Ski RV's, who's sleeping in parking lots?

[doebedoe]

It is too bad that the small awd van with a bit of clearance isn't a thing. I basically just want a heated box FS road capable with moderate MPG. #truckbedlife is great 3 season living but a sleep inside 4 season road tripper would be rad. I like this kinda thing but it would be a pavement princess. https://www.dlm-distribution.com/cam....php?vanID=189

AWD 4th Gen Sienna with 2" lift is calling your name. 30mpg+ even with lift/more aggressive tires and a box.

[Foggy_Goggles]

AWD 4th Gen Sienna with 2" lift is calling your name. 30mpg+ even with lift/more aggressive tires and a box.

It is...has been for years. The game is that my wife needs a new daily driver because her 150K 2012 Forester is doing that David Blaine thing with the oil. If it were up to me, she'd get an EV for the 90% of the time that would work to commute to Hot Sulphur. Then the Sienna could be our 3rd vehicle and her snowy commuter.

What is more realistic is that my business could buy the Sienna and she'll get another Forester. Did I tell you now much I have Subaru's?

[Foggy_Goggles]

I could probably go with a 3rd Gen FWD to start

[sillybunt2]

Will Prowse's website has excellent information regarding small solar system design and considerations for vans/RV. https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/
The Youtube videos he puts out also have good information. You should be able to chase down your battery questions and decide what works for you. Apparently the Lithium cells are $$ up front but worth it in the long run.

[Hopeless Sinner]

My FWC requires more batts, more propane, and a generator to make it through the 4th season. I'm not sure if I want to make the batt upgrades necessary to do this or just get a Bigfoot/Northern Lights that would truly be 4 season capable. Just forgetting about winter camping is also a possibility. I just hate the idea of a massive, top heavy load that a giant hardside TC is.

[Foggy_Goggles]

Oh yeah, I also need to develop my down valley camper ranch to curated the proper dirt bag cred. I'll thinking connexes in a circle, maybe a bath house, certainly a pit bike track, RV hookups.

[doebedoe]

I could probably go with a 3rd Gen FWD to start

That's what I'm in. I'll ping you when i'm up WP way this winter and you can check it out.

The new 4th gen hybrid certainly ups the mpg and has bunch of new safety features. Bit more of a pain to build out but still possible. Easier to lift cause no driveshaft between front and rear (rear is electric motors only). These folks have done a couple: https://oasiscampervans.com/ .

We're leaning towards and AWD Transit + AWD EV as our two main vehicles in the next couple of years. EV could be main city car, commuter if we need it, and work for day trips to the hills. AWD Transit + beer to stay in friends driveways as our mountain house. Plus my '90 Miata because I've had it for 20 years now.

[alpinevibes]

We're leaning towards and AWD Transit + AWD EV as our two main vehicles in the next couple of years. EV could be main city car, commuter if we need it, and work for day trips to the hills. AWD Transit + beer to stay in friends driveways as our mountain house. Plus my '90 Miata because I've had it for 20 years now.

FWIW - we've got two T350 AWD pass vans with Med roof and the 3.7L V6. Great vehicles so far and averaging 17 mpg mostly on the highways here from 6000'-9000'. The eco boost is a joy to drive but is getting 15-16mpg.

[Huskier]

I'd think you'd need at least 100Ah to be happy without charging the moped...For the cost of one 100Ah lithium battery I bet you could get an AGM battery, 250W solar panel, and charge controller. .

Cost per 100AH for LifFePO is about $360-400 if you're ok with an off-brand or no-brand. Renogy's 200AH (close to equivalent given discharge limitations) are about $270. Not as big a gap as you'd think.

Also fwiw I had to go down to 100AH recently due to a warranty issue. Running 6 puck LED'S, the dometic fridge and and the diesel heater and charging phones I don't know if we ever went below 80% (granted we drive around daily and the dc-dc charger keeps everything topped up)
Once you add an inverter and start trying to run things off of it, inefficiencies start to add up. Also stereos can be power hogs...

[doebedoe]

FWIW - we've got two T350 AWD pass vans with Med roof and the 3.7L V6. Great vehicles so far and averaging 17 mpg mostly on the highways here from 6000'-9000'. The eco boost is a joy to drive but is getting 15-16mpg.

Good beta. Saw a couple of them with Aspen ski club kids at the hill last weekend and they had good things to say.

[frorider]

There was a post here a few pages back showing a ‘unicorn’ AWD Transit, and I meant to ask why they thought it was a unicorn…I’m seeing a shit ton, often commercial vans for telecoms or FedEx or whatever. The 2” lift / bigger tire ford AWD campervans are MUCH better in deep snow than the so-called 4WD Sprinters according to converters I’ve spoken with who’ve driven both in similar or identical conditions. Sprinter system limits front torque to 30%, and immediately goes into a power limited mode that makes it hard to charge thru a snow patch (eg spring time driving in the E Sierra). I’ve heard similar Sprinter issues in sand.

Anyway my hope is that with AWD transits everywhere, eventually there’ll be a reasonably priced used market for unconverted cargo vans. A med roof AWD 130” WB Transit V6 goes for 60 grand I think…meanwhile the RWD identical van sold new for 28 grand just 4 years ago. Fucking ridiculous. Sorry for the rant.

[powdork]

Tahoe Whitewater Tours seems to be updating their fleet. They have others for sale but this one looked the best. Probably beat to shit but only 99k miles. It's on the Facebook but probably elsewhere too.
Make: Ford
Model: F-450 Econoline Shuttle Bus
Fuel Type: Diesel
Engine: 6.0L Diesel
Year: 2006
Vin: 1FDXE45P16HA77057
Mileage: 99,141
Price: $12,000
Passenger: 25

Length: 25’
Width: 8’
Height: 9’


Selling due to california CARB regulations with respect to commercial vehicles. Not sure how thiat translates to personal vehicles.

[doebedoe]

There was a post here a few pages back showing a ‘unicorn’ AWD Transit, and I meant to ask why they thought it was a unicorn…I’m seeing a shit ton, often commercial vans for telecoms or FedEx or whatever. The 2” lift / bigger tire ford AWD campervans are MUCH better in deep snow than the so-called 4WD Sprinters according to converters I’ve spoken with who’ve driven both in similar or identical conditions. Sprinter system limits front torque to 30%, and immediately goes into a power limited mode that makes it hard to charge thru a snow patch (eg spring time driving in the E Sierra). I’ve heard similar Sprinter issues in sand.

Anyway my hope is that with AWD transits everywhere, eventually there’ll be a reasonably priced used market for unconverted cargo vans. A med roof AWD 130” WB Transit V6 goes for 60 grand I think…meanwhile the RWD identical van sold new for 28 grand just 4 years ago. Fucking ridiculous. Sorry for the rant.

That's generally my hope too. Base AWD 130" V6 med roof says <$45k on the Ford site. Problem is are you willing to wait for a base build.

[skysos]

Electrical system question:

I will need to remotely charge an ebike battery (likely 360Wh), so I am planning on being able to incorporate a Jackery 1000 as a removable part of the equation.

My Bosch e-bike charger draws 2.2 amps at 120v. That means the Jackery (at 90% efficiency for the pure sine wave inverter) will be drawing 24.4 amps at 12v. At 46.4Ah you will be able to charge for 114 minutes assuming all that 46.4Ah is usable. My bike takes about 3 1/2 hours to fully charge. I assume you have worked this out but check the math for your charger because I wouldn't be able to charge mine up off a single Jackery.

I charge mine with a 600 watt inverter that only turns on when the truck is running.

How big of a permanent house battery should I plan to install to provide the power for the camper basics, such as firing the furnace, lights, (not sure if the old 3way fridge needs power to run off propane?), and maybe a little more?
I know they’re very sensitive to cold, but this will likely not be a skiing camper, so I was thinking of splurging for lithium, which also means great per usability of the battery capacity. Does it seem reasonable to think I can get away with a 50Ah? The Jackery has a 46.4Ah lithium battery built in.
Probably somewhere between 150-200W worth of solar panels should work well I think.

Feel free to poke holes in my thoughts-I’m definitely learning a lot about this stuff.
Thanks

A fridge running on propane uses a negligible amount of 12v power.

We have 225ah of lead acid batteries in our trailer, which powers all the usual RV things plus almost constant USB phone and tablet charging. At 50% discharge, that's 112.5ah. We have a 190 watt solar panel which keeps up when we are parked for days. I've rarely seen it drop below 75% so we are really only using half of the capacity most of the time. That includes running a normal RV propane furnace. With sun, it is usually topped off by noon.

So as climberevan said, a 100Ah liFePO4 battery + 200 watts solar sounds like a good goal. 50Ah will likely be enough most of the time, but you will be using most of it every day and you won't have any cushion if the sun doesn't shine or you need more power for whatever reason.

[greasyslope]

Cost per 100AH for LifFePO is about $360-400 if you're ok with an off-brand or no-brand. Renogy's 200AH (close to equivalent given discharge limitations) are about $270. Not as big a gap as you'd think.

Also fwiw I had to go down to 100AH recently due to a warranty issue. Running 6 puck LED'S, the dometic fridge and and the diesel heater and charging phones I don't know if we ever went below 80% (granted we drive around daily and the dc-dc charger keeps everything topped up)
Once you add an inverter and start trying to run things off of it, inefficiencies start to add up. Also stereos can be power hogs...

I found a well reviewed off brand 100AH lithium battery for $340, and I was thinking along the same lines for 200AH of AGM, so it’s fairly close.

[greasyslope]

My Bosch e-bike charger draws 2.2 amps at 120v. That means the Jackery (at 90% efficiency for the pure sine wave inverter) will be drawing 24.4 amps at 12v. At 46.4Ah you will be able to charge for 114 minutes assuming all that 46.4Ah is usable. My bike takes about 3 1/2 hours to fully charge. I assume you have worked this out but check the math for your charger because I wouldn't be able to charge mine up off a single Jackery.

I charge mine with a 600 watt inverter that only turns on when the truck is running.



A fridge running on propane uses a negligible amount of 12v power.

We have 225ah of lead acid batteries in our trailer, which powers all the usual RV things plus almost constant USB phone and tablet charging. At 50% discharge, that's 112.5ah. We have a 190 watt solar panel which keeps up when we are parked for days. I've rarely seen it drop below 75% so we are really only using half of the capacity most of the time. That includes running a normal RV propane furnace. With sun, it is usually topped off by noon.

So as climberevan said, a 100Ah liFePO4 battery + 200 watts solar sounds like a good goal. 50Ah will likely be enough most of the time, but you will be using most of it every day and you won't have any cushion if the sun doesn't shine or you need more power for whatever reason.

How big is your ebike battery? I figured 360W is on the small side. I should be able to set up the Jackery to utilize pass through charging, so I should be able to charge it either through solar, house battery or running vehicle, while it is charging the ebike, assuming I have enough supplemental juice if necessary. At least I think this is how it should work.

[alpinevibes]

That's generally my hope too. Base AWD 130" V6 med roof says <$45k on the Ford site. Problem is are you willing to wait for a base build.

Yeah, it's def a waiting game now until they get production back close to demand.

Ours are 2020 XL rubber floor non-EL builds with 15 seats. The seats, tow hitch and back up alarm were $2k of options bringing the listed MSRP to $52k. We walked away at $45k after rebates, special pricing and $1000 trade in.

Now at 4,800mi I had a Carfax value listed at $62k two weeks ago. Crazy.

[Buke]

This one looks interesting. Manual locking hubs. Right hand drive to make things interesting.
https://www.realityautos.net/vehicle...2651293893ded7

[m2711c]

Looks interesting, sure. But when you take a look at the price and how old that machine actually is, I think I’d rather go to Japan with that money and rent a new one now….. go ski some of that fucking powder.

[muted reborn]

This one looks interesting. Manual locking hubs. Right hand drive to make things interesting.
https://www.realityautos.net/vehicle...2651293893ded7

Looks decent inside, not bad. I've noticed I only get to see rare Toyota campers IRL in parking lots of mechanics though - like this one from this week

[frorider]

That's generally my hope too. Base AWD 130" V6 med roof says <$45k on the Ford site. Problem is are you willing to wait for a base build.

Yeah I was probably making apples to oranges comparison based on what people have told me they paid recently for an AWD. I figured there was some #Covid #Vanlife price gouging going on.

[DanoT]

How big is your ebike battery? I figured 360W is on the small side. I should be able to set up the Jackery to utilize pass through charging, so I should be able to charge it either through solar, house battery or running vehicle, while it is charging the ebike, assuming I have enough supplemental juice if necessary. At least I think this is how it should work.

Pass thru charging will of course take quite a bit longer (maybe a lot longer) to charge the Jackery. Check with their website specs but I think they say that pass thru charging shortens battery life---but by how much is the concern.

[Woo-Dus]

This one looks interesting. Manual locking hubs. Right hand drive to make things interesting.
https://www.realityautos.net/vehicle...2651293893ded7

What’s interesting is the back ski locker!

[dan_pdx]

Does anyone want to buy my brand new (still at the factory) GoFast Superlite?

Earlier this year, GoFast told me we could push delivery to summer of 2022, but today they emailed me to tell me to come get it or give them shipping info. Totally out of the question for me to drive out there right now, and I'm not interested in paying to have it shipped either. Does anyone want to buy it? It's brand spanking new, still at the factory. I'll sell it for what I paid: $1,598. Includes the ladder and mattress. PM if interested.

[skysos]

How big is your ebike battery? I figured 360W is on the small side. I should be able to set up the Jackery to utilize pass through charging, so I should be able to charge it either through solar, house battery or running vehicle, while it is charging the ebike, assuming I have enough supplemental juice if necessary. At least I think this is how it should work.

Mine is a 500Wh standard Bosch battery from 2017. I'm guessing you are getting an Orbea Rise (jelly!) which is one of the only bikes I know of with a 360wh battery. The charger is similar in that it's a 2 Amp charger so you should be able to run it for a couple of hours on just the Jackery and will probably get a decent charge on the bike.

I don't pass-through on my OVRLND truck camper setup. The inverter is connected directly to the truck battery so it charges off the alternator. There is a 3rd wire that turns the inverter on when the vehicle is running.