resells both Verizon and Sprint and they won’t/can’t tell you (directly) who they’re using, but you can easily narrow it down via the device (the Verizon-based contract is currently offered on the 20GB/mo deal using the Novatel U760 Device). For more info check the forums.

7/ Take Your Time On the Road

Take your time to smell the roses..or in this case the sea. Boondocking for 10 days at Sea Rim, TX

When we first started on the road we rushed like crazed animals on stampede to see as much and as far an area as we could possibly see within the timeframe given. It took several months before we realized none of this was necessary. In fact taking more time to enjoy our surroundings not only saved us money, but we’ve met more people, seen more local gems, created a sense of community and felt more in-tune with the journey. Our 2-month trip through New Mexico earlier this year was a great example of how this attitude has really made sense for us. We are progressing more and more into “sitters” (RVers that spend several weeks in one spot) rather than “movers”. It may not be for everyone, but I sure recommend giving it a try.

8/ You Really Don’t Need Much Stuff

I spent months trying to figure out what to take on the road before we started out. I already knew (instinctively) that we wouldn’t need much, but  I wanted to try to cover all the bases. The truth is that we needed even less than that. I took ~10% of my then-wardrobe with me, and I currently use about 10% of that. We brought along tents and other equipment we never use.  We ALSO ended up buying a bunch of nifty (so we thought) “RV stuff” before we’d really spent any time in the rig on the road, another thing I’d now consider a no-no. In retrospect spending some time on the road before loading up would have made alot more sense. We’re planning a major cleaning-out when we get back to our storage in San Diego this winter and will end up much lighter for it (no doubt). If we keep this up the storage might end up going too…

9/ Follow the Weather

My kind of view....hanging out in perfect weather at The Forgotten Coast, FL

This kinda makes obvious senses, but when we first started out we really didn’t pay too much attention to weather. In our first year we ended up travelling through the Mid-West in very hot and buggy conditions, not ideal for a natural-born bug magnet (such as myself) in a metal home. Since then we’ve paid closer attention and the beauty of being mobile is that you can do exactly that. I launched my flip-flop barometer early this year and we managed (mostly) to stay right on it. We’re wintering in the SW this year and will be back to cool and gorgeous coast & mountains by next summer. Most definitely the flip-flop way to go!

10/ RVing Costs Are Manageable

We agonized over the cost of full-time RVing for a long time before we jumped in. The truth is costs are flexible and totally manageable and our experience has certainly proved that to be so. There are great options for saving money both on camping, gas, health insurance, taxes, car/RV registration and other areas. You can take your time and boondock, workamp along the way or run around and stay in pricey resorts. All can be great experiences, but the real beauty is that the choice is there.

Well that wraps up my list…got any good ones of your own?

Free Overnight RV Parking = Finding “Freebies”

Gotta love free parking at Walmart!

So, we’ve been avidly planning our route to OR these past two days. As is typical in summer most of the public campgrounds are booked solid, but we’ve managed to find a few sweet spots that we’re really looking forward to. For the couple of nights where we can’t book we’ll rely on free overnight parking along the way. Most people who full-time RV know this trick, but I thought it’d still be nice to do a quick post on it for those who don’t.

Free overnight parking is a convenience many old-timer RVers know about.

I call them “freebies” and they’re spaces where you can park for free (no hookups) for the night. In my mind this is not the same as ”boondocking” (= camping out in the boonies/nature). When you “freebie” you don’t camp and you don’t stay for the views. It’s simply somewhere convenient to pass the night, usually right next to the road. We did one on the way to Grand Junction staying overnight at Walmart locally the night before our 7AM RV appointment. Not only did it give us the chance to stock up on some groceries, but it was safe and a perfect location for the night. There are lots of places who offer this wonderful service and a couple of rules that I follow each time we use them.

Who Offers Free Parking?

Parking at an abandoned lot off the I-10 in Texas.

I’m always amazed at the number of places that’ll let you stay overnight, even a “beast” size like us. Here’s a short list:

• Walmart - Most Walmarts allow overnight RV parking unless there’s a city ordinance that prohibits it.
• Casino’s – Many Casino’s have secure parking areas where you can stay for more than one night. Some even give you a discount on a meal. Live.Work.Dream wrote a great post about them here. Also check out www.casinocamper.com.
• Flying J’s - Many Flying J Truck Stops have a separate RV parking area where you can spend the night.
• Big Stores – Some of the larger stores (K-Mart, Lowes, Home Depot, Camping World) will allow you to spend a night.
• Rest Areas – Some rest areas (in some States) allow you to stay overnight. The Interstate Rest Area Guide sells an e-book with all the details.
• Others - Plenty of other unusual spots allow one-night stays. You can find lots of additional listings at www.overnightrvparking.com and at the fabulous Escapees Days End Directory.

April 2012 Update – There is now a new service launched by the fine folks at Frugal RV Travel called Boondockers Welcome where you can connect with other RVers for the chance to overnight for free on private property. Another great resource!

What Are The Rules?

We always make sure we park in the very back of the lot where we won't be in the way.

There are really no “official” rules for free overnight stays, but there are a few unofficial ones which I always follow:

• Ask Permission - This is rule #1 and I think it’s critical. Unless you know for a fact that the spot allows overnight parking (i.e. it’s clearly marked), then the right thing to do is to ask for permission. Before we arrived in Grand Junction, CO I called ahead to ask Walmart if we could stay. There are actually 2 Walmart’s in the area and only one allows overnight parking (because of city ordinance), so the phone call was worth the trouble. If I show up at a spot without calling, I’ll go in and ask the manager on-site.
• Park Out of the Way – If you’re parking at a business chose a spot where you won’t get in the way of the regular daytime customers. At Walmart I’ll try to park at the very back of the lot.
• Don’t Set-Up Camp – These “freebies” are overnight parking, not camping. So, keep the slides in and the jacks up. We’ll sometimes put out one of the small slides (as long as it doesn’t hang into a parking spot) and we may run the generator in the early evening but I don’t push it further than that.
• Use Some Cash – This is not really a “rule”, but I like to spend some money at the spot I’m staying. It’s a way of giving back to the business for letting me stay for free.
• Be Courteous – Be nice to your “hosts” and your neighbours.
• Don’t Overstay Your Welcome - Most of these places are really just overnight parking spots. Some (like Casino’s) might let you legitimately stay more than one night, and others might allow it if you ask (and have a good reason), but for the most case it’s just a 1-night deal and it makes sense to support that policy.
• Leave It Spotless - It goes without saying that you shouldn’t dump gray water or leave trash at these spots. Leave it clean and spotless.

And the last thing, although it’s not a rule is more common sense. If you don’t feel safe don’t stay. Most of the big businesses are pretty safe, but there might be areas of town that are rougher (esp. in big cities). Overall I love ”freebies” and consider it a priviledge that I get to use them. Got any favorites of your own?