Second Meeting

I bought a van to start experimenting with so there is lots that we can look at and talk about. It is a 2015 148' medium roof Transit cargo van. I thought it was a good deal with just barely under 20K miles for just barely under $20K - driven less than 4000 miles a year by a little old business lady in Lexington Park, MD - it even still had a couple of months left on its warranty when I bought it.

Down side was that they had done a considerable build out for her business and then tore it all out to sell, which left a considerable number of known screw wholes in the back, plus a surprisingly large number of unknown screw holes in the floor that I did not see at the time of purchase, due to the high density foam mat on the floor, that I had to patch up.

I'm looking at this as a beta van to start learning about what I want, need, or use, and to experiment with options for all of the various subsystems.

I got good pricing on some Goal Zero products so I currently have their Yeti Lithium 1400 (watts) battery pack, one 100 watt solar panel, a larger 3000 watt pack on the way, plus an array of charges and other GZ dodads.

It is currently a quick and dirty build, but I've got a fridge and microwave installed, a twin sized bed sitting on large storage trunks, and I am experimenting with what to do about heat, water, potty, and insulation.

Oh, and I installed a Scopema swivel seat on the passenger side.

It's not the best time of year to be taking it out on test runs with no heat or insulation, but I just came back from a trip to Atlanta in which I slept in it a couple of nights, which a learning experience - did I mention that one of those nights the temp when down to 12 degrees? Now THAT was interesting!