The Campervan Podcast: Recent Episodes
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The Campervan Podcast is a daily audio program featuring ideas for design and building, cooking, organization, gear and more for a better overall Vanlife experience.
β Be READY: FREE Checklist for Campervan Essentials Packing & Outfitting βΆοΈ The HUMBLE ROAD YouTube Channel Humble Road Youtube channel and custom vans, George Mauro Interview What we talked about in this episode: * Continued: Designing products to be reproduced on a CNC machine * Production factors in building custom campervans at Humble Road Vans * The future of campevan values * Is there a vanlife and RV life bubble? * Covid and the Vanlife bubble * Future plans for Humble Road Vans π Take a Vanlife TEST DRIVE! HOW TO RENT a CAMPERVAN
β Be READY: FREE Checklist for Campervan Essentials Packing & Outfitting βΆοΈ The HUMBLE ROAD YouTube Channel Humble Road Youtube channel and custom vans, George Mauro Interview What we talked about in this episode: * Humble Road Production Campervan Project * Ram Promaster City as platform for solo campervan travelers * Ford Transit Connect as Campervan build platform * Humble Road Vans custom (secret) Campervan air conditioner project * Campervan Air Conditioners * Xantrext and Victron invertors * Designing products to be reproduced on a CNC machine π Take a Vanlife TEST DRIVE! HOW TO RENT a CAMPERVAN
β Be READY: FREE Checklist for Campervan Essentials Packing & Outfitting βΆοΈ The HUMBLE ROAD YouTube Channel Humble Road Youtube channel and custom vans, George Mauro Interview What we talked about in this episode: * Continued: Building with 80/20 vs wood * How to edit an 80/20 Estruded Aluminum cabinet build * Lock nuts and threadlocker * The Humble Road process for keeping cabinets and other build features tight and stable, long term * Humble Road Youtube channel as marketing for Humble Road Custom Vans * How to sell complex, high end products using Youtube * Humble Road Production Campervan Project π Take a Vanlife TEST DRIVE! HOW TO RENT a CAMPERVAN
β Be READY: FREE Checklist for Campervan Essentials Packing & Outfitting βΆοΈ The HUMBLE ROAD YouTube Channel Humble Road Youtube channel and custom vans, George Mauro Interview What we talked about in this episode: * Georges background and experience re learning electrical * Campervan toilet design and function * What size van should a newbie get? * What to expect when transitioning from a home to a van or other RV * Building with 80/20 vs wood π Take a Vanlife TEST DRIVE! HOW TO RENT a CAMPERVAN
β Be READY: FREE Checklist for Campervan Essentials Packing & Outfitting βΆοΈ The HUMBLE ROAD YouTube Channel Humble Road Youtube channel and custom vans, George Mauro Interview What we talked about in this episode: * The near and distant future of electric vans and battery technology * Humble Road Build Philososhy re RVIA and Yachting Counsel Standards * Electrical standards and build quality at Humble Road Vans * Lithionix Victron and Xantrex power systems for campervans * Wiring solar in series vs parallel for Lithium batteries * Georges background re learning electrical π Take a Vanlife TEST DRIVE! HOW TO RENT a CAMPERVAN
β Be READY: FREE Checklist for Campervan Essentials Packing & Outfitting βΆοΈ The HUMBLE ROAD YouTube Channel Humble Road Youtube channel and custom vans, George Mauro Interview What we talked about in this episode: * Requirements for being a Humble Road Custom Van Client * Why Humble Road Vans don't include propane (LP Gas) for heat or other appliances * The current and future state of batteries for campervans * Humble Road electrical system philosophy for integrity and safety * The Humble Road Vans Planning and Build Philosophy for long term client satisfaction π Take a Vanlife TEST DRIVE! HOW TO RENT a CAMPERVAN
β Be READY: FREE Checklist for Campervan Essentials Packing & Outfitting βΆοΈ The HUMBLE ROAD YouTube Channel Humble Road Youtube channel and custom vans, George Mauro Interview What we talked about in this episode: * George's beginnings in building and improving RV's and Campervans * His career in the still photography and film industries * CAD. Cardboard Assisted Design: How to pre-plan your campervan layout for perfect end results * The Humble Road Vans Planning and Build Philosophy for long term client satisfaction π HOW TO RENT a CAMPERVAN
π Be READY: FREE Checklist for Campervan Essentials Packing & Outfitting π HOW TO RENT a CAMPERVAN Do camper vans hold their value? Are Camper vans worth the money? Are campervans a good investment? We discuss Campervan depreciation, value and investment.
π Be READY: FREE Checklist for Campervan Essentials Packing & Outfitting π HOW TO RENT a CAMPERVAN Do camper vans hold their value? Are Camper vans worth the money? Are campervans a good investment? We discuss Campervan depreciation, value and investment.
π Be Ready: FREE Checklist for Campervan Essentials Packing & Outfitting Do camper vans hold their value? Are Camper vans worth the money? Are campervans a good investment? We discuss Campervan depreciation, value and investment. π Article: Campervan Maintenance for trouble free Vanlife journeys
π Be Ready: FREE Checklist for Campervan Essentials Packing & Outfitting π Product: Black and Decker Portable 5000 BTU Free Standing AC π Article: Campervan Air Conditioners: Staying Cool for Vanlife π Podcast Episode: Are there any portable air conditioners that donβt need to be vented? Hey, thanks for tuning in to the camper van podcast. Once again, I'm glad you're listening. Another question about air conditioning. Can you use a portable air conditioner in a camper van? So can you use a portable air conditioner and camper van? You, you absolutely can. There are advantages and disadvantages. The biggest advantage is that there's no installation. You simply go buy a 110 or 240 volt portable air conditioner, the freestanding kind that you see in people's homes and offices and shops, et cetera. And you stand it up in the van, you plug it in, you run the vent hose that comes with your freestanding, portable air conditioner out through a window or a hole cut in the side of the van. And now you're cooling down at 5,000 BTU's or 7,500 or 10,000 BTUs, depending on how powerful your portable AC unit is. Another advantage of using a portable air conditioner in a camper van or RV is they're reasonably priced. There are also several disadvantages. The number one disadvantage is the power consumption. They're not built to be as efficient as the RV , camper and campervan specific AC units that are available such as the ones that Mount to your roof, or the Marine style that mount in cabinets and are vented through the hull or side of your van. What I mean by that is, the fans and the motors in the RV and Camper van specific air conditioning systems are balanced, lighter weight, they tend to be better insulated and they're designed to withstand the vibration of a motor vehicle such as an RV or Campervan. RV air conditioners are built to be more quiet and run more efficiently because the manufacturers know that you have less power at your disposal because oftentimes if you're running off battery and solar, Also, you need the thing to be quiet because it's right above your head in the camper or RV when you're sleeping. So there's another disadvantage of DC powered portable air conditioners. they're going to be louder. Another disadvantage aside from the power consumption and the noise is that they take up more space. They stand in the middle of the room and, and I don't know about you, but I don't have room for one of those. That's why so often air conditioning systems are mounted to the roof of campervans because they need to be up and out of the way. That also solves the venting issue because it's not even in the van. It's outside of the van. So the venting takes care of itself with a camper van air conditioner. Another issue with regard to portable air conditioners is that they are not durable since they're made for homes, they aren't made to be joggled around In the rolling earthquake that is the back of your camper van. So aside from the fact that they take up a ton of space, the thing's going to fall apart over time or quickly. Now, granted, you could set it up on the mattress every time you're driving and make sure that it doesn't get moved around too much. But now you've got the tank that has to be emptied before you do that... But, you know what, here's something that I understand very clearly: And that is that not all of us have the cash right now in the moment to go have the best possible camper van air conditioner installed in the roof of our van to solve our cooling problem. So, you know what, if you need to go grab one of these things off the shelf at Costco or Walmart, or home Depot and stick it in your van and go plug in somewhere. That's great. And it will keep you alive and cool and allow you to sleep at night, if you can stand the noise. I'm not saying it's a terrible idea. I'm just here to tell you what the pros and cons are. Moving on... Would I use one and when would I use it? In order for me personally to use a portable air conditioner in a camper van I'd have to have lots of room, first of all. Second of all, I'd have to have a 110 hookup all the time, every night, to plug the DC portable air conditioner in. Now you can solve that with a portable generator, but that's more noise and more expense. By the time you buy a portable air conditioner and a portable generator, well, now you can just about a roof top AC unit installed and buy a few hundred amp hours batteries. There are two categories of portable air conditioner: Free standing and "window shaker", or window mounted. Free standing are the easiest; just stand it up and run a vent hose out and plug it in and away you go. You're cooling down with a coolant and compressor unit and it's beautiful. Everything's getting cool But another kind of portable air conditioner is the window shaker or window mounted. These mount in windows or a hole cut in the wall. yes, I've seen them mounted in vans as well. I would not do that, for a number of reasons, some of which I've already mentioned: Power consumption. not durable, not power efficient. Uh, so, so if you're trying to use batteries, forget it, those things will eat your battery power very quickly. You have to cut a massive hole in the side of the van in order for it to and work properly. Maybe your van already has a great big window that you can prop a window mounted portable air conditioner up in or build a wood-frame to hold one in place. If you, if you spend a lot of time parked with DC 110/240 and you don't have to cut a massive hole in the side of your van, you can make one work, I suppose. The way it's designed, the outside perimeter of a window shaker, that, that kind of portable air conditioning unit, it needs to be sealed against itself or around the wall. And by sealed, I don't mean with caulk, I just mean that you need to have less than a half an inch of gap around the unit. And they all come with little wings that you can expand. So that it will fit in an up-sliding window and they come with various accessories to make them fit house windows, this window shaker style. You can't just set a portable air conditioner in the open doorway of the van. If you don't seal off the vent, it won't work. So you can have a couple of windows cracked, but otherwise the doors have to be closed. so that the only air entering the van is the air that's been processed by the air conditioner and therefore cooled down. And what that air conditioner is doing is it's actually pulling warm air out of the van and converting it into cool air. It's also pushing warm air created by the fan motor and compressor outside, and that's why the unit needs to sealed off. So if you just set the thing in the open doorway, nothing will happen. You might get a cool breeze for a couple of feet in front of the air conditioner, but otherwise your van won't cool down. Whereas if it were in a window and that was sealed, as I said, loosely sealed around it, then. your van would get cool Even a full-size sprinter with a 5,000 BTU window shaker is going to get cool. Trust me, because that space is very small. That portable window mounted or free standing AC unit is made to cool, at least twice that much space. So it'll work just fine, but it's not efficient, It's not durable. It won't last and I would never permanently mount one and I would never cut a hole for one. I would save my pennies and buy a rooftop mounted unit and go that route. I'd get an RV/camper van designed air conditioning unit. Thanks for listening to the Campervan Podcast.
How do I mount a TV in my Campervan? Details and tips for mounting a TV in a campervan or other RV π Be Ready: FREE Checklist for Campervan Essentials Packing & Outfitting π Product: PERLESMITH Campervan TV Mount
π Be Ready: FREE Checklist for Campervan Essentials Packing & Outfitting π Article: Easy Campsite Recipes: 7 One Pot Van Life Meals π Article: Campsite Cooking Equipment: The Ultimate Guide
π Be Ready: FREE Checklist for Campervan Essentials Packing & Outfitting π Article: Campervan Air Conditioners: Staying Cool for Vanlife Air conditioners are not magic. Well, it's that time of year again. No, I don't mean Christmas. I mean, when our camper van air conditioner articles and questions and traffic goes crazy, many more people are much hotter than they normally would be. So, yeah, I thought I'd answer a couple of common questions. And specifically this one, are there any portable air conditioners that don't need to be vented? The answer to that question is no. What do I mean by that? Why am I so cursory? Why am I cutting to the chase like that? The answer is no. Well, because when a compressor style air conditioner goes through its compression process and all the other stuff that it does to make warm air cold, it generates heat and that heated air has to go somewhere doesn't it? The idea that you can plop an air conditioner in the middle of a van or a room without having a vent going outside... What that would mean is that the hot air would just be going back into the room, canceling out the cold air that's being generated at the cost of a lot of power usage. Therefore, I completely disagree with these small portable compressor units, and I won't name any names other than to say that we don't promote them on Vansage.com. We're not interested in reviewing them or talking about them. We could make a lot of money from that if we did, because so many people are so excited about a little portable air conditioning unit that you just set on the picnic table and magically it cools down the entire park. I'm being a little bit glib about that, but. Is that how the marketing is for some of these portable, unvented units where it shows an air conditioner sitting on a table outside. That's madness. There's no way that can have any impact on you personally, maybe if it's pointed right at your face. And that's what I've heard actually, is that the very low BTU compressor style air conditioners really do need to be within a few inches of one single person for them to work at all. But I would argue that again, the heat that's generated from producing that small amount of cold air is making the entire van warmer at the same time. Your air conditioner needs to be vented outside so that the hot air doesn't get recirculated back in the room. Again, they take up so much energy. They require so much power to do their job, that it pays to do air conditioning properly. It really does to an air conditioner that's built for your particular camper van or RV, and make sure that it's set up right with proper venting or it's just mounted on the roof. Now, there are some really cool Marine style air conditioning units that are mounted inside. Up against the hall of the boat or the outside wall of the van or the floor of the van. And they go in a cabinet and they are vented directly out. And then you can point the cool air wherever you want, including through what would normally be your heating ducts. They're expensive for a 5,000 BTU plus unit to really do its job and cool down a very hot van. And oftentimes they are also 240V. They are kind of pricey, but at some point we plan to review some of those. And kind of create more access because they're a great solution for camper vans. If you have the skill and know how to install them and to maintain them, and you want really high quality air conditioning that isn't sticking out of the roof of your van. Now, all that to say there are some wonderful roof. AC units and I will of course link to in show notes to our camper van air conditioning article, where we have reviewed and listed some of the best that are available for your van. I don't want to belabor this as far as this simple question; "Are there any portable air conditioners that don't need to be vented?" I hear some people arguing, what about a swamp cooler, otherwise known as evaporative coolers. Okay. Well, first of all, they are only for individuals nad they don't lower the temperature in the space, even a small camper van. What they do is mist your bare skin or very thin clothing or sheet so that you are cooler by virtue of the presence of higher humidity. Well, if you're pumping a bunch of humidity into your vehicle or distributing moisture in the form of mist, even a very, very fine mist, which the best type of evaporative coolers. Do you need to vent that out of the vehicle? You need to have windows open and ceiling vents and whatnot so that you don't have an extremely high level of, of humidity in your vehicle. That's going to cause mold and mildew and condensation and all that stuff in the future. Again, every air conditioning unit needs some kind of ventilation, whether it is the compressor type with a coolant inside that's processing air, removing heat and, generating cool air or an evaporative cooler that's distributing a mist. And one of the finest evaporative coolers available is called Mighty Kool. The availability of it is spotty because they are a small company doing one-off manufacturer of the Mighty Kool 12 volt, K2. It's interesting because the manufacturer over it his notes on Amazon, they're so careful to make sure that you understand that it's not an AC. The title on Amazon is "Mighty Kool. 12 volt. K2 is not AC". And he goes on to say, "do not order, unless you promise to read our emails so you receive the correct performance option for your pet." it says. And so they're promoting it to keep your dog cool. And also there's a photograph in their description of the mighty cool directed towards a child in a tent or an RV or Campervan. And that's what it's for, pointing at an individual to cool them down when it's very hot, so they can sleep. It will not drop the temperature in your van and neither will any other evaporative cooler. Maybe if you are going through 20 pounds of ice every two hours and doing that thing where you push air through a cooler... Those kinds of air conditioning units, you might manage to drop the temperature a little bit, but for the most part, a few bags of ice is no match for the heat inside of a campervan or RV. The only thing that really works well is a compressor style unit and those need to be vented to work properly so that the hot air that is generated by compression, isn't being redistributed into the vehicle and raising the temp. So, to answer the question, Are there any portable air conditioners that don't need to be vented?, the answer is no.
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π Be Ready: FREE Checklist for Campervan Essentials Packing & Outfitting π Campervan Showers for clean & tidy Vanlife Can you take a shower in a camper van? This is a question that people often ask Google, on Forums, on Reddit, Facebook, and other places on the internet. It's a question that is asked by people who are thinking about getting a camper van or renting one. And so I thought I'd just talk about it for a minute, from that perspective. Now, obviously, if you. If you have an onboard shower or experience with this I'll include some tips for those who have an onboard shower at the end of the episode. A shower is a very high value feature, obviously. Yet it's one of those things that's easily overlooked in the lead up to a trip. So the question, how do you shower in a campervan, is a high value question because it's a high need issue. And I thought I would just talk about it because it's worth the effort of working through how it is that you plan on showering while out and about in the van. So my first suggestion is to decide on a few methods and then commit to them and, and do that before you go anywhere. It doesn't matter if you're renting or owning. If you're building, if you're throwing together a bag of gear to throw in the back of an empty van and head out with your air mattress and your sleeping bag and your Coleman stove and your cooler. And that's it. Now I'm van life. That's great! Nonetheless, before you do that, stop and think about how you're going to shower, because you're gonna wish you had. Why you need to be able to shower while traveling in a campervan: Van life pictures of the guy laying, on top of all of his pile of stuff in his van, reading a novel with his filthy feet sticking out the back... Well, people walk by and get grossed out. But there are more reasons... * You're going to feel better when you're clean. * You'll feel better going to sleep when you're clean * It saves your clothes * it saves your bedding. * It's better for your social life * it's better for your interactions with whomever you're traveling with
So yeah, humans used to shower and bathe less. But this idea that things used to be better a long time ago, that's just not true, and it doesn't make any sense at all. We have better healthcare now. We have better equipment, better gear, everything, including how to keep clean and why we should keep clean. So, so yeah, that's not an argument, in my opinion. I like to should shower at least once every two days, preferably every day. Or at least a washcloth cleanup in between showers every other day. Moving on... Let's talk about the types of showers available. Obviously there's the built-in shower such as the shower toilet combo or the dedicated shower inside high roof vans such as a Sprinter or Ram Promaster campervan shower. Awesome. That's the best thing in the world, but it's not absolutely necessary and obviously not available to everyone. I, I am actually designing a sprinter, 1 44 chassis and my shower is going to be in the floor. And you'll remove a grate, and then lift up a shower ring, attach it to the ceiling and then pull the water supply over from the sink or some other source and shower inside that shower curtain under the ring and it'll drain through the floor. That's because in a 1 44, everything has to be tucked away, Swiss army style. So that's what I'm designing right now. I also have other options for showering in my current campervan. The main being the the shower bag, the hanging solar shower bag. I can use that because I'm not a snow sports person, so I avoid cold outdoor temperatures. So I typically have access to sunlight, so a solar shower bag works for me. If you want to go ahead and build a quick and dirty shower system, you can just get a 12 volt submersible pump, shower head. With this option, you get into the issue of of warm water. There are a variety of ways to have warm water on board. There are water tubes that Mount to the roof of your van and including a, how to video on it. And I'm making a note here to include the link or a link or two to YouTube channels show how to build those. And it's not the easiest thing in the world, but it's also not the toughest thing. If you've got tools and a little bit of a tool working know-how you'll be able to build your own rooftop shower tube. And those are solar heated because the tubes are black plastic. You can also purchase a rooftop shower tube that is pressurized and solar heated and all that stuff. And it's a great way to go. And now you've got a shower typically that will be outside the van. But I'm going to also link to our blog post about, about camper van showers, because there's a lot of information in there that you will find useful. So let's see what else... Portable shower units that both heat the water and pressurize it and have a sprayer. Those can also be used for cleaning animals or humans or bicycles, mountain bikes or whatever. Those are nice. They get a little expensive, they take up a lot of room and a lot of power. So you'll need to figure that out with regard to your particular building circumstances. Typically a low roof van doesn't have an indoor shower. And so I will talk about some non van options. I like to have two or three shower methods. If I have my, my shower bag and my 12 volt submersible pump shower head, and these things are beautiful. It's just a it's powered by 12 volts. Obviously it's a shower head on one end and that shower head is attached to a tube that goes into a small submersible pump. And you just dunk that in your five gallon bucket of warm water and it pumps water out. They work great. You can plug them into your auxiliary power, and they're cheap. They're under $40 and here's the link to our article on Campervan showers. So let's see here, moving on to non van shower options... A lot of people just get a 24 hour fitness membership or a Gold's gym membership or an LA fitness membership. And then they keep that in mind. Traveling, you know, am I going to be within a few miles of a town that has one of those gyms? And then you go get your workout and you use the showers there. You can shave, you can do whatever you need to in the gym locker room. It's a beautiful thing. Also, most cities have community centers that have showers. And because so many community centers have gyms, either gymnasiums for basketball and volleyball and or weight rooms, and those are cheap. I mean, most community centers, for five bucks, you can go use all the workout facilities and the gym, and it's just a great option. So, Now, I'm wondering if there's a resource to community centers around the country. That sounds like a lot. Doesn't it, there are a lot of cities, but I'll, I'll look into it and maybe we'll, we'll put a link in show notes. So yeah, take a look for that. Truck stops. A lot of truck stops have showers that you can purchase use in. I'm not a big fan, you know truckers are filthy nasty creatures. I'm mostly joking when I say that. Love you truck drivers. I just prefer not to use truck stops for anything. Actually, if I go to a truck stop, I will pay with my debit card outside and not go inside. I'm not a fan of mini marts or and convenience stores and, and the stores inside of gas stations. I just avoid them. I got into that in another episode, number 78 "van life, personal safety and security". I talk about just staying safe and one of the things I mentioned is avoid convenience stores. You can go listen to that episode for more details. Let's see spas. There are a lot of towns that have spas where you can go and get pampered or not. You can use the the saunas or the hot tubs and oftentimes they're not too expensive. That's, that's a great option. So let's see motels and hotels. You know, being a minivan owner, I actually really love motels and hotels, both. If I'm traveling, let's say I'm going to go four states, five states, you know, across the country, I'm doing three days of driving or more five, seven days. When there is not a lot of camping and fun to be had in between I will rely on motels about every third night just to sleep in a real bed and use a shower and be indoors, that's a great place to get out of the weather. It's a great place to just take a break from van life, you know, for 60 or 80 bucks, you can, you can have a little break. Get a good shower at the same time. So, and sometimes you get lucky and find a place with a kitchenette. You can cook a fancy meal you wouldn't normally be able to do. So then of course, there's friends and family. You can plan your route around your friends and family's homes. What else... Lakes and rivers. Well, you gotta be careful with the lakes and rivers. You know, I mean, there are things growing that you want to be sure to get rinsed off, et cetera. But man, if you're boondocking at higher elevations where, where the air is cooler and the water is cleaner and safer, it's a good option to go bathe in a lake or a river. I've done it many times. Of course it doesn't work in the ocean. You don't want to leave that salt water on your skin. You want to rinse that off. Again, we have a great article on camper van showers and it's right there in show notes. So you can just go to van sage.com and search for showers in the search function. How do you stay clean in the van? Shoot me a, an email@podcastatvansage.com. And we'll talk about it.
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Details about choosing the best product niche to sell on Etsy . π Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing The best 12 volt refrigerator options for a minivan camper are as follows: π BougeRV 53 Quart 12 Volt Refrigerator π Dometic CFX3 35 12 Volt Refrigerator π ICECO JP42 Pro Rotomolded 12 Volt Refrigerator
π Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing What is the best mattress for a campervan? When deciding on the best campervan mattress for your unique conversion van build, Itβs important to keep the following in mind: * Do you need to customize the size of your mattress? If so, youβll need either a foam mattress, or a futon that can be cut. * If your bed frame allows for a standard mattress size, aka Single, Double, Queen, Kingβ¦, you can use any mattress style. * You can create the perfect mattress for your personal sleep needs by combing foam rubber, memory foam, futon mattresses, and wool or cotton mattress toppers.
Probably the number one issue for camper van design and build with regard to beds and mattresses is that it's very likely that your mattress size will be a custom shape. So that eliminates the vast majority of manufactured beds that aren't basic foam. That is, foam that can be cut. You'll find on our site an entire episode about how to cut a foam mattress. And I will link to that in show notes. So I won't talk about how to cut foam in this episode, but I will talk about which foam or which type of mattress can be adjusted in size. But getting back to the best mattress for a camper van, my advice with regard to beds and mattresses in general, because I'm a very light sleeper, personally, the smallest sound wakes me up, and if I'm on an uneven surface or in some way, the surface is uncomfortable, then I'm awake and it's that simple. So beds are very important to me. My advice, is always to prioritize your bed design and the quality of your mattress over just about everything else in your campervan design and build and that would include the size of course of the bed and the fact that everything lays perfectly flat and smooth so that when your mattress lays flat on the bed platform. Getting back to specifically which mattress is best for your campervan, It's the one that is going to be most comfortable for you personally. Okay. If you're one of the very, very fortunate people who can sleep through anything under any circumstances, that's wonderful. I'm so I'm so happy for you for first of all, and I'm also so jealous. But for the rest of us, we want the mattress that works best for you personally. And so I'm just going to take this from the perspective of kind of the average sleeper. You know, your home mattress is probably going to be at least six inches thick. Typically in this day and age, more like 10 or 12 inches thick eight would be the absolute minimum for a home-style mattress. And so to make a mattress really work well in a camper van, you know, we want to be in the eight inch range and if you're going with a six inch mattress or thinner, then you'll probably want to combine that with a mattress topper. Mattress toppers, by the way, can completely transform a basic slab of say six inch foam from something that's barely sleepable into something that's wonderfully comfortable. For example, a high quality wool topper will allow your body to breathe when it's very hot and. That alone can make all the difference in whether or not you sleep well in your campervan, on your mattress. So things like that, you know, essentially we're going to be typically combining some aspects of good mattresses in order to arrive at the mattress that we really need. If again you're fortunate enough to be able to sleep under any circumstances, you just need to get some foam and cut it to size. Maybe two pieces of some nice firm foam rubber plus some memory foam. Not everybody can handle memory foam. It gives a lot and it can be too soft for some people. And it's kind of oddly squishy. When you get into thinner mattresses, such as for campervan beds and cushions and things like that, memory foam gets a little odd. But the good news is that on Amazon and most of the mattress companies allow you to purchase the memory foam mattress or topper or the full mattress that you're considering and try it out sometimes for as many as a hundred days and you can return it if you don't like it. So that's a good thing. That's relatively new. It used to be, you buy a mattress, you're stuck with it, but there's so much profit in the mattress industry that they can afford to do that kind of thing. That's an option to test it. So what I suggest you do is just get the size that's closest to your bed, frame size, whether that's a single or a double or a queen, and just stuff it in there. And even if, even though it doesn't fit, or put it on the floor of your apartment or a friend's house or something like that, or maybe just on the bare floor of your van, as long as it's flat, as long as you've got your flooring installed and test it, sleep on it a couple of nights and see how it feels. Then you can feel comfortable cutting it because they're not going to refund you that mattress foam if you cut it, I guarantee you that. So, so that's one way to do it is just keep in mind that it's returnable treat it nice, don't get it dirty, and if it doesn't work, return it. And then of course, if you are fortunate enough to have enough room for a queen size mattress, such as a sprinter with the mattress turned sideways and you've got the bump-outs well then you can fit a queen size mattress in there. I think, I think a queen size mattress is six feet long. I'm looking at one right now. Maybe it's seven. Anyway, whatever it is that you end up with for a normal size, if you happen to have room for a normal sized mattress, then you can go to some mattress stores and try them out and see how they feel and, and if they don't work out and you haven't cut it, and so you can go bring it back. A couple of things to keep in mind, you will want to have an outdoor style covering on your mattress, whatever it is, because you'll have more humidity in your van. So you don't want to just leave a normal house style mattress in your van and expect that it won't get moldy or collect some mildew. So plan to cover your mattress, whatever it is that you get. For example, if you love cotton futons, like I do, for some reason I sleep really well on a cotton futon with a foam core, and I'm fortunate that way, by the way, because those are very adjustable. You can cut a futon down to fit any bed frame size. What you do is unstitch one end or one side whichever way, or both if you need to cut it both ways, and then you peel back the, the cotton cover and you cut through the cotton with scissors, and then you cut through the foam as instructed in our article on how to cut foam and then you just stitch up, you trim the cover of the futon and you just hand stitch it up. It takes maybe an hour to do that, but no big deal. And now you've got a totally custom mattress. So futons can be a nice way to go. But the way that I got into talking about futons is that cotton absorbs moisture so you really need to cover that with another layer for a kind of outdoor material. You're going to be out in a variety of elements. There will be a wide range of humidity and a mattress, especially cotton, but really any mattress will go bad on you if you don't protect it from the elements. So that's something to keep in mind if you have to have that cover custom made, do it, it's worth it. Again. The best mattress for a camper van is the one that you're most comfortable on first of all. Second of all the mattress that can be adjusted to fit the van, if necessary. Thirdly, the one that you can cover and take care of for a long period of time, because mattresses are expensive. Fourth: assemble pieces to create the perfect mattress for yourself, such as memory foam, normal foam rubber toppers. I'll add another tip, Fifth: Maybe combine more than one mattress. Two, three inch futon mattresses or two already covered three inch or four inch foam mattresses can equal one really good, very comfortable mattress that feels more like a home style mattress. If you have questions for me or my team about best mattresses for campervans, send me an email at Podcast@vansage.com. We will get back to you as soon as we can. And we can discuss this through email. Or, you can leave a comment on our camper van mattresses article vansage.com and we'll discuss it there. Okay. Thanks for listening.
Details about choosing the best product niche to sell on Etsy . π Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing The best 12 volt refrigerator options for a minivan camper are as follows: π BougeRV 53 Quart 12 Volt Refrigerator π Dometic CFX3 35 12 Volt Refrigerator π ICECO JP42 Pro Rotomolded 12 Volt Refrigerator
What is the best toilet for a camper van? A frequently asked question and one that really does need to be thought through carefully. The best toilet for your campervan will depend on the size of your van: The best toilet for a minivan campervan * Folding portable toilet
The best toilet for a low roof cargo van * Small portable cassette toilet
The best toilet for a high roof van such as a Mercedes Sprinter, Ford Transit or Promaster * Larger size cassette toilet * Composting toilet
You know, we've got a great article on camper van toilets over at and we talked about just how great it is to have a toilet on board. π Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing Some of the really obvious advantages are, if you have a toilet on board, you never have to worry about campground toilets or truck stop toilets, restaurant toilets, will they let me use the toilet, et cetera. So, it's really great to have one on board. So the question of, should you have a campervan toilet on board I think is pretty cut and dried; you definitely should if you can. I think the answer is yes, unless all you're doing is boondocking and you can always go outside for most people. Just the issue of being able to relieve yourself in the middle of the night is huge. But there are a lot of other reasons to have a toilet in a campervan. What is the best toilet for a camper van? It depends on your van and this is a very important thing. So you'll want to give some serious thought to this. Now, if you've got a Toyota Delica mini campervan, you may not be able to use a toilet inside at all. I'm running a mini camper right now and while I can relieve myself in the van, I prefer not to. So that's an issue. The smaller the van, the more difficult a toilet becomes. Probably the cheapest and simplest toilets are folding toilet bucket toilets. And then what I call a full squat tray toilet. I actually prefer this method. A couple of years ago, Squaty-Pottyβs for home toilets were all the rage. They made it possible to, instead of sit on on the toilet, you could more or less squat over the toilet and it really is a much healthier way to relieve yourself. Now, not everybody is physically capable of doing a full depth squat. I hadn't really thought about it until I started lifting weights and got into squatting for, for exercise. And then. Yeah. Spending time in Asia, where people will sit in a full squat all day while they work. I've seen motor motorcycle mechanics that don't even have a stand they're actually squatting all day long and they can do it and it doesn't destroy their knees. That's a myth. It actually makes your knees more flexible and stronger. But anyway, I digress, except to say that if all you have is a shallow tray, And maybe a plastic liner, then that can be a great campervan toilet solution. If you have the physical flexibility, you just use your tray and you wrap up whatever waste you've created and take that out to the garbage, which is what most municipalities want that just dumped in the garbage and that's it. So then moving onβ¦ There are also bucket toilets and that's just a toilet seat that fits on a five gallon bucket. You'll want to use plastic bags. Now you can get into a variety of mediums for that. You could do a homemade composting situation with the right medium. You could use kitty litter and cover it up there. You know, there's a lot of ways you can deal with that. I don't really want to get into that here. There's a lot of info online about that, but that's an option. The disadvantage of a bucket toilet is the seat is round. Most toilet seats are not round, they're oval. And because the human anatomy isn't really made to sit down on this circular object, it just doesn't work very well. So that's something to keep in mind, but if it works for you, a bucket toilet can be a great solution. Next would be folding toilets, which are great for minivan campers and some people with larger vans like them as well for their simplicity. Theyβre inexpensive and easy to come by and there are a variety of folding toilets available. And again, if you go to our article at Vansage.com you will find our article on camper van toilets. Folding toilets are cheap, easy to use, they fold away for easy storage, they use the plastic bag system that you use once, maybe twice. If you've got two people that are going to use it consecutively and then tie it off and throw it away. So folding toilets are a good campervan solution and very simple. Cassette toilets are are the most popular camper van toilet for full sized conversion cargo vans and for many larger vans such as Sprinters, Transits and Promasters. Many campervan owners love them because they contain the waste well and they don't require ducting. You don't need a hose or an exhaust fan. Some cassette toilet allow you to hook up an exhaust fan as well. And if you have a dedicated kind of shower unit or shower/toilet combo unit in your van, then you can install a vent fan in the roof and all the smells are taken care of, especially if you have a door that closes tightly. There are a variety of cassette toilets. They are relatively inexpensive. If you got one that you weren't crazy about, you could try another one and it wouldn't break the bank. So yeah, a lot of advantages to campervan cassette toilets. The disadvantage of course, is that you need to empty them pretty frequently, every couple of days at the very least, maybe even daily. And then finally are composting toilets and we've done another episode of The Campervan Podcast on Composting toilets titled Can you use a composting toilet in the camper van? For many people, a composting toilet is the best way to go. And that comes down to environmental concerns. And there are also some convenience related issues with regard to composting toilets that some people really like. Regarding what is the best toilet for a Campervan, I think the number one issue is the size of your van and how much room you have for a toilet. How much room you have in your van with regard to what is the best toilet for a camper van? Probably the number one issue is how much space you have. And do you have a dedicated space where a toilet can be standing all the time or you can tuck it away somewhere, or do you need it to be folded and completely out of the way? One more option is that you can get a free-standing toilet tent that would allow you to have privacy outside. People set them up with a camper van shower, but that can be a great solution for a toilet, too. They unfold very easily and quickly, and they fold away and take up very small amount of space. You can put it up at your campsite. You can put your folding toilet in there and just leave it up until you're ready to leave. So that's another possibility. Thank you for listening to The Campervan Podcast.
Okay today, we're going to talk about the best 12 volt refrigerator for a minivan camper, aka 12v fridge freezers for mini camper vans. Iβm Well suited to answer this question at the moment, because I'm driving is a Toyota Sienna minivan camper. The best 12 volt refrigerator options for a minivan camper are as follows: π BougeRV 53 Quart 12 Volt Refrigerator π Dometic CFX3 35 12 Volt Refrigerator π ICECO JP42 Pro Rotomolded 12 Volt Refrigerator And I love it, it's great. for a while, I was very much considering moving on to a full size, full height, sprinter van, and I will be doing that actually very soon, but, for now, my minivan is awesome and I can't recommend enough people building out minivans for camping because they're just wonderful. It's just great to be able to drive anywhere and park anywhere, but I digress. We'll get back to the 12 volt refrigerator issue and I'll just talk a bit about what I think the best refrigerators are for minivans and give you some guidelines for your personal mini camper refrigeration needs. Now, if you're more than one person, you need a larger fridge freezer. It's really that simple, unless you can manage to do all of your cooking or the vast majority of your cooking without having to refrigerate or freeze anything. And that's fine. I mean, if you can do that, awesome. If, if you can get by with just some milk and even then maybe you're into alternative milks and your milk doesn't have to be refrigerated. That's great, but most of us want fresh food and most of us want some cool drinks and a cold beer now and then. So choose your refrigerator, your 12 volt fridge freezer based on, how many people you have in your van and the kind of cooking you like to do and the foods and drinks you want to keep cold. As you know, as I've talked about a lot, I love to cook, especially at the campsite, and I want fresh food. I want fresh want fresh vegetables and cheese and milk and cream and things like that, so that I can cook really great food at the campsite. Even if I'm cooking over the fire, not in the van, not on a portable stove. I still want all of the wonderful, fresh foods. So I sacrifice space because I want a larger minivan 12v fridge freezer. As far as brands go. If you're in a minivan, you probably have less power supply. And so you might consider something like the iceo icooler, which I've done an episode on already. And I will go ahead and include that in show notes, you'll see a link to our 12 Volt Refrigerator and to the iceco icooler. The reason that I think that's a great way to go is because, A- it's a larger 12 volt fridge freezer and B- it has maxed out insulation. You can run it less or it runs less to keep your food cold. Caveats to that, with regard to brand and design, you know, Dometic does a great job of building 12 volt fridge freezers in a multitude of sizes with a lot of different features that also required very low power usage. βA poor man can only afford afford the very bestβ. That's the old expression and Dometic 12 volt refrigerator freezers cost a bit more, but they're built really well. And they last a long time and they do a great job. So you might consider a Dometic, especially if you're going something kind of mid-size to smaller because it's going to be super efficient and it's just going to do a great job for you. And you're not going to have to think about it or worry about, is it going to work over time? It's an old brand that's been around for a long time and, Dometic again just makes a great product. So if you can afford it, I would suggest going with a Dometic. Especially if you want to save space. So there's that now I'll move on to another brand, which I haven't talked about before. And in fact, they just came up on my radar. Now this is a weird thing. I don't know why. When you search on Amazon for 12 volt fridge freezer, this company does not come up very often. And I'm not sure why. I don't know if it's because they're just not playing Amazon's games well enough with regard to Amazon engine optimization, or maybe they don't pay Amazon enough in terms of ads or something like that. I'm not sure what it is, but you have to search for them specifically, unless you just go down to the show notes and click the link that I've provided or go to our 12 volt refrigerator article at vansage.com where you'll see a lot of information about this product. The company is called BougeRV and they make really nice stuff, really highly rated with thousands of sales, and people love them. And the price is excellent. Put that on your list for best 12 volt refrigerator for a minivan camper, because they may be able to provide a solution for you without breaking the bank. They're probably half the cost of a Dometic fridge freezer. Now they haven't been around as long. And what that means is there are a couple of things that you'll want to consider when a company is newer, are there parts for it? And how is their warranty and, you know, if it breaks, will you be able to get it fixed or will you have a $500 boat anchor, right? Something that just needs to be recycled. Uh, give that some thought. I actually don't know the answer to those questions yet because bougeRV is again, a new 12 volt refrigerator on my radar. So I'll keep you informed in the future, but consider them because people really like them. So it could be a solution for you. A couple other things to consider with regard to the best 12 volt refrigerator for a minivan camper or mini camper van is how you're going to access it and where you're going to store it. I've seen some designs where the 12 volt fridge freezer will actually tilt out a bit when you need to access it. Now, some 12 volt refrigerators won't run if they're not horizontal. And that is an advantage of some of the more carefully designed 12 volt refrigerators is that they can be stored at an angle a bit. And now I wouldn't store frankly, a refrigerator all the time at an angle, but it's nice to be able to tilt it out sometimes and use it for a while and then put it back and you don't want the functionality to be hampered just because of that. And you know, the thing is with a mini camper van, you need might need that kind of flexibility, because space is just so limited. For me, sometimes I'll just put my 12 volt refrigerator in the passenger seat if I'm traveling alone and I'll throw the seat belt around it and boom problem solved. It's out of the way it can stay right there for most of my journey when I need to do some serious cooking, I've got my chuck box open and my counter, my table out and my fire pit roaring and all that stuff. I'll go grab that fridge and carry it over to the cooking area and it's fine. It doesn't have to be permanently installed. And of course, that's one of the many advantages of these portable 12 volt refrigerators is that, uh, they're portable and you can move them around as you need. So, and that's another reason actually to consider kind of a midsize or small size 12 volt refrigerator for your Mini camper van is that they're easier to move around. If you're fortunate enough to be able to install it and leave it in one spot, and maybe it's under a bed or some other surface, and you just flip up a table or fold the bed up partway, and now you've got access to your 12v fridge/freezer in your minivan while you cook. It's nice to not have to ever move it, but many of us will have to move it. So think about that. Really think about the size. You know, another factor is sometimes handles protrude. You'll want to look at comments and reviews on Amazon and other sites and consider things like that. How does the power supply the 12 volt power supply function? Does it leave a great big thing sticking out of the side of the 12 volt refrigerator when it's plugged in, uh, things like that, that you'll have to take into account in your design or your build the storage of the unit and the fact that it really will have to be plugged in the vast majority of the time. So those are things to consider when deciding on a 12 volt refrigerator for your van. Now, if you have specific questions about your fridge freezer, go ahead and shoot me an email at Podcast@vansage.com. I'm happy to answer as best I can or point you to a resource. And who knows, maybe your question will get answered right here on the podcast. Again, show notes, you'll see links to all of this stuff, including our 12 volt refrigerator article. And thanks for listening.
π Western Active Honey Badger Drop Point Folding Flipper Pocket Knives π Opinel Stainless Steel Folding Knives with Beechwood Handle and Safety Ring, Multiple Sizes π Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing A discussion about every day carry knives for vanlife
π Check out our full review of MANY Campervan toilets, including Composting π Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing A question we get a lot Vansage.com as well as one that I see all over the internet is, Can you use a composting toilet in a camper van? Yes, but there are pros and cons, as follows: β’ Using a composting toilet in a campervan requires a vent hose with an outlet through the floor or side wall β’ An electric fan is required to vent the air from the composting toilet reservoir to the outside β’ Composting toilets often need to be permanently mounted, not portable β’ Composting toilets require a special medium that breaks down human waste β’ You cannot put paper or other debris in the campervan composting toilet Of course like so many things regarding van life and campervan design and build and outfitting, the answer is not cut and dried. It depends on your van and your lifestyle. So we'll get into a few tips that will help you decide if you can use a composting toilet in a camper van. First of all, some of the advantages of a composting toilet that will help you decide if you can use one in your van. Probably the biggest advantage is that you can go longer between emptying the reservoir. So in that way, it's more like a βnormalβ RV or full-size RV toilet where they fill a black water tank over a long period of time, maybe a week or longer, and then they pull into a dump station and empty the tank all at once and they're done with it. They don't really have to think about it other than cleaning the head. So that's nice to be able to go a bit longer. And one of the reasons you can do that is because the composting medium masks smell very well if you're handling it properly. We'll get into that in a second here. The medium. That is. Then another advantage is that there's less environmental impact. A lot of people are concerned with using a lot of plastic bags or nasty chemicals in a basic folding toilet or a portable cassette toilet. And so they like the idea of creating compost where basically what comes out is dirt, instead of this slurry of again, chemicals and human waste. So that's an advantage as well. And then the fact that you have this toilet that is not too bad in terms of smell and requires less emptying. It means that you have kind of more normal access to a toilet in your van. It's important to understand that a composting toilet requires some installation. So basically you can think of it kind of like an air conditioning unit, good air conditioning doesn't result from just putting a freestanding unit in your van and turning it on. You need ducting. Well, it's the same with a composting toilet. It needs to be ducted. It also needs a fan to be wired. So the way a composting toilet works is there'll be a fan that pulls air out of the reservoir and then pushes it out through a tube and that tube is connected to a hole that you've either cut in the floor or the side of the van. There's both wiring and ducting to deal with in terms of installation, those aspects also limit the portability and location, obviously, of your composting toilet. So you need to choose a spot in your campervan where the toilet will live more or less permanently. And I say more or less because it is possible to install a composting toilet with some portability and you could even have it completely portable as long as you're willing to have a kind of extension cord and then to run your hose outside each time you use it or to have it where you can unplug the hose and stick it out through a window or a door or something like that. But honestly, I think it's better to have the air hose permanently installed through a port in the outside of the van. Again, either through the floor or the side of the van so you're not having to worry about that. And you can have the fan on at regular intervals so that the smell is just never an issue. Therefore, I would recommend that you choose a spot where if you do have to move the toilet, if it does need to be more portable for you, that it be only a few inches that you would move it out, such as on a set of sliders or where you'll drag it out from under a counter. So that's something to think about. I've seen a variety of designs with regard to the encapsulation and storage of composting toilets and other toilets, such as cassette toilets. For example, you can put it inside of a bench cabinet. I saw a great design where this lady had a bench built that held the composting toilet and you would lift up the foam bench top and then drop the front of the bench down, and then now you have a toilet and you can just use it and then you lift the face of the bench up and close the lid and nobody sees the toilet in your van and it was ducted so that nobody could smell it either. So that's pretty cool and there are a lot of different ins and outs and possibilities with regard to storage and encapsulation of composting toilets in campervans. A couple of the disadvantages with regard to composting toilets: There's a learning curve regarding the medium. Now I'm not going to get into the medium, the kind of material you need to use as that is technical. I'll just do another episode about that. Suffice it to say that there is a bit of a learning curve with regard to getting the ratios right, and learning how to clean it and how to keep the toilet clean after each useβ¦ So it's not as simple as the toilet that you would have in your house. Another negative is that you can't put paper in the toilet. And this gets back to environmental impact. I suppose if you're, you're not concerned about that and you'd prefer to just use a chemical toilet, then you won't have to worry about the paper thing. The paper can just go in the cassette or, or the container each time you use it. And then you take that and you'd dump it. End of story. But with a composting toilet, the paper needs to be contained separately. Now I've seen that in the extreme in Southeast Asia where the plumbing is just not made for the Western concept of toilet paper they use what is often referred to as a βbum gunβ, which is just a spray nozzle then, and you clean yourself with water instead of paper, in many ways, that's a better way to go. But unfortunately we have very little of that here, and that would be a very difficult thing to do in a campervan. But getting back to the toilet paper issue, a disadvantage of composting toilets is that the paper has to be separate from the other, natural waste. Those are the disadvantages, just needing to kind of understand how the chemistry works and needing to spray and clean the toilet well after each use and then, no paper or other stuff in the toilet. Another disadvantage is that the urine and solid waste needs to be separated. Now the better composting toilets do that sort of automatically. And again, I'm not going to get into the details of that in this episode. So the question: can you use a composting toilet in the camper van? And the answer is yes, with caveats and understanding. Thanks for listening.
π New snap knives on Amazon π 6" x 40" x 82" Foam Rubber on Amazon π Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing In this episode of The Campervan Podcast from Vansage.com, we answer the questions: β’ How do you cut a foam mattress? β’ Whatβs the best DIY way to cut a foam mattress? β’ What tools are need to cut foam? β’ How do you measure and cut foam? And this applies to us because so many of us are creating custom campervan mattresses and cushions and bed sections. There are a lot of people asking this question online. I've cut many pieces of foam myself for custom mattresses, bed sections and cushions. And it's not difficult. You can do it. The best DIY approach to cutting a foam mattress is with a snap blade knife because the long sharp, thin blade will easily cut through the foam while allowing you to maintain a straight accurate cut. Conversely, the best professional approach to cutting a foam mattress is with a foam cutting tool. Well, here's the thing with foam cutting tools: They cost several hundred dollars. The only advantages to using a foam cutting tool are that the cut will be slightly more straight or clean, and you can make the cut quickly. So just real briefly, first of all, there's no reason to spend several hundred dollars on a foam cutting tool, unless you're going to get into the foam cutting business. Don't spend the several hundred dollars for a tool that you'll use once every several years. And as far as the speed and accuracy of the cuts go, here's what you're going to find: When you use your snap blade knife, or some of the other tools I'm about to talk about here, you'll find that the cut will be a little bit imperfect. You'll find that cut is somewhat imperfect, but you're going to cover it up with a mattress cover or a cushion cover. And no one will be the wiser. The only people who know that my foam mattress cuts are a little bit jagged are me and you. So don't worry about that. It's not a big deal. Again, the, the characteristics you're looking for in a cutting tool for foam are β’ The knife should be thin and long and very sharp. β’ So it is possible to use something other than a $2 snap blade knife, such as a chef's knife or a bread knife, but that knife has to be very, very sharp. Snap blade knives: The nice thing about them is that they provide a long, straight, very sharp, almost razor-sharp edge. And of course you would want your snap blade knife to be new. So you extend it all the way. If you're not familiar with snap blade knives, the way that they work is the reason that they are called snap blade knives is because you come out maybe it's an inch and you use this section of blade for a while until it's dull and then you snap it off and then can slide the knife out, another click and there's another section of blade there and it's new and sharp. Well, when you're cutting foam, you just extend the snap blade knife all the way, and it comes out four or six inches or so. When cutting foam, the length of the knife doesn't have to be the same as the thickness of your foam. In other words, if you have a six inch piece of foam, six inch thick piece of foam, your knife, even if it's only three inches long, that's fine because no matter what, you'll need to make several passes to make one cut. So before we get into that, let's talk about how to measure and mark your foam before you cut it. There are two best ways to mark the foam: The, the best way to measure it, of course, is just with a measuring tape. Now it's nice to have an upholsters tape, or a sewing tape, just a flexible cloth tape. I keep one of those around. Sometimes theyβre very handy when you don't want a carpenters measuring tape, that's stiff and kind of unwieldy when you're working with soft materials, such as foam or the cover that you're going to be making. So it measure accurately, first of all, for length and width, however, you're cutting the foam. And then the two ways to mark: one is with a straight edge. Now, if you've got limited space, you may not want to store a four-foot straight edge or a six foot straight edge in your garage or whatever your workspace is. You can just use a section of a two by two or you could use a length of two by four. You just want to site down it and make sure that it's very straight before you use that as a guide. My favorite way to mark foam for cutting is with a chalk line, actually snap a chalk line. It creates a beautiful straight straight line, every time. You'll probably need someone to hold one end because normally with wood, if you're using a snap line on a sheet of plywood, you can use a small nail or just hook the snap line at the edge of the wood. And then one person can hold the hold the line tight and reach out and snapβ¦ this may not work so great with foam, so an extra set of hands is a good idea. If you do use a straight edge, then use a Sharpie to mark your phone that way. Sharpie shows up really clear on foam. I keep two or three different colors of the smaller fine pointed Sharpies around. Now getting back to blades real quickly. Okay. You know, there's a lot of talk online about using electric meat carving knife and some claim that that's the only way and the best way and use the power saw power knife. If you have an electric meat carving knife, go ahead and experiment with it. See if it works, but really don't go buy one for this job. It's not necessary. For example, my everyday carry pocket knives are so sharp that I can cut foam with them. Right. So there's an example of just just how much special gear you don't need to cut foam. It's not complicated. It doesn't require special equipment, again, unless you're a professional cutting mountains of foam. Just use a thin sharp knife and I've tried the electric meat carving knife. It works fine. I wouldn't say that it creates a cut that's that much cleaner than a snap blade knife. But your mileage may vary. Give a meat carving knife a try if you've got one, or maybe your neighbor has one and won't mind if you use it to cut foam. So the real trick with cutting a foam, the secret to cutting foam, is that you're going to go slow and easy. So don't expect this to be like a hot knife through butter. That's not how it's going to go. Uh, let's just picture that you've got a slab of foam laid out. And by the way, this could be normal foam or it could be memory foam. There's also the question all over the place of how do you cut memory foam? Well, memory foam can be kind of gooey and oddly soft and it behaves weird under the knife when you're pressing into it. But this tip of how to cut foam in general will resolve all of those issues. And that is again, slow and easy. Imagine you've got your slab of foam out. You've marked it very straight and clean with your straight edge or your chalk line and your Sharpie. Now what you're going to do is, open your snap blade knife up, or whatever knife you're using, and just make a kind of gentle pressure, even motion cut into the foam, perpendicular to the foam and along your line. Move the blade very consistently and smooth from one end of the piece of foam to the other. And then what you'll see is that you probably didn't go very deep into the foam. Even if you went in with a four-inch snap blade knife, you're probably only going to cut in on that first pass an inch, or maybe if you're lucky, an inch and a half or two inches. Now, what you don't want to do is press really hard and try to cut all at once, because what will happen is the foam will bunch up under your knife and it will be really jagged and it'll wander off in some direction. Again, the secret to cutting foam is to go slow and easy. So once you've made that first. Uh, kind of a gentle test cut then you want to kind of spread that cut open a bit and get the knife right down in the lowest point of the cut, where you've already cut through and do that same cut again. You can kind of spread the foam with your fingers as you're cutting, and you can see how deep it's going and you can make sure that you're staying along your straight line and that you're keeping the knife perpendicular as you cut. And what will happen is on that second cut, you might end up cutting a little less deep. You don't want to push too hard. Make this nice and slow and easy. You might find that your foam is cutting really nicely and a little more pressure is okay, and it doesn't bunch up and your knife is sliding through beautifully and you can get your cut done in two or three passes. But here's the thing: If it takes six or 10 passes to get that cut clean and straight and perpendicular, then take your time. You know, you're only going to do this once and it's for a mattress that you're going to sleep on many, many times for years and years. So take your time and get it right. And don't be in a hurry. Now all of those rules apply at a much higher level to cutting memory foam. Really take your time and really pay attention to how it behaves under the knife. You know, you might find that your power knife, your meat, carving knife, gums up really quickly with memory foam. So just skip that if it doesn't work and do it in this slow, gradual fashion, as I've described, with a very sharp snap blade knife. Now snap blade knives are cheap. So if yours is old and worn out, go to the hardware store or get on Amazon and buy a new one. It is worth it to have a very sharp knife to do this. Especially if you wind up doing a bunch of cushions and bed sections, you'll want a really sharp knife. So maybe even grab a couple of them while you're at the store, just so you're sure you've got a good sharp knife while you're working. Okay. I've said enough about how to cut a foam mattress. I hope that works for you. If you have questions about cutting foam or anything else related to van life. Shoot me an email at podcast@vansage.com. I'd love to chat with you, answer your questions, whatever. Maybe I'll even answer your question on the show. All right. Thanks for listening to my foam cutting how-to on The Campervan Podcast from Vansage.com.
This episdode teaches you a simple method for cleaning and storing letttuce and other soft greens so they last for many days or even weeks in your Campervan refrigerator. π Click here to see details and pricing on the OXO Salad Spinner π Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing π Get the Vansage Campervan Newsletter Click HERE
A Vanlife guide to how to sell on Etsy for more financial freedom and control of your time. We focus on what to sell and how to sell as a traveler and remote worker. π Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing π Get the Vansage Campervan Newsletter Click HERE
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π The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick, by Seth Godin π Nomadland review at Radioland.com π Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing π Get the Vansage Campervan Newsletter Click HERE
Spoilers. Part 2 of 2 of a review of the film 'Nomadland' directed by ChloΓ© Zhao, staring Frances McDormand, based on the book 'Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century' by Jessica Bruder. π Nomadland review at Radioland.com π Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing π Get the Vansage Campervan Newsletter Click HERE
π This is part 3 of my five part interview with Evan Hopkins, Vice President of Global Sales and General Manager for Canada, Australia and New Zealand at Outdoorsy.com. The 5th and final episode of my interview with Evan Hopkins of Outdoorsy. Today we get into why Evan loves Austin Texas, and he shares his top tips for getting started with renting out your campervan. π Click to see our detailed post about renting or listing a Sprinter Van with Outdoorsy π Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing π Get the Vansage Campervan Newsletter Click HERE
π This is part 4 of my five part interview with Evan Hopkins, Vice President of Global Sales and General Manager for Canada, Australia and New Zealand at Outdoorsy.com. Today we talk about listing Campervans for rent vs other RV classes, is renting a Mini-van a good idea, and Evan shares a somewhat counter intuitive approach to renting an RV for a relaxing, stress-free getaway. π Click to see our detailed post about renting or listing a Sprinter Van with Outdoorsy π Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing π Get the Vansage Campervan Newsletter Click HERE
π This is part 3 of my five part interview with Evan Hopkins, Vice President of Global Sales and General Manager for Canada, Australia and New Zealand at Outdoorsy.com. Today we discuss how Outdoorsy puts RV renters and owners at ease by carefully vetting renters, educating owners, and by implementing thorough insurance coverage. π Click to see our detailed post about renting or listing a Sprinter Van with Outdoorsy π Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing π Get the Vansage Campervan Newsletter Click HERE
π Evan Hopkins, VP of global sales and customer service at Outdoorsy.com talks about how Outdoorsy helps vacationers rent RVs, and owners earn money from their rigs. π Click to see our detailed post about renting or listing a Sprinter Van with Outdoorsy π Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing π Get the Vansage Campervan Newsletter Click HERE
π Evan Hopkins, VP of global sales and customer service at Outdoorsy.com talks about how Outdoorsy helps vacationers rent RVs, and owners earn money from their rigs. π Click to see our detailed post about renting or listing a Sprinter Van with Outdoorsy π Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing π Get the Vansage Campervan Newsletter Click HERE
It's tempting to fly through the steps of cutting and assembling materials for that new bed frame or any other build project. This talk is about the how and why of protecting yourelf while converting your van for camping. π Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing π Get the Vansage Campervan Newsletter Click HERE 12 Volt Refrigerators for Campervans 80/20 Aluminum Extrusion on Amazon
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π Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing π Get the Vansage Campervan Newsletter Click HERE π₯ Portable induction cooktops for Campervans π₯ Copper Chef Single Burner 1300 Watt Induction Cooktop π₯ Duxtop Double Burner Induction cooktop π₯ Amps and Wire Gauge in 12V Electrical Circuits
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π Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing π Get the Vansage Campervan Newsletter Click HERE - 12 Volt Refrigerators for Campervans
- The Best Batteries for Campervan Power
How long will a 12 volt refrigerator run on battery? We just wrote about a bunch of fridge stuff. And so I thought I'd chat about this just for a couple of minutes, because it's such a common question. It's all over the web. So it's a people also ask in Google search it's on forums and Facebook, and it's one of those questions that everybody has on their mind. I think even experienced vanlifers are often wondering; what's my fridge going to draw on this trip or whatever, or with this battery, et cetera. And mostly I'm here to say that it's complicated and there is no easy answer. You can't just say a 100 amp hour lead acid battery will run a fridge for X hours because every fridge and every user are different And so what I want to do is just run down the checklist that we made here. And, by the way, you can just go to vantage.com and type in fridge. And you'll, you'll see three or four articles about 12 volt refrigerators and things like power use and runtime, et cetera. We did a bunch of research on this just to make sure that we had it covered thoroughly and that we could offer a solid response to this question. There are several factors impacting how long a 12 volt fridge will run on a battery and those factors include the size of the battery, obviously in amp hours. And then quickly we get right to battery chemistry. So. Consider that a lead acid battery should not be run below 50% of charge because below that they start to break down or, they break down more quickly. You shorten the life of the battery and batteries are expensive. And so the more you run the thing below 50% of charge, the sooner it will die and you'll have to replace it and this is one of the reasons that, with the newer chemistry out, specifically, lithium iron phosphate or LiFeP04, and even lithium ion in the form of the solar generators that are out available. I don't think it makes sense to buy lead acid batteries. Now I'm not here to rag on anybody who owns lead acid batteries. I've owned them in the past. They're wonderful things. Obviously they solve power problems for people. And if youβve just spend a bunch of money on lead acid batteries, don't think that I'm telling you to run out and replace them. No, use them till they're used. Or until you're annoyed with charging, recharging them at 50% or whatever, and you can afford to upgrade to lithium iron phosphate. And even the lithium ion solar generators are spectacular. You can run them down to nothing. You get 2,500 to 4,000 recharges on them. And I'm not sure what it is for lead acid. I think it might be a thousand or 2000 recharges, but again, that you have to cut that in half because you only get to use 50% of it. So that's enough about that except to say that when you're calculating how long of 12 volt fridge will run on a battery, you have to consider that the lead acid has to be recharged at 50%. So half as long as the lithium chemistry options. Uh, then there's another factor; the operating amps of the fridge compressor motor. Now that tends to be in the two to six amp range, and that will be directly impacted by the some other factors. It's it's funny because some of the higher average fridges will run longer on battery because maybe they're slightly smaller or they have much better insulation or the compressor motor is variable speed instead of consistently running at the same speed. The newer ones tend to be variable and therefore use power as needed instead of just being binary on off. So keep that in mind as well. And when you go to buy a fridge freezer or upgrade your fridge freezer, make sure that that the compressor has a variable motor. Then thereβs your thermostat setting. Obviously, if you're freezing down to 30 degrees, the fridge is not going to run as long. then there's ambient temperature, and this is a big one because insulation can only do so much if it's 110 degrees outside and your fridge is sitting in direct sunlight. Some of the people who do very serious testing on the various 12 volt fridge freezers do set them in direct sunlight as part of their testing protocol. Others keep them in a vehicle or they'll do both. And I'll give you a resource for someone who's done a very wide range of testing protocols in our article, βHow long will a 12v fridge run on battery?β. If you go look at the site, you can see a blog I linked to with some testing protocols on it for fridge freezers. So the ambient outdoor temperature, if it's 30 degrees outside and your fridge is set to a higher temperature, then it's going to use very, very little power. Those thermostat settings have a direct impact on how long a 12v fridge will run on battery. And then there's the temperature in your van. You've got your fridge in your van and you're keeping the interior at 70 degrees with your nifty Webasto diesel heater, so your fridge is going to work a little harder to keep your food down around 36 degrees. So it isn't that funny how we're, to keep ourselves warm, we're working against the efficiency of our refrigerator. It's a small price to pay. Let's face it. And then there's the issue of how often the fridge door is opened and for how long. If you've got a kid running around flopping that door open every 20 minutes to grab another soda or some ice water or something, then your fridge is going to be very inefficient. It's going to use more power, still be efficient, just the circumstances have caused it to use more power. And then how the fridge is built is a factor. As I mentioned, insulation (and we just did a review on the iceco iCooler) And that thing is built with roto molded plastic and really thick insulation. So all, all bets are off with that. It's much more efficient than most of the stuff on the market. although it's been pointed out to me that for example, the Dometic fridges are super efficient and they take up less room and Dometic just does such a fabulous job of insulation and construction that their fridges are more efficient with less insulation than some others. So that's cool. I'll give you a kind of rundown. You can expect some kind of parameters with regard to runtime on battery. A 12 volt refrigerator in size 30 to 50 liters, the lowest use, that is, lowest power use in colder ambient temperatures in wintertime will use less power. So it's going to use maybe 25 amp hours in that temperature range. And then the average power use may be 65 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, it might use 35 hours of power, so a bit more. And then it at higher ambient temperatures above 80 degrees, maybe 45 amp hours. But again, there's so many factors involved. So you have to kind of do your own experimentation, and you can do that. You can just plug the thing in and stick it in the sunlight and run it for 24 hours or run it during the day and clock the power use and then run it all night and clock the power use, then run it while you're cooking, et cetera. And it is helpful to know just how much power your fridge is using, because if it's using an Inordinately high amount of power, then there might be a problem. You might have a draw somewhere, a short, you might have a very leaky door, maybe your 12 volt refrigerator is old and worn out and it's time to replace it. There are a number of reasons that your fridge might be inefficient. You also might surprise yourself and find that it's super efficient and it does a great job. And you know, if you've been using one fridge for years and you switched to a new one, you don't want to assume it's more efficient. You want to actually test it and check it out. So those are my suggestions with regard to how much power a 12 volt fridge uses.
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Listen in for how to stay motivated and moving forward on our campervan build. π Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing
Don't get stuck waiting for roadside assistance for hours. Get organized and efficient for quick, easy spare tire changes. π Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing π Get the Vansage Campervan Newsletter Click HERE
We meet Jenny, a featured writer at Vansage.com. We discuss how and why she got into Vanlife, and much more.
We meet Jenny, a featured writer at Vansage.com. We discuss how and why she got into Vanlife, and much more.
We meet Jenny, a featured writer at Vansage.com. We discuss how and why she got into Vanlife, and much more.
We meet Jenny, a featured writer at Vansage.com. We discuss how and why she got into Vanlife, and much more.
We meet Jenny, a featured writer at Vansage.com. We discuss how and why she got into Vanlife, and much more.
We meet Jenny, a featured writer at Vansage.com. We discuss how and why she got into Vanlife, and much more.
We're always challenged by storage in the campervan. This cool, simple storage hack gives you an easy, cheap way to keep clothing folded, clean and neatly tucked away.
It's tempting to fly through the steps of cutting and assembling materials for that new bed frame or any other build project. This talk is about the how and why of protecting yourelf while building. π Get the FREE Campervan Essentials List for Outfitting and Packing π Get the Vansage Campervan Newsletter Click HERE 12 Volt Refrigerators for Campervans 80/20 Aluminum Extrusion on Amazon
It's easy to resort to snacking and TV binging on rain days. This episode will help you make more productive, healthy choices when the rain just won't let up.
A talk about the advantaes of having bicycles on board your campervan while traveling. Bicycles allow access to the areas you visit. Whether you're a serious cyclist or just need a simple, easy way to get around the campground or town you're visiting, bicycles are a great solution.
It's easy to let dirt get out of control in the campervan. I'll help you make it easy to maintain a clean and tidy living space while out on the road.
π Be READY: FREE Checklist for Campervan Essentials Packing & Outfitting Discussion about the value of keeping your workspace clean and organize as you build, and how detrimental the oposite can be. There are some counterintuitive concepts here. Listen in to learn the how and why of clean and well organized shop, tools and materials.