Living in vans, cars, RVs, etc
Kaylee may be best known for her ability to live [very frugally](http://pitafree.com/users/kaylee/human/expenses/index.htm?butn) in a van and experiments cooking with what is available. She documents it all for the benefit of others. In this post she describes using one of Zatarain's cajun-style mixes as the base for [a crockpot meal](http://pitafree.com/users/kaylee/food/crockpot/index.htm?butn). --- I usually keep a box of their Jambalaya mix in [the pantry](https://mouse.mousetrap.net/cooking/pantry.html), waiting for the chance to pick up some smoked sausage on sale/closeout. The local grocery store had a sale on Andouille so I got 1lb of it for $3. Will cook it up today or tomorrow. My kitchen situation is a bit different, because during the build I had sufficient salary and time to build a [robust power system](https://mouse.mousetrap.net/boondocking/camper.html#power). This allows running a fridge and the smallest Instant Pot. In practice this means I typically cook in full batches and store the leftovers in the fridge for another meal. I adapt the Zat for Instant Pot by reducing water from 2.5c to 1.25c and cook at pressure for 13 minutes instead of simmering for 25. If I'm at elevation (like 8k-10k') I will bump the time to 14-15 minutes. Natural release in all cases, mainly because it reduces foamy messes that requires lots of water to clean up. Related RVwiki article: [cooking with excess power](https://rvwiki.mousetrap.net/doku.php?id=food:cooking:excess_power)
www.blm.gov
>> the Business Plan proposes to increase current fees from $180 to $600 per long-term permit, and from $40 to $200 per short-term permit. It would also modify the short-term permit length from 14 days to 30 days There is a comment period for the public.
I subscribe to the RSS feeds of all the NF/BLM districts I [boondock](https://rvwiki.mousetrap.net/doku.php?id=camping:dispersed) in while [snowbirding](https://rvwiki.mousetrap.net/doku.php?id=camping:snowbirding). So I knew that a small section of NF land outside Santa Fe, NM where I was headed next was [closed for a year](https://www.fs.usda.gov/alerts/santafe/alerts-notices/?aid=88339). I picked a spot at least a mile outside the "designated area" that was closed. A friendly ranger pulled up this morning and asked how long I'd been here (4 days). He started to gently/professionally inform me the area was closed. I pointed out this spot was outside the designated area. He was skeptical and rechecked the map on his phone. I think he was embarrassed (and thinking of others he might have punted) because he wanted to show me how hard the map was to read on his phone. He also said I was the first person he talked to that had actually read the closure notice. We commiserated a while about the misuse that caused the closure. He was a good guy and I assume he will go back and clarify the situation for anyone else he misinformed. #takeaways - reading the district's announcements can be both directly and indirectly useful - bringing up the NF's official language ("designated area", "dispersed camping") seems help establish rapport
Details are on reddit. Hopefully going back there won't give anyone PTSD. :-)
... in which I relate my first wild bear sighting (with crappy pic) & and double the size of my LiFePO4 house battery bank .
Living in a vehicle the last few years has helped me save & keep all the money I would've otherwise paid to a landlord. So I can afford a security system now, and urgently need one because people are starting to catch onto my patterns and hover around my vehicle like vultures. Please tell me the best security system you know of. I am not savvy with electronics and gadgets, and I never will be. So I need someone to tell me. I'm thinking of a fuel kill switch or battery kill switch or whatever that thing is; I'm thinking of camera system that I can monitor with my smartphone from wherever I am, etc I'm thinking keeping several air tags all around my vehicle, in pockets of clothing, and in bags, and under my mattress (can I use Apple air tags if I don't own any apple devices??, I run on Samsung and Lenovo and Linux); Please tell me where to get these things, what the best brands are of fuel/battery kill switches, camera monitoring system
[Alternative Youtube Link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WYDb8gweT0)
The domain name is up for purchase ($9999.99 according to my registrar), so it looks like it's lost rather than just temporarily parked for a slightly overdue bill. Luckily the site was recently [backed up by the Internet Archive](https://web.archive.org/web/20240603054512/https://boondocking.org/) and the archived All, gpx, and csv links seem to work.
(Me= vanlife.) If you have your starlink satellite thing mounted on top of your vehicle, the only time you can get internet is when you are within range of your vehicle, right? In case there's no Wi-Fi available, and you're away from your vehicle, which is a situation that is pretty constant in my life. I presume there's no starlink hotspot to carry around(?) Like it's been nice to have my Verizon hotspot "Orbic" shitty little thing when my phone's unlimited data service is slow or spotty but even the Orbic has shitty service sometimes. I definitely want to abandon evil extortionate Verizon. Please tell me if I become a starlink customer, I won't be able to use my phone indoors at work which doesn't allow us to use their Wi-Fi, And when I'm walking around town, what to do for internet? Please tell me your most highly recommended ISP that isn't extortionate & manipulative.
>> a swamp cooler and humidifier of this design are doing the same thing: blowing air through a wetted, porous medium. The goals are different (humidification vs cooling) but the mechanism is the same.
TL:DR: I saw a set of cheap panels with weird specs at Home Depot. I bought some to experiment on and to use as portables to augment my mounted solar. ----- Home Depot is selling 200w of panel for $114. That's $0.57/Watt. Not *amazing* compared to used panels (typically $0.33/Watt) but HD is all over the place and has free ship-to-store. It also comes with mounting brackets and one of those [single-stage PWM controllers](https://rvwiki.mousetrap.net/doku.php?id=electrical:solar:charge_controller#single-stage_chargers). I'm not bagging on that kind of controller, but it's not a great fit for this particular set of panels. #THE CATCH The panels are a weird design, apparently 24 cells in series. Normal "12v nominal" panels have 36 in series for ~18Vmp. These have a Vmp of 12.0v, so I think we would call them "8v nominal". This makes them practically unusable in parallel for charging lead or LiFePO4. You *could* run the panels in series on the PWM controller since it has a 50v input max and the series Voc would be 30v. But, due to [the way PWM works](https://rvwiki.mousetrap.net/doku.php?id=electrical:solar:charge_controller#pwm) the panels would be running at in the 14v range at the most. This is way, *way* off the 24.0Vmp of the series array. I'd expect a max harvest of ~120w with that kind of setup. If these were normal panels in parallel and on PWM I'd expect a max of ~160w. We can go into the math on that if anyone wants. The **best case scenario** IMO would be to run the panels in series with an MPPT controller. This would get us closer to ~170w max harvest. some other thoughts: - The panels might work well enough in parallel for 3S Li-NMC because of that chemistry's lower voltage - HD has a 10% discount program for veterans if you provide them with a bit of documentation.
... in which I camped in a spot infested by mule deer, picked up spent brass, and trusted the local forecast enough to do my cooking off solar....
in which I bumblefsck through figuring out why my solar setup no worky
I was outside the zone of totality, so was still making some power. Notice that panel voltage did not decrease like many think, it does. Vpanel is stable above ~10%-15% insolation, depending on the panel
I did this because the hotplate was a bit more than my offgrid rig could handle comfortably. Been using it at ~500w to very good effect.
This is probably worth considering in general, but dealing with financial lockouts on the road is a particular kind of dumpster fire. TL:DR: I deposited a check and things went weird (not an NSF scenario). My bank got spooked and locked not just that one account but all of my access for two weeks. I scrambled to open new accounts elsewhere and move direct deposits over. Soon (like 12 hours) after completion my bank said "oopsie!" and restored my access to the accounts this morning. Having pre-existing accounts at other locations would have been stressful because one institution could not bogart my funds.
We're preparing to move about 1000mi. I'm getting my truck ready to tow a trailer for our three potbelly pigs, two cats and a dog. '98 Ranger XLT with 4.0L V6, auto trans. Rated for 5900lbs tow, 9500 gross. Even has the overdrive disable and good rear end ratio. I'm adding a Redarc Liberty brake control. The 7-way plug kit I got includes 30 and 40 amp auto reset breakers for the control and trailer power. Here's the thing. I don't like the idea of an automatically resetting breaker at 30 amps or more due to the risk of fire or frying the electronics in my truck. I would prefer to install manual reset breakers. I understand that an auto reset would might allow some brake capability in the event of a short and that is why they are used. I just don't feel like the auto breaker justification is that likely vs the other risks of auto breakers. How long does it take the auto breakers to reset? What are the real world risks using manual reset breakers? Opinions/thoughts greatly appreciated!
www.cpusa.org
cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1863958 > The book is this one: > > 
> ... up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Yay. BTW, I keep track of laws like this in [this RVwiki article](https://rvwiki.mousetrap.net/doku.php?id=camping:banned)
Like an idjit I smoked my old shunt by shorting it while moving stuff around. I eventually replaced it with the Aili type. It works fine, but I don't like how the data is presented. Totally my fault, I saw what the display looked like when I bought it. Grrr......
> House Bill 1365 was filed in January. It prohibits camping or sleeping on public property without a permit. The bill would give local municipalities the power to designate specific areas for sleeping or camping. Such properties must have restrooms, running water, security, and access to health care for mental and physical health. Also under the provision the specified areas may not negatively impact local businesses. [Here](https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2024/1365) is the info if you want to follow along
> This year was more tumultuous than usual. A couple things were literal once in a lifetime events.
This month November I intentionally "moved" to the highest cost of living state for 3 reasons: 1) it's beautiful and I want to live here 2) high cost of living also means that jobs pay more here than anywhere else 3) which is a bonus for us homeless people because we don't have to worry about handing all that extra money to landlords/ mortgage bankers 😉 We pocket the extra money. (And before you assume I'm some drug-addled hobo, nope, I'm not. I'm saving money for new lithium leisure batteries and scheduled maintenance & so many upgrades to my already awesome van. It will take a year or two until I've saved up enough $ for that then I can commence enjoying this healthy spirited life again.) okay now here's the societal hurdle I've been afraid of and I think I've conquered it today: This is the first time since embarking on this lifestyle I've absolutely had to get a real W-2 job that requires employees to have a permanent address in the state but I don't want my employer to know that I don't have a physical address. I don't want my new prospective employers to know that I live in a van because they will immediately cast judgment on that because there's an unfair stigma associated with this lifestyle and they would unfairly assume all the worst things about me which would affect their decision to hire me, so How'd I get around this?? When they weren't satisfied with my out-of-state PO Box address, and they also weren't satisfied with my temporary 30-day in-state General Delivery USPS address, today in my FOURTH interview I finally admitted, "All right, I'm HOMELESS but I'm fine, I'm healthy, I'm clean, have everything I need, I show up to work everyday no problem, everything is fine. I just need a job." She said "ok," and stepped away for a minute but it felt like forever, I was so worried that was the end of my hiring process, but apparently everything was fine! We continued on for an hour with the onboarding documents and I'm in 🎉
>> [I found a] 3qt crockpot to replace the 2qt and 4qt. Back to my original setup. The Crockpot 3120 is rated at 75w/150w and I measured it at 69w/134w.
>>I believed the forecast, which said it would be partly cloudy. In reality it was overcast all day, no blue sky at all. It was lightly raining most of the time. Pic to the right (PF parking lot) shows how low the cloud cover was. Clouds were obscuring the top of the nearby Franklin Mountains.
> I noticed the panels were unusually filthy. An excellent opportunity for an experiment! I dug out the ladder, put the pushbroom head on the multi-purpose stick, and found a suitable terrycloth hand towel...
including a prediction that I will need to use shore power for the first time in over 5 years :-\
> I just realized it’s been two years since I installed the LiFePO4. No regrets.
> Just before the eclipse started (0913 local) the system was making 260w.... “first contact” began and the MPPT algo started thrashing around... at full annularity (1037 local) it was making only 26w. This lines up with the prediction of “89.6% obscuration”.
I recently bought some closeout honeycrisp apples and bosch pears and ate most of them. I had one of each left over and decided to skin each and cook them down with a bit of cinnamon and lime juice. Then I decided I'd make pancakes the next morning to make use of it. I cooked down the fruit on the [300w lab hotplate](https://mouse.mousetrap.net/cooking/#electric-cooking). Tried to use it for the pancakes in the *naan* pan but the 4" head was too hot in center. Tried to use a flame diffiuser but 300w wasn't enough grunt to get through that. So I ended up cooking the pancakes over a single-burner propane stove. They tasted better than they looked. :-) - [cooking down the fruit](https://img.mousetrap.net/2023/IMG_20231011_101548.jpg) - [pancake](https://img.mousetrap.net/2023/IMG_20231012_102549.jpg) - [pancake recipe](https://mouse.mousetrap.net/cooking/recipes/recipesStandard.html#pancakes)
> I found a tennis ball in a park in SF, and figured it’d make a good aromatic medium for the peppermint oil I bought to repel mousemonsters. I cut it into quarters with a utility knife. > I applied peppermint oil to each fuzzy surface and mounted one under the hood and one on the floorboard near where I saw mice enter.
[I've noted before](https://mouse.mousetrap.net/blog/2022-12-05-isolator-charging-while-stealthing--water-use--appointments--etc.html#the-alternator-v-solar-charging-mix) that when I stealth camp in cities my charging percentage from alternator increases from ~5% to ~10% of total production. The increase isn't needed (solar could cover it) but the alt gets a chance to play. Since I am moving at least twice a day (3x with PF showers) I've had an opportunity to record a higher frequency of engine starts and LFP bank acceptance. The setup: * 180A alternator that typically runs at 14.2v * Battery Doctor [VSR](https://rvwiki.mousetrap.net/doku.php?id=electrical:12v:alternator#voltage-sensing_relays) setup left over from my previous FLA bank * 150Ah 12v LFP bank * SoC and voltage measurements below taken from BMS before engine start * current measurements taken from BMS though it agrees with shunted battery monitor. (I can see the BMS via bluetooth from the driver's seat but I can't see the monitor) * solar contribution and loads ranged widely, leading to variance. Over the last ~20 runs, the average state of charge was 72%, bank voltage 13.20v, charge acceptance 0.183C (27.39A) ``` SoC Vbatt C A 60 13.07 0.245 36.75 72 13.15 0.130 19.50 69 13.13 0.120 18.00 27 12.95 0.270 40.50 80 13.29 0.150 22.50 80 13.27 0.240 36.00 81 13.30 0.170 25.50 77 13.22 0.165 24.75 39 13.03 0.260 39.00 95 13.30 0.115 17.25 48 13.06 0.235 35.25 86 13.56 0.120 18.00 90 13.25 0.220 33.00 90 13.26 0.165 24.75 62 13.08 0.240 36.00 92 13.27 0.084 12.60 92 13.27 0.090 13.50 58 13.07 0.235 35.25 89 13.26 0.140 21.00 84 13.26 0.215 32.25 49 13.07 0.225 33.75 ``` Given average charge acceptance of 27.39A, the obvious comparison here is to a 30A DC-DC like the Orion-TR. The DC-DC would have a much more stable charge rate, typically ~30A except late in the charging process when acceptance at Vabs tapers.
> Charge to ~100% SoC then allow the system to settle back to the quasi-float voltage... Final measurements taken when the sun had gone down enough that solar could no longer hold Vfloat.
my first vinagaroon IRL and *I did not like it*. Also a tarantula, but that was much less freaky.
I contribute pretty regularly to Google maps. I know at some point I should probably switch to Open Street Maps but, I am not ready at this time. I would like very much to share my journeys and to follow other houseless members on gMaps. DM me if you would like a link to my profile. Right now I am in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. It has been a soggy few days but hopefully it will be beautiful by the weekend. I do like this little town. It seems cheaper and friendlier than Durango. It is growing so I suspect I will have to find a place to replace it in my rotation in a few years. Lots of good camping to the south and also to the Northwest. Much of it with good cell service. In the springtime you can tube down the icy San Juan River, stop in some hot springs then jump back in your tube for the remainder of the trip.
> I have a prescription from the VA coming in, and an Amazon order in the queue. I’ll try to time everything arriving in 14d so I can collect everything, get a shower at PF, etc
> Heavy rain was forecast in Los Alamos for the next few days (and lighter for the next week). Highs in the 60s. I needed to move (14d) so I could either scout a location within acceptable distance or chance going into Santa Fe.
Living in vans, cars, RVs, etc
!houseless@lemmy.sdf.orgWe're not homeless, we're houseless! By choice or by circumstance we are living in our vehicles. Don't worry about us -- it can be a very good life.
Anything that affects us as vehicle-dwellers is probably on topic.
external resources
- emergency guide to suddenly living in a vehicle <-- start here if you don't have a choice in the matter
- vanlife FAQ
- introduction to power in the vehicle
- gentle introduction to solar power
- overview of charging by alternator
- guides to hygiene and toilet
fedi resources
rules of engagement
- be civil
- use descriptive thread titles. Pro tip: "Help" or "Question" are not descriptive titles.
- old-timers: assume people are different and have different needs, preferences, budgets, and use cases
- newbies: demonstrate effort and willingness to learn; you'll need it on the road anyhow. Links have been added below to help get you started. When asking question state your "use case" (what you are trying to accomplish); we are terrible guessers.
- tire-kickers: yes, we've heard that "in a van down by the river" joke. It was hi-larious in 1993.
vandwellers vandwelling vanlife urbancarliving