Hi all. My name is Jon, new to the forum but not to van dwelling. Most of the last 10 years now apart from a few terrible months in houses! Currently in a 55 Transit 430 lwb Hi top with my 2 dogs. Best van so far as far as kit goes, laptop, apple Mac desk top, TV,Netflix, I player and all that, solar powered aswell as split relay,never run out of powere. Gas fridge,gas cooker and home made wood stove. Only way to live. Hope you all managing through lock down ! Jon
Greetings & Welcome!
Always glad to see new people with experience joining. I’ve been living on wheels since 1973 myself.
Cheers!
Wow! Respect to that. Good to know there are plenty of long termers out there. It’s not always easy to live this way here in the UK but once you know what you are doing it gets easier and alot more enjoyable. Stay away from residential areas, always leave your stopping places cleaner than you found them, rotate your stopping places and even the police will leave you alone is what I have learnt. So lucky at the moment to have permission from the owner of a currently vacant huge holiday let property in the country to park up on the driveway for as long as lock down lasts. 7 acres of garden just for me and my dogs ! If it wasn’t for all the heart brake out there at the moment, I would be happy for this to drag on a bit. J
Ps. I am dying to know more about your swamp cooler systems, any links you could give me so I can find out more and build one for myself would be massively appreciated ! J
Greetings!
The picture below shows generally how my swamp cooler works. Not shown is the 12v fountain pump that sits at the bottom, amd pumps water through the radiator first, then from the radiator a hose runs to the top of the cooler pad and holes in it to soak the cooler pad.
Mine is built into a tall rectangular kitchen garbage can, so that I can place it on the passenger seat, and the outside air in/out vents are near the top so I can leave the passenger window down 3-4 inches. I have a house gutter guard that I cut to fit, and roll my window up to lock it into place. It has a screen in it, so it keeps out bugs, most would be thieves, and most rain.
This design is an “indirect swamp cooler”, and it won’t add any moisture to your indoor air, and it will actually dehumidify your indoor air as the moisture in the air condenses on the radiator and falls into the water reservoir.
I’m using a +/- 3" computer fan on the outside air side, and a 10" O2-Cool fan from walmart (<$20) on the inside air side.
Cheers!
