My first road trip in the van is complete! I spent a little over a month on the road, driving from home in California, up to Oregon, out to Colorado, and then back via Utah. Along the way I more than doubled my hours behind the wheel, visited friends, saw some of the sights, and I learned some things about my van.
First, having a van rocks, and makes all kinds of adventures easier. It lets you drive up to a trailhead Friday night, sleep in the van, and get on the trail before everyone else Saturday morning. It lets you get up at 4:30am instead of 4:00am to start your sunrise hike because you don’t have to break down camp, you just start the car and go. It let’s you change plans at the last second because you don’t have to worry about where you’re going to sleep. I started this project with all of those benefits in the back of my mind, but having experienced them I am even happier with my choice here.
Second, cars do not come well insulated. I have a lot more insulation to install, and it showed. The inside of the van became the same temperature as the outside within a few minutes of the engine turning off. Driving through the west in the summer, that meant that I could not be inside the van during daylight hours unless I was driving somewhere. It made me consider getting an air conditioning unit for the long run. More on that whenever I get around to deciding.
Third, I can’t decide which side door I like being able to enter better. Ultimately I think the choice will come down to how much counter space I want, but over the course of the trip I went back and forth on whether I liked having the passenger door accessible or if I wished I’d left the drivers side door open.
Last, I have plenty of solar and battery capacity for summer. I ran on just one solar panel and my 100ah battery. The battery never dropped below 85%. I only had my fridge and phone charger as load, but even when adding LED lights and a fan, I should be more than covered. The outstanding question is how will the system do in winter or in a week of cloudy weather. The other thing that could change the calculus is adding an air conditioner, as that would be a big power draw.
After my road trip I had to get ready for my next adventure, a month long research cruise as an ROV (remotely operated vehicle, aka underwater robot driven from a boat) engineering intern with Nautilus Live. If you’re curious, the whole cruise will be live streamed here. That means the van is getting some well deserved rest, getting ready for the next adventure.
