Musings on Power Over the Years

[BobC]

I was thinking of my own personal history with "RV camping" with respect to my electrical power needs.

I currently own a 2002 Suncruiser 35U (purchased in 2017) and spend a lot of time educating myself about the pros and cons of LiFePO4 batteries etc. I have 340W of solar waiting to be installed. We have a genset but hate to run it for extended periods of time.

It wasn't always this way.

My first "RV" was a 1960s Ford Econoline E150 that I minimally converted in 1972. We had a propane stove and furnace but no house battery or shore power. Our propane tank was a forklift tank on a roof rack. I'm sure we were woefully overloaded. After getting out of the Air Force, we (my wife, I and our two year old daughter) traveled in it to CA from Ohio over Christmas, enduring a blizzard in Flagstaff. We were never uncomfortable, never ran the starting battery down and had a memorable trip. We continued to enjoy the Ford for several years before upgrading to two used VW Westfalia pop-tops, the first of two was a '70s version, the last one a a used early '80s version (non-Vanagon). \

Neither of the two VWs had a house battery, nor did they have shore power nor propane nor a generator. No refrigerator, just an icebox. We had a number of wonderful years camping and, again, never had any battery problems, even with stays of a week or so. Aside from being gutless on hills and relatively unsafe, they were a dream come true.

In the early '80s, we added a sailboat to our stable, the first of four. The first was battery free, the second two had shore power, house (two GC batteries) and starting batteries, but no solar or generator. Both had alcohol stoves but I installed LPG in the second. Again, just ice boxes although I added the guts of a dorm refrigerator to the second so we had refrigeration on shore power.

We could anchor out for several days without power and never thought much about it. We rarely ran the engine to top off the batteries.

In 2004, we purchased the first of two Nash TTs, both with shore power and GC batteries. I installed 100W solar on the first and 200W on the second. Again, we could camp off the grid for up to a week without issue. We did have a Honda generator but generally only used it to run the microwave, rarely using it to charge our batteries.

How things change. Sometimes I long for those simpler days, but I also long for my younger body. Thanks to our years of training we're still conservative with respect to off the grid power use but do have a wheelchair lift that makes things a bit more difficult.

Note: In addition to the MH, I've gone full circle with another white Ford van. This time it's a 2005 Ford V10 E350 van with a wheelchair lift (my wife's disabled) that I'm converting for day trips and the occasional overnight when the MH/toad would be overkill. It has two AGM house batteries, 100W of solar with shore power waiting to be installed. I have a second 100W panel but think I'll use it as a DIY portable to serve both the van and MH. Other than a convertible bed there won't be any built-ins since we need the circulation area for the wheelchair. I may or may not install a 12V/120V fridge. It does have a porta potty.

[Eagle5]

Wow Bob; that is a great history. Another thought is how well the propane appliances take care of many needs; cabin heating, water heater, cooking, and refrigeration.
My cousin has a 1969 Econoline Van that he wants to get restored, and I hope he does it.
In my 19' boat, I did install Shore Power, and I use that to power my battery charger and for a small portable heater. Certainly, I have no room nor need for a second battery in that boat.
In my Minnie Winnie 22M, I have never run-out of battery power with the stock twin 24-size lead-acid batteries.
Sometimes the old ways were just fine.
Eagle5