Miles from Utah

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native pepper
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Re: Miles from Utah

Post by native pepper »

grizzzman wrote: (I for one am not a fan of active balancing) what stops you when free camping water grey tank? Black tank? Food?
.
No need for active or balancing, now we have cell equalisers which can be bought on ebay. Could be wrong, but think most active bms balancers only operate on about 1-2 amps and just bleed a cell, which is a waste of energy. These balancers operate at 8amps and transfer energy from cell to cell. Along with whatever method you use to get just bulk charge and control voltage till your pack is full, lifepo4 has become a breeze.

If you have a decent size rig, nothing stops free camping down here. We traveled full time for decades when earning a living, now being semi retired and returning home to Tas permanently, we stay at home a couple of months of the year as the farm needs attending to and in winter, we have our jazz festival and over summer we have lots of festivals, which keeps life enjoyable.

Originally, we were very restricted in free camping, but now with lifepo4 the bus is all 240v, except for lights and now have a 5kw A/C which will go into the bus over the next couple of weeks.

We carry 380lt of fresh water in one tank, 60lt of drinking water 80ly of grey and 80lt of black. We use our grey water for the toilet, which is a marine pump toilet. With not to many really cloudy days, we can stay away from the shops for at least a month. We make lots of bread, pies biscuits, fish and dog food before we go and freeze it all, including frozen fruit and we buy our veggies and fruit where ever we are. Most little towns have someone who grows and sells food.

You'll find everyone is different in their approach and setup and that's what makes travelling so cool and interesting. Until a few years ago when I got this place, had been on the road playing since 1976 full time and still can't get enough. Seen everything from a 1 million dollar 4x4 rig that looked like a submarine, 10m long, the ultimate in luxury and could go places my landcruiser or 4x4 tractor would struggle.

Enjoy your stay yank and if you ever make it down under down under (Tasmania), give us a yell.
grizzzman
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Re: Miles from Utah

Post by grizzzman »

Dot wrote:Mr Grizzman, have you been to Australia?
No I have not Dot but my wife and I have talked about it.
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Dot
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Re: Miles from Utah

Post by Dot »

One thing that is great about over here is that if you did come over there is always some one who's place you can park at as we are scattered in every state so go on make a booking before your new president builds a wall :) :)
Queen of the Banal & OT chatter and proud of it. If it offends you then tough titty titty bang bang.
grizzzman
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Re: Miles from Utah

Post by grizzzman »

T1 Terry wrote:
grizzzman wrote:
Hi ya Terry! The way I see it you Aussies are ahead of the game when it comes to freedom camping and I'm hoping some of your experience will rub off on me :D About 3 1/2 years ago while researching solar I found Lifep04. Cool stuff for sure! I may put together 100AH and see if I can use it without killing it
:lol: I'm running two CG2 208AH 6 volt batteries. I'm sure glad I don't have to worry about propane here. It would be nice to have propane as a " back up" system though. Higher end all electric MotorHomes are coming with lithium battery banks. But its on the slow side with upgrading on older units due to cost.
I have followed Technomadia's van conversion, it is a great example on how to "not" to do it. But it appears that they have learned what they were doing wrong
(I for one am not a fan of active balancing) what stops you when free camping water grey tank? Black tank? Food?
.
Depends if the rig is big enough to have a toad (towed small vehicle) or a van and tug (tow vehicle) or if a single unit type motorhome. Fresh water would be no1 I'd say, then black water and last of all grey water, maybe food in there some where but that would be collected during the trips to sort the other problems. Generally an all inclusive trip combined with a sight seeing venture takes care of long stay problems once properly set up for it. A water bladder in the rear of the toad for fresh water, dual cassettes for the cassette type toilets or a tote tank to empty part of a black tank/grey tank or a suitable drainage pit dug for the grey water to allow it to soak away without leaving the smell and other issues that grey water can produce. That one is a rather hot topic among the free camps at the moment with the uptake of grey water tanks being a much resisted addition for many, but I can already see clear evidence that the days of just dropping grey water on the ground are coming to an end. Too many people taking up the free camping thing resulting in the next person setting up camp in what you dumped before you left, then complaining that the new site that night was smelly and boggy like a septic pit :roll:

For the smaller campervan type vehicles it would be black water, fresh water and then food as storage and weight is a big issue in these units as well as the smaller caravans.

Free camping over here is broken up into the just off the tar road with a good dirt entry or hard stand set up with a few amenities, to bush camping fully self contained and a bit of an adventure getting in, to the 4WD full off road van or motorhome with enough ground clearance for a tribe of pigmies to camp under that go really bush over tracks I'm not sure I could walk along without ending up climbing through bit on all fours, so there is a bit of rivalry between who the real freedom campers really are. One of the funnies that appeared on another forum explains the whole oxymoron of free camping quite well
Free Camping:
Where you spent outrageous amounts of money to live like a homeless person

T1 Terry
Hi ya Terry!
Sounds very much like boondocking here. Back in the day we tent camped out of a lifted/locked/armor plated Grand Waggoneer (And yes Dot it was a Jeep.)
:lol: So I understand people debating what freedom camping really is. We are explorer's, finding new places is fun. For us part of the fun is we exclusively prepare our meals over the campfire. Up until this year we used motorhome's but I enjoy having a rig to explore in once camp is set has been nice.
It's a no no to dump even gray water here but many still do. Now this "truth" made me laugh "Free Camping:
Where you spent outrageous amounts of money to live like a homeless person"
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grizzzman
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Re: Miles from Utah

Post by grizzzman »

native pepper wrote:
grizzzman wrote: (I for one am not a fan of active balancing) what stops you when free camping water grey tank? Black tank? Food?
.
No need for active or balancing, now we have cell equalisers which can be bought on ebay. Could be wrong, but think most active bms balancers only operate on about 1-2 amps and just bleed a cell, which is a waste of energy. These balancers operate at 8amps and transfer energy from cell to cell. Along with whatever method you use to get just bulk charge and control voltage till your pack is full, lifepo4 has become a breeze.

If you have a decent size rig, nothing stops free camping down here. We traveled full time for decades when earning a living, now being semi retired and returning home to Tas permanently, we stay at home a couple of months of the year as the farm needs attending to and in winter, we have our jazz festival and over summer we have lots of festivals, which keeps life enjoyable.

Originally, we were very restricted in free camping, but now with lifepo4 the bus is all 240v, except for lights and now have a 5kw A/C which will go into the bus over the next couple of weeks.

We carry 380lt of fresh water in one tank, 60lt of drinking water 80ly of grey and 80lt of black. We use our grey water for the toilet, which is a marine pump toilet. With not to many really cloudy days, we can stay away from the shops for at least a month. We make lots of bread, pies biscuits, fish and dog food before we go and freeze it all, including frozen fruit and we buy our veggies and fruit where ever we are. Most little towns have someone who grows and sells food.

You'll find everyone is different in their approach and setup and that's what makes travelling so cool and interesting. Until a few years ago when I got this place, had been on the road playing since 1976 full time and still can't get enough. Seen everything from a 1 million dollar 4x4 rig that looked like a submarine, 10m long, the ultimate in luxury and could go places my landcruiser or 4x4 tractor would struggle.

Enjoy your stay yank and if you ever make it down under down under (Tasmania), give us a yell.
Hi ya native pepper! "We use our grey water for the toilet," Does this mean you use it for flushing?" If so do you filter it? Thanks
2019 F150 Ecoboost SuperCrew
2016 Rockwood Mini Lite 2504S Trailer
640 Watts solar ElectroDacus SBMS0 3 DSSR20 (TS60 backup)
150 AH Lifepo4 3P4S 208AH CG2 hybrid system
Boondocking is my game
"If you are not learning, you are dying"
grizzzman
Posts: 143
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2016 7:22 am

Re: Miles from Utah

Post by grizzzman »

Dot wrote:One thing that is great about over here is that if you did come over there is always some one who's place you can park at as we are scattered in every state so go on make a booking before your new president builds a wall :) :)
Well all I will say is ya put a smile on my face Dot!! :lol:
2019 F150 Ecoboost SuperCrew
2016 Rockwood Mini Lite 2504S Trailer
640 Watts solar ElectroDacus SBMS0 3 DSSR20 (TS60 backup)
150 AH Lifepo4 3P4S 208AH CG2 hybrid system
Boondocking is my game
"If you are not learning, you are dying"
native pepper
Posts: 1158
Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2015 8:21 am
Location: Tasmania

Re: Miles from Utah

Post by native pepper »

grizzzman wrote: Hi ya native pepper! "We use our grey water for the toilet," Does this mean you use it for flushing?" If so do you filter it? Thanks
Yes, have a "T" filter, which is just a small section before the grey water tank which solids drop into and can be unscrewed at the bottom to clean out. It's the same system we've got on our houses to collect leaves from the guttering, leaves and any dust drop into the T and don't end up into the tank. We don't eat bovine meats, fats junk etc, just veggies, fish and organic chook, can't afford to get sick in our business so our grey water is pretty clean. Although over the years have had a couple of blockages, it's mostly shower water and we use organic Tas olive oil soap. Our black water can be put straight on gardens, although we always use proper dump sites for it, at home our system provides excellent garden fertiliser from the septic and doesn't go through any pits.

I suppose after many years on the road you end up with a system that suits you, what I hate is those that just let their grey water go where they are parked, which tends to be laden with fats and grease and stinks. These fools tend to park right next to any facilities available for some reason and would say they are the types that drive 100m to the shop rather than walk.
grizzzman
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Re: Miles from Utah

Post by grizzzman »

Hi ya native pepper! That is a Kewl method. There is a place here that builds a complex system with 3 way valves pumps and filter systems. your way seems simpler for sure.
2019 F150 Ecoboost SuperCrew
2016 Rockwood Mini Lite 2504S Trailer
640 Watts solar ElectroDacus SBMS0 3 DSSR20 (TS60 backup)
150 AH Lifepo4 3P4S 208AH CG2 hybrid system
Boondocking is my game
"If you are not learning, you are dying"
native pepper
Posts: 1158
Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2015 8:21 am
Location: Tasmania

Re: Miles from Utah

Post by native pepper »

I'm a pretty simple person mate, so try to us simple solutions for what I do. Some people call it slack, especially as when I make something, it gets made to where it works and won't fail. Which in the eyes of many is not a nice look and tidy enough for them, one look in my bus and you'd understand my approach. I tend to use recycled materials as much as I can and then innovate to save more costs.

It's the same with fuel, been running all my diesel engines on veggie oil since the 1980's and have virtually no fuel costs, except when on the road and run out of starter fuel, which is biodiesel I make and have to buy some diesel. It really pisses me off to have to put my hand in my pocket and waste money. So we can hit the road for months at a time and spend nothing on fuel or energy, which means we have more money to have fun and improve our lives on the road. We can head off with full fuel tanks (1000lt) and come home with full tanks, many places we play at give us their used oil. A couple of decades ago when we were full on playing, we went round Aus, covering well over 30000klms and spent less than $100 on diesel, which makes a huge difference to your bottom line. Of course diesel back then was about 70C a litre in the outback.
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T1 Terry
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Re: Miles from Utah

Post by T1 Terry »

The penny has finally dropped, but it needed a push via email from Grizzzman, Miles from Utah is not a location, Grizzzman's first name is Miles, now I'll stand in the corner with my dunce hat on..... anyone need to join me? :lol:

T1 Terry
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