Car Camping / Trip Reports / Photos / Buildouts / “Overland” / Expedition Rigs Area (homeless?)

The solar thread has a decent amount of info on the flexy panels.

 

sikaforce is good stuff. they glue buses together with it. try whitecap.com they might have it

 

States still do that? Ha

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/solar-panel-install.472522/

 

So if you glue your solar panel to the roof, what do you do if it goes bad or gets damaged? Sounds like a gigantic pain to replace.

 

It's like a registration sticker just stick the new one right on top.

 

I can't wait. I get back to the US tomorrow and can finally start my overland build on my FZJ80. I've already got tons of plans. I'm getting in on th BajaRacks group buy, ARB awning with the room (instead of RTT). My snorkel, lift, wheels, 35s and a few other items are sourced already.
And a picture, because everyone likes pictures.

 

It's not rock hard stuff, you can cut it and remove panel, trim old adhesive back, and apply new

Stack em up. Only need to take real action when it gets taller than light bar

 

Directions to said solar thread ???

 

Hopefully the suspension is robust. Front torsion bars have a history of being stout. These Winnebago conversions are LWB cargo vans with stronger rear coil springs. It will have to be babied along, no ABS to facilitate traction control, therefore one wheel drive at times. I'm thinking it will be ok, ordered some cheap traction ramps, there's always some way to get grip. I don't expect much hardcore from it, it's limited.

It has the short front porch to get through gullies, short rear porch that won't drag. After the lift I have 9.75" ground clearance through the middle of the undercarriage, all four shocks are outboard mounted, 10.5" at the low point for breakover angle (the LP tank).

It's just nice to be able to step from the front seats directly into a rear living area with a furnace, sink, stove, cabinets, bed, 3-way fridge/freezer, poptop. Awning over a sliding side door, it's a slick unit. Underpowered and may have to be babied along sometimes but they get into a lot of interesting places.

 

Subaru conversion is for the Vanagon. Nice $4k upgrade from what I hear. Vanagon is RWD, some were air-cooled engines, some were water-cooled with the radiator in the front. All were boxers.

I passed on the Vanagon, Eurovan seemed better with the extra length for carrying my generator and LP tanks, a cassette toilet. Eurovan has the built in LP furnace, grey tank.

Eurovan has to be lifted, but that's easy. 16" used Audi wheels cost me $120 then the rubber, spacers for the rear coils, then you adjust the front torsion bars up via a nut.

 

I have a vw diesel 5 speed transmission if someone wants it

 

I couldn't find the huge solar thread I was looking for, but here is a start for a flexy panel:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/solar-panel-install.472522/

 

Did the Utah Pony Express route this weekend with a friend. Starting in Eagle Mountain, and going all the way to Utah's remote town of Callao, which is 80 miles just to reach pavement and much more to get to any sort of civilization. Out and back was just over 400 miles round trip (with some side routes) with 300 of them being off-pavement. Eagle Mountain -> Simpson Springs -> Callao -> Gandy -> Marjum Pass -> Delta -> Home near Provo.

Honestly, it was my first trip that was truly an "overland" trip by definition of being the journey not a destination as the goal. We saw Pony Express stations, Pronghorn, Mountain passes, mildly technical terrain, stone cabins, and were even lucky enough to stumble across one of the wild horse herds of Utah!

The PET trail itself is mainly graded gravel roads, and is passable by car traffic. Trucks just make the ride smoother, and freeway speeds are achieveable in places. Most turn around at Simpson Springs / Boyd's Station, but we went all the way.


Boyd's Station. This is the only real freestanding structure left. Used by the caretaker for the horses. Every 10 miles across the Utah desert, they had a stop like this to change horses, as they ran the horses at full gallop and the horses would tire quickly.



Finally made it to Callao, UT.


Up some mountain road we saw from the valley that had camping potential. Mostly sandy narrow roads with some rocky features and more than a few off camber, V Ditch, and flexy scenarios to get to where we camped.



View of the west desert moonscape. It is near Great Basin NP, which is a rated dark park. In the bowl that we camped in, there was zero ambient light. With the new moon, you could barely see your hand in front of your face. Phone cameras couldn't pick up the stars, but it was probably the greatest view of them I have ever had in my life!




Travel partner prepping for #FlexyFriday. Not bad for a stock suspension TRD Sport.


Camp for the night. 360 western alpine in the middle of the desert.



On the way to Marjum Pass, we found a wild horse herd. They normally stay well away from the ranches and roads, but today they decided to make an appearance just for us!



Going through Marjum pass. My partner knew of cool stone cabin that used to belong to some hermit in the 1800s. I want to camp in it one night in the future.



At this point, we could have kept going on dirt trails for quite some time, but we needed to get home so we cut back to route 6 to Delta and blasted home.

 

New camper, new solar set up

 

I have put some on mine. Check out my build thread a couple pages back. They are had mounted to a custom roof rack and custom wiring to the charge controller and then to the 2nd battery.

 

No man I can do that all day, I meant directly to the painted roof of the truck. But it doesn't matter now, I have decided to build a canopy for my bed with a diamond plate aluminum top, there will be a 150w solar panel up there, an arb awning, some maxtrax. The solar will run a center console fridge, and a bed mounted freezer/fridge combo.

 

Here's a pic of my '95 Eurovan vs a Vanagon. Vanagon has the longer front porch, but good ground clearance, I imagine the approach angles are similar.

I have the Eurovan lifted about 1" in front via nuts on a T-bar for the front torsion bar suspension, can go up 2" more but I'm a bit concerned about CV angles since it's FWD. From what I read the Eurovan is the first VW Transporter with adjustable front torsion bars. I bet I'll end up going another inch then get it aligned again. Brakes Plus did a good $64 alignment after the first boost.

I neglected to measure ground clearance on the two vans, but eyeball says they're about the same (after lifting the Eurovan, 16" wheels, 225/70/16 tires. Stock size was 195/70/15). Eurovan has a 2" spacer lift in the rear.

Downtravel from the suspension, I saw it on a lift getting the brakes flushed/bled/drums adjusted. Appeared to me the front drooped maybe four inches, rear maybe two inches after the spacer lift. It's just gonna have limitations offroading being 2WD with no traction control, and weighs a whopping 4700 lbs curb weight. Yes, the Winnebago camper conversion is 4700 lbs curb weight.

I got these $20/pr traction ramps, https://www.discountramps.com/tract...Dn&ppcstrkid=1069721600&ppcsu=xhg7f5djqlusist They seem OK, but I have nothing to compare them to. They fold and obviously folded up they are very stout. I bought two pairs.

I got 20.4 mpg on a 208 mile trip, Shell 91 octane. I adjusted the miles by adding 10% to compensate for the larger tires.

 

I would camp in that thing so hard. Uhhhhhhhh. Yep. Let's see some inside shots

 

The more I read, the more I miss my 85 vanagon .local shop blew the motor during a oil change and other minor maintenance .the new motor never liked the ecu. And after 5 months, 7 Ecu's and 3 tows to the "best vw" mechanics and 4 trips to dealer. The shop owner just bought the van. Too bad they weren't worth what they our now..