Fresh Gray and Black Capacity

Newbie's Corner
1

Introduce Yourself…

Greetings,

We are definitely not new to living on the road, but we are new to vans. We spent 13 years living in a very small Class A motorhome. We spent a lot of time boondocking without any hookups. We had a 60 gallon fresh tank and both gray and black tanks were 40 gallon. We also had solar and a generator for backup. With this setup, we could spend about 10 days without any refilling or dumping. We sold this rig a couple of years ago and bought a small condo.

We really miss the nomad lifestyle but, for personal reasons, cannot go full time again. We are looking for a van for extended trips. We want something rugged since there were places that we could not get in the motorhome. One of the things that I have been disappointed in when looking at potential vans is the water capacity. It seems to be in the 20 gallon fresh range. With that, we would only go about 3 or 4 days without refill. So, what do people do if you want to be out for an extended period? Do you take extra jugs of water? How about the gray and black?

Also would appreciate any ideas on vans to look at. We looked at the Winnebago Revil and was not impressed. Thanks for any thoughts.

Jim

2

Greetings & Welcome!

By your description, what I helped a friend build sounds almost perfect for you. We went with a van front small skoolie with dualies. Solid steel body with lots of opening windows. His has automatic chains, and if you get one from the snow belt, you might even be able to get a 4x4 (6x6?).

Under his dinette bench seats we put in a 60 gallon fresh water tank, and a 60 gallon combined grey/black tank. He skipped solar and opted for a black box instead, and has been extremely happy with his almost unlimited power with no sunshine required. For the $150 he paid for it, it’s a pretty neat gadget, and has been supplying his power for 2+ years now. He says he has never needed his generator since ditching solar. It gives him a constant 50 amps @ 12v when running, and is nearly silent. I have been contemplating buying or building one for myself. It’s basically self contained micro-hydro power.

Cheers!

"Smiles are contagious, pass them on!" ~ Van_Dweller