GMRS radios are a non-negotiable part of our travel kit. Whether we’re staying in touch on the trail, communicating in an off-grid campsite, or coordinating with other vehicles somewhere remote like Baja where cell service simply doesn’t exist, a solid radio setup is essential. Today I’m reviewing a pair of Read more
Clean drinking water is one of those things you don’t think about until you don’t have it. When we were driving the Pan-American Highway, we mostly just bought bottled water outright — Mexico has a well-established network of purified water stops that made this easy and cheap. But the further Read more
If you’ve ever wandered off the beaten path — hiking, overlanding, or camping somewhere with zero cell service — you know how quickly “no signal” can turn into a real problem. That’s exactly the gap Meshtastic technology is designed to fill, and in this post I want to walk through Read more
Whether you are a van lifer, overlander or just adventuring in your vehicle, rising fuel prices is certainly causing you to think twice about how it is affecting your lifestyle. For those of us who travel full time on the road, the cost of fuel is what we refer to Read more
It’s been a little over a year since we built and installed our DIY LiFePO4 pack into our Sprinter van. We built a 280Ah LiFePO4 12.8 volt pack using new, grade A prismatic cells I bought from AliExpress. Using a 4S Daly BMS and an active cell balancer, our pack Read more
Lithium batteries have been steadily dropping in prices in recent years thanks to more efficient manufacturing processes and the global transition to electric mobility. Along with a boost in the popularity of vehicle camping, partially amplified by the pandemic, an explosion of portable power banks are now available on the Read more
When you break it down to the simplest forms, there are basically 2 main components to a solar system not counting the battery. The solar panel and the solar charge controller. While many of you understand the job of a solar panel is to convert sunlight into electricity, not as Read more
When we built out our van back in 2018, we decided to stick with two six-volt AGM deep cycle batteries. We knew all of the benefits of switching to lithium but the main reason was that they were still very expensive. At the time, there weren’t as many factory-built packs Read more
Air suspensions are a popular aftermarket upgrade for trucks and vans that carry heavy loads. Whether it is a work vehicle or a camper, it can help smooth out the ride as well as prevent sagging in the rear end. But how do they affect the structural integrity of these Read more
Portable solar generators have become a huge and very competitive industry in the last few years. It wasn’t that long ago the only way to get an electrical system built in your camper was to spend days and weeks learning about watts, amps, ohms or hire someone who knows to Read more