Nissan NV 2500 High Top DYI / Homemade Camper Van RV

We have been wanting to make a video that shows how our DYI / Homemade Camper Van RV works. We finally got around to doing it over the weekend during a trip to Southern Colorado.

Sorry about the sound in one small section. It was windy. What I say there is that we purchased the roof rack online ( https://www.americanvan.com/ladder-racks/full-size-van/topper-hot-dip-galvanized-10-cargo-carrier-rack-for-the-nissan-nv-high-roof-van.html ) and that it was hard to install because it is pretty darn heavy. (It was also bent a little during shipping.)

Let There be Power & Light

There are always improvements that can be made with a home made camper. Over the summer, Greg added a house battery and just this week an LED dome light connected to the house battery. Prior to the LED dome light, we used a work lamp connected to the house battery via an inverter.  Now we have power and light even when boondocking! Solar is next!

Greg added a deep cycle 100 amp hour battery and AC charger to Humphrey the Wayward NV Van. The charger plugs into the back AC outlet and charges the battery as we drive. The battery is in a plastic battery box. Greg ran wires up to the kitchen unit and attached a power strip. He runs a CPAP at night and often a DC fan.

The white dome light is the new one attached to the house battery.
The black light is connected to the starter battery. It has new LED bulbs

The newly installed LED dome light is dimmable and 1.9 watts. He ran wire from the house battery to the "kitchen" area. It's a fantastic and bright light. We are both pretty pleased with it.
 
This new dome light is low wattage, so we don't need to worry about how much energy it is using. Greg also replaced the van's normal dome lights with led lights that are also low wattage. These run off the normal starter battery so it's important that they not run down that battery!

On the 12v LED dome light, Greg had to use some popsicle sticks and hot glue to make a surface on the lamp that was flat enough that he could use 3M super strong double sided tape to stick the lamp light up to the roof. Here is a link to the light on Amazon: Dome Light Link . 
(Green LongLife 9090101 LED Dome Light Fixture Single 921 Wedge 230 Lumens 12v or 24v Natural White.)

New power strip on the side of our "kitchen"

Greg also permanently attached a power strip to the kitchen unit. There is also a 12volt cigarette outlet for boondocking and if we have 120v that can come in here also.

Greg wrote:

I use a NOCO Genius G3500 6v/12v 3.5 Amp Battery Charger and Maintainer to charge my "house" battery in the van (see image below).  I purchased this charger because it uses low enough watts that I can plug it into the van's built-in stock electrical (alternator/inverter) system and I can charge the battery while we drive. (The van has a standard 120v outlet in the back-area.)  The charger has a computer in it that determines the best modes to charge the battery most efficiently.

It takes about 4-5 hours to charge my 50% used up 100 amp hour battery ... maybe less time.  (I try not to go under 50% used in order to reduce ware-and-tear on the battery.) I remember I was impressed at how fast I was able to charge the battery while driving.

I mounted the charger in the back of the van where I can see the little charging status lights if I look back while I am driving.  I can see if it is 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% charged.  When it is fully charged I can turn off the van's built in 400 watt max inverter.

Noco Genius G2500 Battery Charge.

You can get details on this charger from Amazon by clicking HERE.

I installed the charger's quick connector (the wires on the bottom left in the photo above) on the battery poles so it is easy to connect/disconnect the charger when needed.

When we are parked in a place (or at home) with standard 120v outlets available, I run a long large gauge yellow electrical extension out of the van to the outlet and charge the battery with that connection.

I didn't want to drill holes or mess with the van's stock electrical system in order to setup a house battery system and this setup is working perfectly. I am really happy with this battery/charger/wiring setup so far!

The battery we use with this setup is a VMAX Solar - Vmaxtanks VMAXSLR100 AGM Sealed deep cycle 12V 100AH.  You can find it at Amazon by clicking HERE.

Now we just need to head out on a road trip somewhere sometime soon! 

Update:  We switched to the G7200 Noco Genius battery charge after Greg realized that the Nissan NV's built in inverter could handle the wattage that the G7200 consumed (150 watts).  That should cut the time it takes to charge the battery in half.

Urine Nation: Just Add Pineapple Juice

“The average person flushes the toilet five times a day, and four of those times are just for urine. This means that 80% of our flushwater—or over 4,000 gallons of clean water each year per person—is used just to get rid of urine! That is a lot of clean water used to transport ‘liquid gold’ into the sewer, where it becomes pollution. If we save it instead of flushing it, we can harvest a valuable resource that we can use in agriculture.” ** Rich Earth Institute, FAQ

A typical toilet flusher wastes “up to 22 liters of drinkable water every day, one three- to six-liter flush at a time. What follows…is the long and costly process of sanitizing the water that was clean before you answered nature’s call. Using so much water per flush unnecessarily increases the volume of our waste and the cost of its transportation and treatment, ecologists say…. The process also leaves a huge carbon footprint.” -Time Magazine

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On my van camping trips, I hate to stop all the time to relieve myself often.  (Gas station and roadside restaurant bathrooms are typically quite disgusting.)  I had read about how truckers peed in bottles.  (Unfortunately, some bad truckers throw their full "pee bombs" out their windows on or near the interstate.  I've seen many of these full bottles on the sides of the roads.) 

At my local grocery store, I saw a Tropicana Farmstand bottle that looked perfect for use as a small "holding tank."  The bottle is great as it is well made and has a wide opening ;-)  (This blog pertains to guys specifically, we haven't figured out how this could work out for the ladies, YET!)

My urin collection bottle, Pineapple juice, and a lid for the Pineapple juice to store it.

The bottle has worked out great in the van.  I can go without stopping.  (My wife uses a Luggable Loo we have in the van.)  I dump the bottle when I get to a proper sanitary station.  If I am in the woods, I sometimes dump it in an area that looks like it could use moisture, far from surface water sources.

I've read that urine comes out sterile and is a fantastic fertilizer (when diluted) as it is full of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium.  Many folks use it in their gardens. It's used in many nations as fertilizer and has been for centuries. There is a project in Vermont by Rich Earth Institute to grow crops using it [learn more] rather than using expensive petrolium and/or animal waste based fertilizers.

It struck me that I could save a heck of a lot of water if I used a bottle during the day at home and did not flush the toilet as often.  My toilet at home uses 1.6 gallons per flush.  Holy Cow that is a heck of a lot of perfectly clean water just to flush down a couple ounces of urine every time! 

I decided to get another Tropicana bottle and use it during the day, saving hundreds of gallons of water and flushing it all down once a day (when I had number two business to attend to).  I clean the bottle out each day after it is dumped.

There was a big problem.  Urine really stinks after it sits around all day in the bottle.

I started researching how to get rid of the smell.  I stumbled upon "10 strange pineapple facts" that describes how pineapple is used by, well let's just say, very sexually active folks to eliminate odors and bad tastes.  It got me thinking, "What if I added a little pineapple juice to the bottom of my pee bottle after I cleaned it each day?"

I have discovered that pineapple juice* does a great job of eliminating the bad odor created by urine sitting around all day.   This was a fantastic discovery and very practical to me!  Big cans of pineapple juice are cheap in the generic brand at my local grocery store, under 3 bucks for big cans.

So I've been storing my urine during the day for a few weeks now.   I was flushing it three or four times a day before this.  That is 3.5 flushes a day average (or more).  That is at least 5.6 gallons of totally wasted clean water a day if you flush every time!!!!  I figure I am home about 300 days a year (I work from home).  I can save 300 days x 5.6 gallons = about 1,680 gallons a year. Probably more like 2,000!

We use about 1,700 gallons of water a month at our town home (2 people - no private lawn) according to our local public utility.  That is 20,400 gallons a year.  That's nearly a 10% household water savings by me from using the bottle. That's pretty significant.

Imagine how much water could be saved if all the guys in, say, dry dry California or Nevada did this. Lake Mead might survive a few more years before going dry!

My next experiment is to use some diluted urine as a fertilizer for my house plants.  I've read that it is much better than commercial house plant fertilizers.  I'm wondering if the pineapple juice in the mix will cause a problem.  I suspect not.  Will it smell?  I plan to find out.  Others are successfully doing it.

Here is something to try at your next smelly campground.  If you find a not so sweet smelling pit toilet, try pouring a big can of pineapple juice into the pit.  I suspect the pit will smell much better for a while after that.  I tried it out at a local pit toilet and my nose detected a big difference for about a week!  I plan to pack a couple cans of pineapple juice in the van just for this purpose.

See if it works for you and let us all know.

* Nov 2014 - Update: I recently discovered that White Distilled Vinegar is also good at keep the odor down.  It might be cheaper also.  It knocks out the bad urine smell, but you do smell a vinegary smell.  It's not bad.

New Bed Design - Part 2

I previously wrote about Greg's new bed design for our camper van.  He did an awesome job building the new bed. The link above shows the build process.

The bed in the "day" couch position without the cushions

The bed in the sleeping position without the cushions

 The next step was to purchase foam padding which we got from Walmart online. We purchased two full size Spa Sensations 4" Memory Foam Mattress Toppers ($89 each). Greg used a electric carving knife to cut down the foam toppers into four separate pads the sizes we needed.

Greg marking and cutting the full size mattress topper into four pads

Greg demonstrating the use of the electric carving knife to cut and shape the pads

We looked into having custom covers made and went into sticker shock when we got a quote. No way Jose! So I borrowed a sewing machine from a good friend and decided to make the covers myself. This sounds real simple until you hear that the last time I sewed anything more than a button or hem repair was in high school and that was over 35 years ago. But, I was confident that I could do it!

We went shopping for fabric and discovered that the fabrics weren't going to be wide enough. Now what? Then I thought - why not cover the pads with a sheet cut and sewed to fit snugly. We went to the Walmart Super Center (about 40 minutes from where we live) and picked out king size sheets that were on sale.

So - that is what I did. Yeah me! Huge thanks to my friend who helped me thread the bobbin, figure out how to do the first cushion and gave me the confidence to believe I really could do this.

Cathy helped me with the first cover and reminded me how to use a sewing machine.
She also lent me her sewing machine. Such a great friend!

Like riding a bike - using the sewing machine came back to me even after 35+ years

Each sheet cost $11.97 - so the total cost for the cushions with my custom covering was $225.88. A very nice savings. We are thrilled with the final product and can't wait for our upcoming trip to try it out. 

The Monkeys check out the new covered pads in couch mode

View from front of van looking toward the back in couch mode

Looking from back of van including the under the bench storage.
The sleeping bag/blankets normally reside on the back pad
where the monkeys are hanging out

New Bed Design

The great thing about a home-made camper is you can easily change up the design. I loved the comfy hanging bed, but we wanted a place to sit during the day. So Greg pulled out the old bed and home built storage unit and built us a new bed. amazing and super comfortable with easy access storage.

Original Bed Design

Both the hanging bed (which was raised up to the roof for travel)
and the wooden storage unit on the left were hand-built.
Lots of storage and very comfortable bed, but time for a change!

Below is the evolution of the new design build out. There are two benches that can be used as couches with space to walk in between and TONS of storage underneath. One side slides out to create a king size bed!

Empty view into our Nissan NV van awaiting the new bed

Love all our new storage space

View from back of camper looking toward driver's area

I love the design with the slats that slide to join the other bench. Good job Greg!

Humphrey Tales

I have been reading and enjoying many full-time blogs. Nina of Wheelingit fame recently told how they got started rv'ing and asked how her readers got started and what they travel in. So I thought I would share.

For 35 years we have been hiking, backpacking or camping at every opportunity and on most of our vacations.

Early camping trip to Yosemite (late 70's)

Our first tent

My two favorie hikes of all time are the Garden Wall in Glacier NP and Angel's Landing in Zion NP.

Angel's Landing hike in  Zion National Park

Angel's Landing hike in Zion National Park

Garden Wall hike in Glacier National Park. Source: Wikipedia

In 2011 we bought a new Nissan NV hightop van (think FedEx truck) and built a camper. We are on our third design, which is one of the joys of homemade. First, we had double decker bunk beds. Second we had a king size hanging bed. The third iteration is in the works.

Our "kitchen" is a used scientific tray shelf. Works great. Notice the bunk bed cots behind Greg.

Next we had a hanging bed that secured to the roof when in route

Here was the bed in sleep position

I consider our van to be luxuriously primitive. We have a really quiet generator, a microwave, a great 4-day meg size ice chest, a camp stove, super awesome folding hammock and a camper toilet. All the comforts of home on wheels. We added an electric blanket for winter camping (coldest camp out was 16 degrees). The rig allows us to boondock easily. We have a solar lantern, solar flashlights and chargers. Greg is going to build us a solar panel or two which will make it much easier until we can head on the road FT

Our solar arsenal so far. A big panel will be added soon.

Tall Texan Campground in Colorado. The red and white screened room is ours.

Camping on the beach at Flaming Gorge in Utah

Parking Lot Camping at Blue Mesa Reservoir in Colorado

Above Ouray in Colorado

I am happiest when on a trail or at a campsite.

Molas Lake

Almost to the top of Mt. Baldy (Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico)

Kendall Mountain - above Silverton, Colorado

Great campfire at Grover Hot Springs in California

Bryce National Park

Between Durango and Silverton, Colorado

Nothing more relaxing than a hammock with a lake view

Hiking and camping at Joshua Tree National Park

Our van's nickname is Humphrey named after a whale that made its way up the delta in the Bay Area. He was called Humphrey the wrong way whale, but we thought he just wanted a little adventure. My favorite quote and philosophy is 'not all who wander are lost." Here's to lots more wandering!