solarriderz

I’m just working out what our solar system is going to look like, I’m going to go into a more in-depth piece in a bit once I get some more details from my vendors.  I wanted to talk a little more about our solar system.

We’re looking at a 600-900w solar system to go on top of our 19′ Escape trailer, the great thing is that solar has come down in price, a LOT!  One of the vendors who I’ve been following for years and who is always making strides in reducing the cost of solar is Sun Electronics.   Sun is run by John Kimball, from what I can tell is a passionate and colorful solar entrepreneur.  So when it came to figuring out what a system like that is gonna cost the first place I looked was Sun.   Right now they’re offering low cost poly-crystalline panels at 1.34/watt, that’s pretty good pricing and when you consider that a lot of vendors are still selling the story that solar is expensive and charge $3-4/watt you realize how awesome solar has become.  So 600-900w is about $800-$1200 of panels before shipping, taxes and other required equipment.  Consider a 1600w Honda 2000i generator can set you back $1000-$1500, and the panels will produce that output for about 5 hours a day 3000-4500wh (same as running your gen 2-3 hours a day)!

Here’s some math on that:

• 1 gal gets you 6400wh on a Honda EU2000i
• A 900w arrays produces 4500wh  a day
• At $3.8 per gallon you’ll spend $2.67 / day on the EU2000i to match what the solar panels produce for free
• Assuming gas prices never went up in the next 10 years, or didnt’ outpace inflation (not likely), the panels would produce $9745 of  output vs a gasoline driven generator
• Lets say you get 80% output over 40 years that’s $31,000 or about 8200 gallons of gasoline at today’s prices (assuming your generator never breaks down)
• Never-mind the generator is more expensive to begin with

• Sustainable power production for 40+ years
• Sustainable without maintenance
• Sustainable regardless of where I go, as long as the sun rises I sustain my power
• Sustainable regardless of what happens to gas prices or utility rates
• Sustainable level of quality – power loss over time is smooth and predictable
• Sustainable portability and lifetime – you can’t store gasoline easily for many years and you can’t transport large supplies of it easily either, the solar panel just rides with you no need to drive to a gas station.

Before I close this post I want to mention Solyndra, the US solar company that received 500M in funding from the US government, was personally hyped up by Obama and the Dems as the kind of green job creation the government was going to make happen.  This was a great example of unsustainability in the solar space:

For a long period, when we weren’t on the cusp of buying a travel trailer, researching molded fiberglass travel trailers ended up being a bit of a hobby.  Since we had never owned one it took a while to navigate the various options.  I sure would have loved an overview so here it is for others:

Team Trillium / Outback

• 13′
• lightweight – 1395lbs, basically can be towed with anything
• $14,900
• $19,000 with lots to bring it in line with amenities standard in a larger trailer (awning, dual tank, bathroom, etc.), but not everyone wants all that stuff.
• Made in Canada (hey we’re Canadian)
• Didn’t see evidence that they were selling a lot, we’d prefer a vocal and active ownership
• Really nice molded fiberglass interior – i really do like the idea that the utility and longevity of a fiberglass shell has been taken inside as well
• Too small for us though as we wanted to sleep 5 and have a full bath.
• www.trilliumtrailers.com

Trillium RV

• 13′ and 15′ available (15 pictured)
• I believe these start at $11,995 and $13995  (or at least they used to) so the pricing is really fantastic
• The offer a lot of different floor plans and can accommodate a full bath
• I believe they use the original Trillium molds which offers a super gorgeous retro exterior look – love it
• Again I love that they have a molded fiberglass interior, it has such a nice smooth marine look that I think really suits this style of trailer
• www.trilliumrv.com
• Most 15′ trailers can sleep 4 with no bathroom 2 with a bathroom, we wanted to sleep 5 so again this ruled out the offerings from Trillium RV
• Nonetheless I do love how these look.

Casita

• 13′, 16′ and 17′ models
• 16′ and 17′ models are basically the same as far as I can tell
• Lots of interesting floor plans, really like the Liberty schematic that offers:
• double bed and  two seats
• two single beds (limited to 100lbs though)
• king bed
• ability to add two bunks
• Features a molded fiberglass interior like the trillium and outback but all seems to feature a lot more wood which I like less
• They claim this will sleep six but I can’t possibly see where, maybe 4 and not comfortably for any of them
• Interior ceiling is 6’1 on the 17′ – I’m 6’4 so that’s a big of an issue
• www.casitatraveltrailers.com
• There were interesting, the metal around the belly adds a nice retro touch, but ultimately still too small

Scamp

• Offer a 13′ and 16′ model
• Didn’t really like these and didn’t look too much into them
• They need to update their marketing materials/photos on their site in a bad way
• Look at the interior photo to the right showing what look like railing spindles providing structural support – not what I would want in my trailer in terms of design elements
• At the end of the day the a trailer is a statement of one’s personality and the scamp just didn’t fit our personality,  admittedly they could be great trailers, just not for us
• www.scamptrailers.com

They Don’t Make a Lot of Big Eggs

We were quickly coming to the realization that 17′ is a big egg and a 17′ egg wasn’t quite big enough for us.

Two Producers of Big Eggs
There were two manufacturers who were producing high end, stylish, fiberglass molded eggs bigger than 17′. These manufacturers were the ones that were of most interest to us.

Oliver Trailers

Before you get too excited on Dec 4th 2009 Oliver shut down and is no longer producing trailers, as of Sept 2011 that remains the case.  I believe they made 45 of their high end super eggs before shuttering their operation (only one of which I hear was the reduced cost/featured sport model).   Many hope they’ll open up at some point in the future, they have a bit of a cult following so lets hope they can make their business work.  What I do know is they were offering a fantastic egg and it makes a great point of comparison. Photo from technomadia.com.

• Offered 17′ and 22′ models
• $30,000-$40,000 for the 17′
• $40,000+ for the 22′
• They had a sport model that used a cheaper frame and had less options but you probably ended up high after adding everything back in.
• Used double wall fiberglass construction with sandwiched insulation
• Beautiful molded fiberglass interior and exterior
• Aluminum frame for weight savings
• Very large holding tanks: 35.5 grey, 32 fresh, 18.5 black
• Molded fiberglass tank and tire covers (nice touches)
• Double pane windows
• Electric jacks
• It looked like the 22′ model really only slept 3 in standard form, 4 if they had a gaucho bunk option but from what I read they were pretty open to customization and their prices likely reflected that, so I imagine in 22′ I could have slept 5.
• Oliver seem like a pretty happy bunch, read technomadia.com earlier posts if you want to understand their custom build and 3 years of full timing in an Oliver.
• www.olivertraveltrailers.com

Escape Trailers

Like all the other trailers, I discovered Escape while reading various forums, these guys got a pretty active group of enthusiasts touting their trailers.  After reading enthusiastic review after enthusiastic review I put them on my radar and started seeing what they were up to.  I probably lurked and researched on and off for over 3 years.  At first they didn’t have any models larger than 17′ but then they launched a 19′ trailer (2009 I believe) and then I pretty much knew who was going to build my trailer.

Here’s what stood out for me with Escape:

• Very active, helpful and enthusiastic user community
• Very reasonably priced, the 19′ start at $24,600
• Significantly cheaper than an Oliver (although lacking the stylish fiberglass internal shell I so love)
• There is a Escape specific community at www.escapeforum.org and active participation on fiberglassrv.com
• They are a small family shop in small town BC with owners known for their patience and willingness to work with each owner to build the perfect trailer
• Constantly improving their design and options
• Constantly booked production schedule forcing you to order well in advance (good for their longevity)
• Successfully offering a wide range 15′, 17′, 19′ and a 5th wheel
• Wide range of options and lots of  standard features
• escapetrailer.com

Why We Choose an Escape 19′

• Sleeping accommodations for 5!
• 1 fixed queen bed – Mr & Mrs
• 1 dinette / double bed – Two little ones
• 1 cot above the double bed – One little one
• Full bath
• Dual propane tanks
• Lots of storage
• Big roof for lotsa solar (stay tuned)
• Electric brakes
• High capacity dual axel with large tires and good ride height
• Bonded tub design

Escape is Very Flexible

Escape also has a strong list of standard options available at very reasonable prices – likely below the cost of adding them yourself after the fact.  The take away here is their flexibility, as demonstrated by standing behind a lot of interesting options, is unique and refreshing.  Of course you can dream up more but unless your crazy like us the standard factory options will provide most of what you need:

• Upgradable insulation and double pane windows (upgraded insulation is around R21)
• Exterior shower
• LED bulbs throughout
• Stylish aluminum rims
• Many stove/oven upgrades
• Additional windows
• Air conditioning
• Solar panel and extra battery
• Extra 12v and 120v outlets
• Spray foam bottom and tank heating pads
• Factory installed brake controller, equalizer hitch  and setup if you pickup the trailer
• Giant external storage box
• Bike rack ready
• Screen room
• Wall mount tv arm, stereo and tv antenna with amplifier
• External propane hookup
• Ability to specify fabric and countertop materials

Next I’m going to dig into our vehicle and some of the customization we wanted to make outside of the standard options.  There are a lot and we’re currently working through them with Escape.  If boondocking, larger solar arrays and general geekiness excites you I think you should subscribe to the blog and follow the updates!

Types of RVs considered

There are a lot of options when it comes to recreational vehicles, at first we weren’t sure what made sense for us, but here are our thoughts

Class A: Too big and expensive, we already own a small house and some vehicles we don’t need more of either, we’re not full timers.

Class C: See above, still too big and expensive, but moving in the right direction.

Class B: Camper vans are interesting but we don’t really want another vehicle, higher maintenance, forced to drive it everywhere, wouldn’t be allowed in our driveway, would need a different house.  This is probably as close as an option as exists in the motorized RV category.  If we were stink’n rich a sportsmobile would be cool, but we’re not.

Travel Trailer: This is  a pretty wide ranging group, from giant trailers the size of a class A motorhomes, to small egg trailers and teeny tiny  tear drops. This is what we choose, but we’ll get to that later.

Popup Camping Trailers: Also known as folding or tent trailers these are pretty attractive: light weight, a lot of sleeping space due to the huge fold out beds at either end, affordable and many many options to choose from.  In the end we didn’t opt for one of these but they were really interesting.  The reasons we didn’t select a pop-up are: not a seamless design, fast depreciation, poorly insulated, not very secure, not a lot of roof area for solar, not going to last 30 years very well.

Fifth-Wheel: You need a pickup truck with a bed hitch to use one of these, we’re not planning on getting a pickup truck.  That said these are very interesting, the typical bed over the truck bed often makes these larger than they seem.  If we were pickup truck drivers we would have looked at these, but alas we’re not.

Expandable Travel Trailers: The best of both worlds?  Could be, they offer a lot of the advantages of a travel trailer with largely expanded sleeping space offered by a pop-up.  We definitely considered these but in the end didn’t choose one.  Ultimately it was because we couldn’t find a tub design in this format, only stick built.

What did we pick?

We ended going with a molded fiberglass trailer, often referred to as eggs because they’re typically made from two large tub shaped fiberglass shells creating the famous egg shape.

Why we Picked a Molded Fiberglass Trailer

• Molded and bonded uni body construction means that leaks are a much less common problem
• Uni-body construction eliminates many of the mechanical fasteners used in stick frame RVs
• There are 30 year old trillium trailers for sale all over the place – a testament to the longevity of  this design
• Resale values hold up really really well
• Typically lighter
• Can be fairly well insulated
• We like the look of them, round vs boxy.
• Interior fixings can be hung without piercing the exterior shell – either via glass in blocks or via a shell within a shell
•  Fiberglass will not “rot” like a stick frame trailer
• Owners seem more enthusiastic and participatory (conjecture only

A Little About Us

This blog is meant to chronicle our journey of our first RV.  Being an engineer and a huge dreamer this wasn’t about to be any old RV, is was to be a culmination of many years of dreaming, experiences and geeky notions.  Despite being what you would describe as atypical candidates: young 30s, metro-hip, young child, overwhelmed with work and not having camped in years I was especially drawn to the idea of having little structure on wheels I could call home.

I grew up camping in tents, doing canoe trips and generally being outside.  The misses was the opposite, generally avoiding camping at all costs and preferring the city.  Our son, only two, is an outdoors nut, he loves it, and it’s about the only place that he’s easy to manage.

My Goals for this Blog

The name of our blog was chosen because of a primary goal of this RV – energy independence through solar.  Now this isn’t about being green so much as it’s about freedom.  Specifically we wanted to be able to go to places that have no hookups aAppearancend live comfortably for a week.

There are many who have gone done this line of thought before, technomadia comes to mind and their posts were helpful both philosophically and technically.  I will be beefing out a resource section covering the finds I’ve discovered on various subjects, but you should check out Chris and Cherie’s blog.

There is a lot of knowledge floating around the net on the various systems, strategies, tools and products one can employ to increase they’re independence away from hookups, cities and resources.  It was a very frustrating experience finding them, reading them and discerning what was applicable to us.  I hope to save that pain for others.

Summary of our Goals

This is a high level summary of our goals:

• Be able to operate as if we’r hooked up even if we’re not (yes that includes running the AC )
• Do the above without a generator (eeek!)
• Get very aggressive with the amount of installed solar
• Be willing to experiment with systems/products but only ones that have strong reviews/track records
• Small, light travel trailer
• Ability to sleep up to 5
• Use strong commercial partners to make this happen
• Systems should be integrated, plug and play and hassle free