Concerns About Going Full Time
So in the span of 8 days, i decided i was done struggling to survive and living paycheck to paycheck. I bought a truck, a camper and now finalizing the details on how to proceed. I live and work in NY...
Forum Discussion
Lots of creative suggestions and positive trouble shooting ideas. I think I only saw one person mention it just briefly so I thought I would bring it up again and emphasize it even though I don't have any personal experience with it...
Ditch the propane heater and see if you can get a diesel based heating system like the Truman Combi D6
https://www.truma.com/int/en/products/truma-heater/combi-d6
If shore power is unavailable, heating with Diesel I think is the only practical way to make this work for a longer period of time. With the right install, you can be sipping diesel from your truck fuel tank and fill up is just a matter of filling up the truck. Lugging around propane cylinders will get old fast and for the amount of heat you need in the winter, you will be doing it often.
Other two things, definitely go for more solar. I think you said you could get up to 370 watts but if you got creative, you could probably get more. Perhaps a custom fabrication that allows for wings to be folded out that extended past the sides of the camper when parked to provide more solar square footage.
The other thing will be your batteries. They don't like the cold but I'm sure your camper has that taken into account already. If they are lead acid batteries, I would upgrade to LiFePo4. Double the capacity for the same amount of space. The other benefit is less worry about completely discharging the batteries and damaging them. Remember that heaters have electronics and fans that pull power when running. I have a very inefficient heater that pulls nearly 200 watts when running. We don't camp in the winter so it isn't used much but the few times it has been cold enough to need to run the furnace all night it runs down our single LiFePo4. Getting it charged back up in winter can be difficult hence why you will want as much solar as you can get.
As far as the dating thing, maybe I'm old school but I think there is a difference between "dating" (finding a soul mate for life) and one night stands. If your dating in search of someone to spend your life with, you don't be taking them back to the camper right away as you try to get to know that person in neutral areas. By the time they may come to your camper, hopefully you would already would have discussed your living arrangement and given the positives about why you feel it's a good fit for your life goals at this stage. If they are a keeper, she will agree and support it.
On the other hand, if your looking for just hookups and one night stands, get a hotel room. No way your going to be bringing a one night stand to a marina late at night without alarm bells going off in her head and slasher movies coming to mind as they very well should be.
Ditch the propane heater and see if you can get a diesel based heating system like the Truman Combi D6
https://www.truma.com/int/en/products/truma-heater/combi-d6
If shore power is unavailable, heating with Diesel I think is the only practical way to make this work for a longer period of time. With the right install, you can be sipping diesel from your truck fuel tank and fill up is just a matter of filling up the truck. Lugging around propane cylinders will get old fast and for the amount of heat you need in the winter, you will be doing it often.
Other two things, definitely go for more solar. I think you said you could get up to 370 watts but if you got creative, you could probably get more. Perhaps a custom fabrication that allows for wings to be folded out that extended past the sides of the camper when parked to provide more solar square footage.
The other thing will be your batteries. They don't like the cold but I'm sure your camper has that taken into account already. If they are lead acid batteries, I would upgrade to LiFePo4. Double the capacity for the same amount of space. The other benefit is less worry about completely discharging the batteries and damaging them. Remember that heaters have electronics and fans that pull power when running. I have a very inefficient heater that pulls nearly 200 watts when running. We don't camp in the winter so it isn't used much but the few times it has been cold enough to need to run the furnace all night it runs down our single LiFePo4. Getting it charged back up in winter can be difficult hence why you will want as much solar as you can get.
As far as the dating thing, maybe I'm old school but I think there is a difference between "dating" (finding a soul mate for life) and one night stands. If your dating in search of someone to spend your life with, you don't be taking them back to the camper right away as you try to get to know that person in neutral areas. By the time they may come to your camper, hopefully you would already would have discussed your living arrangement and given the positives about why you feel it's a good fit for your life goals at this stage. If they are a keeper, she will agree and support it.
On the other hand, if your looking for just hookups and one night stands, get a hotel room. No way your going to be bringing a one night stand to a marina late at night without alarm bells going off in her head and slasher movies coming to mind as they very well should be.
