Before we moved into our RV, I did a lot of reading online. I saw many articles reminding RV owners to get their rigs weighed at scales, and to ensure they were operating within the ratings of their equipment. Seemed like a good idea. Once we got on the road, however, I found that it’s very rare indeed to encounter someone who has actually done it. We, too, passed scales countless times without stopping, because we had someplace to be.
Read MoreI’ve been a backpacker since I was a kid, and one thing I learned early on is: Our shit is heavy. Always much heavier than we think. An ounce here, a few grams there, and next thing you know, you’re lugging a 70-lb. backpack up a mountain. This happens when we load up an RV too, and even more so when we are full-time. Most people assume that space is the most limiting factor when moving into an RV, but in fact it is weight.
Read MoreBig news! The Toaster is 100% propane free! How? By taking out our last propane appliance - the RV stove/oven.
Read MoreYep, we just experienced our first RV flat tire. While we had an idea of how to change the flat and it seemed pretty easy in our heads, we had actually never changed a flat on the trailer. Turns out it was as easy as we thought.
Read MoreWhen we first started renovating the Toaster I was set on replacing all the window blind wands with something a bit more tasteful than the clear cheap plastic that our original blinds came with. But as the list of things that needed to be fixed on the RV got longer, the wands lost priority and fell off my list. But they came back on my list when I recently noticed markings on the wall.
Read More
Folks are getting really excited about residential fridges in RVs. Seems like a lot of this is driven by the desire for larger, more feature-rich refrigerators. But the move away from 2-way and 3-way fridges is exciting to boondockers like us, too. If you’ve been wondering what it takes to run a residential unit in your RV – and whether you could use one while boondocking – I’d like to share some info that might help you decide if it’s right for you.
Read MoreHere’s a post with some yucky photos for you: Today I cleaned out our P-traps, and I learned a few things along the way!
Read MoreOur plan for the beginning of February was to drive to Jackson, WY to visit friends and go snowboarding. But we didn't want to tow the Toaster up there with us since we would only be there for two weeks before returning south where we would stay for awhile. So we decided to store our RV during that time.
Read MorePeggy and Bernie of Places and Platypie came over with their fisheye lens and took some wonderful photos of the interior of the Toaster.
Read MoreIn Electrical System Design - Part 1 I broke the electrical systems of our trailer (the Toaster) into the “solar” side and the “load” side, and discussed the solar equipment we are using. This post describes the other half of the system -- the loads, and how we use them.
Read MoreThis is the third part of a four part series that talks about what prevents our RV from being perfect for us, along with potential solutions for the problems.
Read MoreThis is the second part of a four part series that talks about what prevents our RV from being perfect for us, along with potential solutions for the problems. This specific post will talk about batteries.
Read MoreOur Toaster, with its ability to be off-grid and use minimal fossil fuel, may sound like a perfect rig to some...and a nightmare to others. For us it's literally a dream come true. But as with all dreams that become a reality, it's not perfect. (We still adore you, Toaster!) In a four part series, I'm going to go over the downsides to our RV that prevent it from being perfect, along with potential solutions. This post will talk about water, with the batteries, size and heating posts to follow.
Read MoreWe wanted to put in two really good vent fans when we rebuilt our trailer. We were eliminating the rooftop A/C, so would rely on these fans for all our cooling. The Fantastic Fan products have a lot of reviews attesting to their power and cooling capacity, with several people claiming that they are good enough to seriously cut down on A/C usage. So that’s what we chose to install...
Read MoreThe Toaster wasn’t quite finished when we hit the road. But one thing that (thankfully) worked from the beginning was our solar equipment. Recently we had to troubleshoot an issue with the batteries though, and I’d like to share how that went, because We made a bunch of mistakes and thought perhaps others could learn from them.
Read MoreThe original window curtains and valances matched our RV interior in color, pattern and ugliness. A simple fix was to reupholster the valances and have it match the rest of the renovations we were doing. Turns out it's very simple and quick to reupholster RV valances and just requires tools you most likely already have at home.
Read MoreSome time you have to do a lot of little things to be able to get to the bigger part of the projects, This was one of those weeks.
Read MoreWith the roof all cleaned up and the wiring completed, the next step was to insulate it.
Read More
