A family on the road living fulltime in an RV.

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Our RV Solar Power Setup and Giveaway

What’s not to love about solar power? Harvesting the power of the sun to provide electricity to run your RV appliances and electronics, without waste or pollution? Yes please! When we upgraded…

What’s not to love about solar power? Harvesting the power of the sun to provide electricity to run your RV appliances and electronics, without waste or pollution? Yes please!

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RV Solar Power by Solarland USA

When we upgraded our RV one of the features we were most excited about was the residential refrigerator.  While current models have gotten quite efficient, a full-size refrigerator will suck your RV battery dry pretty quickly. This may not be much of an issue when you are moving from park to park where electrical hookups are available to run your refrigerator and charge your batteries, but when we decided to set out on an epic road trip from Key West, FL to Anchorage, AK we realized we may not have that luxury at many points along the way. We got in touch with the good people at Solarland USA to see about trying out their Sun Wanderer RV solar kit and they were happy to oblige. They are an international company who have up until recently focused on the wholesale distribution of their products. Fortunately for us they are ramping up their retail marketing and they agreed to send us four 150W high efficiency panels, a portable 90W solar kit, two Blue Sky Solar Boost 3000i charge controllers, an IPN Pro Remote (which lets us monitor the current charge coming in, battery level as well as current being used), cables, and a cool solar lantern.

RV Solar Installation - DIY

RV Solar Installation – DIY

On our way to Alaska, we stopped in Indiana to visit family where I set to work installing them with the help of my super handy brother-in-law Jeff. The panels are high quality and light-weight. We had the trailer wired pretty quickly, running the two sets of cables through the (unused) washing machine vent, down through a chase, into the underbelly storage area, and finally into the utility bay where we built a panel to mount the charge controllers next to the batteries. Wiring the charge controllers to the batteries was a little tricky as our battery bank is still a work-in-progress. We have two gell cell 12W batteries and two Trojan T-105 flooded acid 6V batteries. Since we had two charge controllers we were able to run the battery banks independently with the inverter running off the Trojans and our 12V house system running off the gel cells. Since this initial configuration, I have taken to running both charge controllers to the Trojans since out 12V demand is very low (most of our 12v lights are LED and the refrigerator runs off the inverter). The 90W portable solar charger has a built-in charge controller which allows us to Connect it directly to our gell cell batteries to keep them charged. With this setup, weather permitting. we can operate all our electrical systems, residential refrigerator, charge our laptops and mobile devices as well as our oldest son’s keyboard.

Solar panels in the Wild: Denali National Park, Alaska

Solar panels in the Wild: Denali National Park, Alaska

The panels and charge controllers have held up great since our journey to Alaska. We are now looking forward to optimizing the system further so we can enjoy more ‘wild camping’ throughout the western United States. Future upgrades to the system will be to replace the two gell cell batteries with two more Trojan T-105’s so that we can run it as a single bank. Replace our 1000w inverter with a 3000w “whole house” model. Add 400w more PV panels to better accommodate my large screen iMac.

RV Solar - Homer Alaska

RV Solar Power – Homer Alaska

DIY Solar Installation Video

Give Away!!


What Do I Win?

The winner gets one 90 watt portable solar charge kit.

Who is eligible?
Anyone 18 years of age or older within the 50 United States of America

How Can I Win?
Entering to win using the widget above:

Mandatory: ‘Like’ Newschool Nomads and Solarland USA on Facebook (yes, you must like both to win)
Want a better chance at winning? Expand your interaction and receive additional entries

  • Leave a comment below and tell us how you’ll use your new portable solar charger (counts as 2 entries)
  • Tweet this Giveaway
  • Pin this Giveaway on Pinterest

So that’s 6 chances you have to win, plus an extra credit by leaving a comment below!

This contest runs from Wednesday 11/05/2014 to Wednesday 11/12/2014 at 11:59 pm EST (Eastern Standard Time). The winner will be announced on 11/13/2014 via private email, and shared with our friends on Newschool Nomads’ Facebook page.

The Fine (legal) Print:

You must be a human age 18 or older
You must be a Facebook fan of Newschool Nomads and Solarland USA to win.
Mandatory entry must be done first before additional entries are accepted.
The Winner will be contacted through Facebook and has 72 hours to respond before another applicant is selected.
You must enter the giveaway using the widget above (if you simply like NSN, SLUSA, etc on facebook you will NOT be entered)
Giveaway is NOT endorsed by Facebook or Twitter
All entries are verified.

Disclaimer: The products reviewed in this post were provided to us free of charge by Solarland USA.  No other form of compensation was offered or accepted. All expressed opinions are our own.

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Our Heartland Gateway 3650BH Video Tour

In our search for an RV, we spent a ridiculous amount of hours online looking at various models and reading reviews and forums. After selling our old RV in Texas,…

Heartland Gateway 3650BH Tour

In our search for an RV, we spent a ridiculous amount of hours online looking at various models and reading reviews and forums. After selling our old RV in Texas, we headed to Florida to meet my  doctor before heading to Indiana, RV capital of the world.  Determined to find ourselves a new home we braved the cold to visit RV dealerships and an RV show. We found many models that would work for us but finally narrowed it down to five models that had almost everything we wanted: Avalanche 360RB, Montana Mountaineer 356TBF, Cedar Creek Silverback 35QB4, KZ Durango 358BHK, and the Heartland Gateway 3650BH.

The things we were looking for in order of priority were:

  1. Four or five slides with double slides in the back bedroom (Our last RV had 3 slides. )
  2. A place for Brent to build a desk (If he can’t work we can’t travel!)
  3. 12 cubic foot or larger refrigerator or an RV with a space big enough where we could install one ourselves
  4. Pantry
  5. More kitchen counter space than our last RV
  6. An all-in-one front bathroom (as opposed to a walk-through bathroom, i.e., one where the shower, toilet, sink are separated)
  7. A second half bath in the back.
  8. Washer and dryer hookups (Which ultimately didn’t matter b/c we aren’t going to use them after all.)
  9. Booth dinette as opposed freestanding table and chairs (We like the coziness and the storage a booth provides.)
  10. Storage storage storage!
  11. Bathtub (Not a huge priority but would be nice.)

As you can see we had some high expectations but after living full time in an RV with our family for over 2 years we knew what we wanted.  Although we knew we were going to finance this RV, we still had a budget we wanted to stay within so a few brands we would have liked to look at were out of the question.

A quick word about financing our RV. When we set out on the road we still had credit card debt. Most people insist that you should pay off all your debt before hitting the road. Clearly that would have been ideal but our boys were getting older and we knew we no longer had the luxury of time. So instead of waiting to pay it off, we decided to hit the road before everything was “perfect”. That’s another post for another time but to make a long story short, we chose to not wait to have our ducks in a row before following our dream. At this point of our journey, it made better sense for us to sell our old rig which was paid for to pay off high interest credit card debt and finance a new rig at a rate that is less than a 3rd of our credit cards. Not only did we lower our monthly payments, we improved our overall quality of life. Keep in mind we came from Southern California where we were used to a high cost of living so our monthly RV payment is teeny tiny compared to our house payment. That said, it would be ideal to have zero debt before you hit the road if you can do it!

Anyway back to the RV. Of all the RVs we looked at the Heartland Gateway 3650 BH had more features we wanted than any other RV, including a bathtub! In fact, the one thing it had we didn’t want was an outdoor kitchen. (At this time the outdoor kitchen is not an option on the Gateway 3650.)  The big concern we had was the Gateway is a brand new model so there weren’t any used ones on the market. Used was our first choice but after lots of thinking we decided to get what we really wanted since it is our home. You can read more about how we finally made our decision to buy it from Dixie RV and see the photo tour here. Or for those of you who prefer video I finally had the time to put a little video tour together. Enjoy!

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

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Like food and fitness? Follow along as I film a workout in every state and explore finding a healthy balance on the road at Girl Heroes!

Dixie-RV-SuperStores

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Our New RV – The Heartland Gateway 3650 BH

After much, literally months of deliberation, and over 8 weeks of living out of bags after selling our old RV, we decided to purchase a brand new fifth wheel. This…

After much, literally months of deliberation, and over 8 weeks of living out of bags after selling our old RV, we decided to purchase a brand new fifth wheel. This is the first time we have ever made a large brand-new purchase. For the last fourteen and a half years of our marriage we’ve always bought used cars and fixer-upper houses. To give you an idea on how hard this decision was for us, it took me over 6 months of research to buy a nice blender and three days of putting it in my online shopping cart only to delete it before I finally hit “check out”.

So why did we decide to go with a new fifth wheel? Two reasons, floor plan and Dixie RV Superstores. We first saw the Heartland Gateway 3650BH in Texas and, despite the hotel-like appearance of the interior, we immediately we fell in love with the floor plan. At the time we still had our old RV and thought there was no way we could buy a new RV so we kept looking at used ones. The Gateway is a new line from Heartland so there weren’t any used ones available. We found a used Cedar Creek Silverback we liked not loved in Michigan but the weather was not cooperating to go pick it up.

A few weeks later while waiting for a break in the nasty weather, we went to the Indianapolis RV show and saw the Heartland Gateway 3650BH again. We walked in and every one of us knew it was a perfect floor plan for our family. We sat in it for about 30 minutes imagining what it would be like to live in it. It had EVERYTHING we wanted: a full size refrigerator,  tons of kitchen counter space, a gas stove and oven, a pantry, a huge bunk room with two slides, a booth dinette (we didn’t want a table and chairs), washer and dryer hook ups (which we decided to use as a place for Brent’s office), a second half bath, and a bathtub in the full bath.  It’s so cute to watch babies play in the tub!

The next morning I got up early and started contacting RV dealerships. I made a few offers and Dixie RV got back to me. Dixie RV was awesome. Not only are the prices on their rigs great, the customer service is phenomenal. (We are going to write a post with video detailing the entire process of buying a new RV from Dixie soon so stayed tuned.)

Anyway, as you may know the weather in the midwest was horrendous so it took us almost two weeks before we could get down to Dixie RV to pick up our new rig. In the meantime, I needed to see my doctor so it was more cost effective for Thing Two and I to fly down to Florida than for us all to drive all the way down and then back up to Dixie in Louisiana. Plus it gave us some special one on one time with the boys. Our family was apart for 10 days which was really hard but eventually we reunited late one night in Pensacola during that crazy ice storm. The next morning we drove to Dixie to pick up our new RV.

Dixie RV Heartland Gateway 3650BH

The Kitchen and Living Room

Residential Fridge Fifth Wheel Heartland Gateway 3650bh

The full size fridge is the most exciting part! It means no more playing tetris after going to the grocery!

Fifthwheel 5 slide Kitchen

Lots of counter space is going to make preparing meals much more enjoyable.

Heartland Gateway 5 slide living room

It’s hard to tell in the picture but there is a lot of open floor space in front of the couches. If we wanted we could comfortably fit a coffee table. Many of the fifth wheels we looked at had an island but then the floor space in the living room felt cramped.

Fifth Wheel Living Room Gateway 3650bh

The Master Bedroom

King Bed Option Fifth Wheel Heartland Gateway

Meow Cow thinks the “king bed” means it was made for him. (He’s on the top right pillow.) Fifth Wheel King Bed Heartland Gateway 3650BH

The washer and dryer hookups are behind the louvered doors. We orginally thought we would install a washer/dryer combo but decided it would be more space effective to use it as Brent’s office.Heartland Gateway Dixie RV

The Full Bathroom

Heartland Gateway 3650BH Full Bathroom

Fifth Wheel Bathtub

Again it’s hard to tell but the bathtub is actually quite large.

The Bunk Room and Half Bath

Fifth Wheel Bunkhouse 5 slide

Fifth Wheel Bunkhouse house five slide Gateway 3650bh

There is a ton of space in the middle of the bunkhouse.

Heartland Gateway 3650BH Half Bath

The half bath taken from the outside door.

As far as renovations and decorating goes, we aren’t sure what we are going to do yet. While we had a blast painting and reupholstering everything in our old rig, we just don’t feel comfortable sanding and painting brand new cabinets or tearing off perfectly good fabric. To be honest, we don’t have the time for a full renovation anyway with the baby on the way. Another reason we decided to go with a new rig. We do know we’ll make new curtains and get a new bedspread. Gold is not our thing. We also have to come up with a solution for the leather couches and headboard because Meow Cow will turn them all into his own personal scratching posts and getting him declawed is not an option. So we may swap out the reclining couch and recover the lounge and headboard with fabric that could easily be removed by a new owner if we decide to sell the rig in the future. Lastly, we are going to build desks spaces for the boys in the bunk room and add another storage cabinet.

So that’s the new RV, a Heartland Gateway 3650BH. We filmed a tour for those of you who prefer video over pictures but haven’t had time to edit it. We’ll  get that posted next week.

Love and Laughter,
Jenn

If you enjoyed this post you can follow one of three ways! 1. Sign up to have posts emailed to your inbox. 2. Subscribe to the RSS Feed or 3. “like” Newschool Nomads on Facebook  Simple dimple!

Like food and fitness? Follow along as I film a workout in every state and explore finding a healthy balance on the road at Girl Heroes!

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