New-to-me truck and camper

ajriding wrote:
For sure, and at minimum, get a 2nd 150 panel. Get the poly as it will do better in the shade. What charge controller type is it? PWM, MPPT or neither?
The MPPT is the best, and the most expensive, but ebay has them for $50 and up.
What will you be using the electric for when not hooked up? Inverters are power hogs, the propane heater fan is a power hog, tv and laptop charging is power hog.
Get LED lighting.

You said, batteries? You will need at least two.

You will need two propane tanks, but I think that TC has it.

Learn to take cold showers to minimize the times running to get more propane (I know the wife won't go for that…).

Propane refills are cheaper than the tank exchange.

Don't poo.

The big 3 when boondocking are:
Need more water
Need more propane
need to dump waste water.

If you can diminish the need for these three things then life gets easier.

Personally, I just got rid of the propane fridge for an electric one to save propane.
I rarely heat the camper as that is huge propane loss, but to save pipes freezing I will.
I got rid of toilet (use a throw away method), so do not use the black tank.
I let the gray water drain onto the ground when I can. legally of course, so never go looking for a dump station and never have to smell rancid water.

If you are soloing then these work great, but if you have another person then it needs to be agreeable for both.

On your weight be sure to pack all your stuff before hitting the scales. People say their stuff adds 1,000 lbs.
Camper weights never include liquids, but sometimes dont include the options like Air Cond, or anything you have but might have been an optional add-on. Rarely do campers weigh what you are told.
With your 350 you should be just fine though. These truck are over-loaded all over the country with not issues.

Winter will be here soon, so don;t let the pipes freeze. You may end up somewhere where it freezes at night that you did not plan on… Have a plan to keep pipes warm, or to winterize them. Inspect your compartments so you know how and if they are insulated and what areas will freeze first…

Thanks for the thoughtful message. The new charge controller is not MPPT, as the panels are different sizes (the original is 150 watts, and the new one is 170 watts), but is a modern PWM good for a 500 watt system. My system will be 320 watts on the roof. I have 2 batteries in the camper’s battery box under the dinette seat (2 Lifeline 150 amp 12v batteries for a total of 300 amps).

As for what I plan to use the electricity for: lights at night, charging batteries, and running a small inverter (300 watts) for my laptop. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of anything else. I do not plan to use the microwave a lot (and might eventually delete it), and my camper has a locking generator compartment for a Honda Eu2000 if I want to run the AC. The camper has LED lights throughout.

The camper has two 20-pound propane tanks, which I plan to refill. One thing I might do later is replace the 3-way absorption refrigerator with a compressor refrigerator to save propane and have a more efficient fridge. Do you think my solar setup will handle my current needs in addition to a compressor fridge?

I appreciate that most of your advice applies to boondocking, as that is my goal. My camper has a cassette toilet, which means I never have to stop at an RV station ever. I will use biodegradable soaps for myself and my dishes and dump my gray water tank on the ground (where practical and legal). The toilet cassette can be dumped in any conventional toilet, pit toilet, port-a-potty, etc. I have read several tips online to reduce intervals of dumping the cassette, such as flushing with a few sprays of pink RV toilet liquid (and not water), using cat holes while in nature (where practical and legal), etc. The camper has a 40-gallon fresh water tank, so that can definitely be stretched for a while with the water-saving techniques you mentioned. I have taken many “bucket baths” and “sponge baths” in my life, and so I know how to do it. I might not take cold showers, which you advised, but I might heat water on the stove and take bucket/sponge baths so as not to waste water while waiting for the shower water to heat up.

If I end up spending a lot of time in cold weather, I might consider not using the furnace and instead installing a catalytic heater (like the Olympian Wave series), but the people I am buying the camper from advised against it due to the health/safety risks. Still, some full-time RV’ers swear by them, and I believe a few truck camper manufacturers even install them as a factory option (Capri Campers, for example).

I will be soloing full-time. I might get a dog, but for the time being, a woman is not in the plans.