XXVII. Travel Trailer
When I got my travel trailer, I was working away from home. My career involves travel and work. I started this career while staying with my grandma right before COVID hit in November of 2019. I was scared staying in my camper and it was right in the yard lol! I was scared heating it and cooling it. I’ve always had to do everything myself, for myself, and every time I’d be scared, but every single time no matter the fears, I would get it done. So when the work duties transitioned, we, me and my cat, returned home and to my travel trailer. It was November.
The Power
I started off with one power bank, my iGen; it was about 200-Watts. It lasted through the Fall season. It took forever to charge up so it could be used. During the Winter, it put me down, wouldn’t charge up again. I had that one for a long while but had never used it until the travel trailer. I always felt it got moisture in it somehow. I bought two more power banks, the BLUETTI and an Eco Flow during the Fall season. The Eco Flow is an excellent power bank. It’ll be on its last leg (in the 30 percentile) and will hold a good charge. After I bought these, I thought about boondocking somewhere and bought a 2000-Watt Dual Fuel Champion Inverter Generator. This generator can save your life during the Summer season. I also bought a 2000-Watt Eco Flow Delta Max. This one was great for other things like running an electric fan and keeping the laptops running. Everything is experience when buying for your space. There are so many people making videos and giving opinions on things and you have no idea who is sponsored or if they’re paid to lie. I bought the BLUETTI and Eco Flow based on opinions, and the Eco Flow turned out to be the better choice, which is why I upgraded to the Delta Max. The Champion was bought because of a GREAT review by a gentleman that was actively using the Honda generator and the Champion generator to see how much they could run in his camper. He plugged his travel trailer into the Honda first and then he tested the Champion. The Honda was the best choice, it ran the most things while they were turned up high and running at the same time, but the Champion was not so expensive and I had a good feeling about it. That was the best honest review I’ve ever seen on YouTube and I wish there were more. The Champion can power and run all appliances in a travel trailer. The Honda is the best choice.
The Seasons
The first thing I learned was mold is so quick to grow no matter the season. The camper must always stay vented and the vent fan is a blessing, use it and do not close your cabinets all the way, they need air up there too. And your seats need air, so make sure to keep the windows open a little if you have a kitchen area. In November, I was going into the Fall and Winter seasons. These are great seasons. You can do a lot of walking and lifting and carrying during these seasons. During these seasons, I didn’t realize how much I walked and went to and fro. I did no real homework regarding living without direct access to certain things like my own refrigerator and an oven. The first thing I did, was take my propane tanks off the camper. There would be no mystery pilot light (flame) burning under me where I cannot see it. I’m glad I did that. Then I had to deal with manually heating the place with propane. It was my first time dealing with propane and my Mr. Heater. The Mr. Heater gets the job done but you can’t be clumsy with it, it is way too hot for that. The BTUs are through the roof. The propane canisters, some of them, don’t reseal after use. When the canister was put outside after use, I noticed the can had less propane in it. I wouldn’t dare run those BTUs while sleeping even if it didn’t. What I did do was endure some cold mornings until I found a unique portable fireplace and heater. When I first saw it, there were no useful reviews on it. But, I felt I could use it for its steel framing and the heat that would come from the vents if not for anything else although it came with a very good thermal fan. The heater is called Vesta Heater. It turned out to be one of my greatest investments for providing safe heat, including heating water and food. I needed plenty of Canned Heat, which when starting out costs a lot because there are so many and you have to figure out which one is good and which one is not good by experience. Gas One is great, you can use that during the day and while you sleep, but you must vent, open a window. You must vent with all Canned Heat products. Canned Heat, the brand that comes with the Vesta Heater, is great too, and it can be used at night while you sleep. Sterno’s are excellent, however, you cannot use the Sterno Ethanol Gels while you sleep. The Sterno Gels burn hard, have strong burn smells, and pops which causes a mess. The Mr. Heater is a great heater but I prefer the Vesta Heater, as it is safer and easier to handle than the propane. I put it up on my counter over the sink and it’s easily moved without me catching on fire.
The Vesta Heater can produce some very high BTUs. I’ve used two cans of Sterno Wick Canned Heat, and one Sterno Gel (Ethanol) Canned Heat. I didn’t, nor would I ever, put the Sterno Gel to the back of the Vesta Heater under the fan because it pops and could possibly cause a mess to the fan. Two cans of the Sterno (liquid) Wick at the back and one can of Sterno (Ethanol) Gel at the front, and the heat is about as tough as the BTUs from the Mr. Heater. It would warm up in the camper in no time. The Vesta Heater kept the entire travel trailer, which is 19FT long, at 70 degrees all night and morning when it was 17 degrees outside. I used three cans of the Canned Heat and it kept it a comfortable seventy degrees in there. The Canned Heat that comes with the Vesta Heater goes for about seven hours and thirty minutes. And yes, the windows were vented. At that time I didn’t realize I could just vent one of the large ones. Also, I used Butane, and a Butane stove, throughout the Fall, Winter, and Spring seasons. That keeps it nice and warm inside along with the Vesta. The Fall and Winter seasons are easily handled. The Spring Season was just amazing and wonderful weather every single day here in Eastern NC. Rarely did I have to run the Mr. Heater; it’s a very strong back-up for extreme cold. In the South East, it is the coldest in the mornings at six and 7am. Fall and Spring are perfect. The extreme season, Winter, is very much manageable. With the Vesta Heater, you can easily make your space comfortable all day and all night.
HOWEVER,
In late May, the second extreme season came which was the dreaded, the awful, the succubus; Summer. I DO NOT recommend trying to stay in a travel trailer (boondock style) during the Summer. During this time, one should stay somewhere inside where there’s an air conditioner, or somewhere that gives you access to a utility hook-up to plug up your camper. If you boondock in the travel trailer, the only clothes you need to wear are things you can consistently sweat in. And your bathroom will become a wet bath whether it’s wood or not, so wrap your mind around that. The mid to low 80s aren’t bad. That’s pretty easy to deal with granted you have a machine that can run a fairly large fan hence the Delta Max and you remember to use your camper vent fans and the awning if you have one. The nineties are bad, meaning too hot for no air conditioner. The low 90s are still bad. The upper nineties will cause you to sleep badly even with small fans. And to cook in there will make it even worse. You’ll need your vents and have to monitor your battery, which the sun’s heat is killing. The sun’s heat is killing your powerbanks too. I never had to charge up so much during the Winter, Fall, and Spring. My windows slant open; they don’t open all the way up. I have one vent fan and it’s in the bathroom. It’s a good vent, it will pull all the heat out of there, so will the one over the stove, again if your battery hooked to the camper will stay alive long enough. When it got to, or was about to get to 90 degrees, I used the 2000-Watt Dual Fuel Champion Inverter Generator. Those propane tanks I took off still had propane in them. I just hooked them up to it, pulled the cord just like you would a lawnmower, the generator comes on, make sure the blue light on your camper’s power cord is the only one on (mines are blue) and plug it up. The Champion can power and run all appliances in a travel trailer. I used mine for the air conditioner. I did not run large devices with the air conditioner, but you can run the air conditioner with the Champion and charge things like a laptop. A generator inverter will save your life. The Champion is sweet because as long as you have propane and oil in it, it will run things. The air conditioner was run on low cool and that for my camper was 1010 watts. The cord running to connect the Champion to the trailer is a 30 Amp conversion adapter cord and will carry up to 1875 Watts. A 15 gallon tank of propane will run the air conditioner on low cool for about 12 hours at 1010 watts. My 17.5-gallon propane tanks that came with the trailer will run the air conditioner on low cool for about 16 hours at 1010 watts. One could use gas, but I only used propane. And the tanks are re-usable of course, a Tractor Supply store will refill them for you and it cost about $23.00 dollars for the both of them. Make sure to keep a cover for your generator in case it rains. Fortunately for us, whenever it rains in Eastern NC it cools down. And also, have that cover out for the spontaneous rain that pops out on a bright sunny cloudless day. The awning on a travel trailer helps keep the trailer cool. I tried cooking outside. The upside to having trees around is that even if it’s hot it’s still breezy and there’s no smothering heat. The bad side to having trees around is the bugs when you try to cook outside, and the wind is forever blowing your fire down and out. There were days of 90 degrees back to back in July. In June, there were some 90-degree days. Late May of course kicked off the heat. August and September, low to mid 80s, with the last week of August in the mid 80s, otherwise hardly any extreme temperatures. My cat cruised through Summer; she loved it. When it was 97 degrees outside she would run out and stay out in that heat. She refused to stay in the air conditioning. I bought three little fans called Viniper off Amazon. These are great little fans for sleeping under at night. They are cordless and had to be charged during the day to run all night into morning. They are cool and they made it quite cold some nights. I cooled this space down as the sun went down when the temperature dropped and slept with no covers most nights during the summer.
Overall, you can boondock comfortably and peacefully through the Fall, Winter, and Spring. You can get everything you need to do that safely and comfortably. However, if you want to sweat out underwear, shirts, tees, clothes until they’re rags, try boondocking during the Summer. You might as well walk around half-naked like you’re in a Sauna in a travel trailer when you’re boondocking in the Summer. You’re getting up and doing your hair. For what? In the Summer it’s coming down, it’s coming loose, and it’s frizzing out while drying up. Make sure you wear tattered old clothes because the sweat of your body with the heat that comes every five steps you take to go use the bathroom or do anything else is going to tear your clothes to pieces. Make sure you drink water with ice and hydrate your body before the day begins due to losing water to sweat. Summer is a no-no, no-go, abomination, assault upon you, a betrayal, an instigation of pure anger, a lie that caused a stab wound in your back, and a poison you just inhaled or drank, if you stay in your camper without a dedicated utility to hook-up to. Period.
That’s my experience. I love my travel trailer. It’s fun to have for its benefits and all the adventures it leads to. Hope this helps anyone who reads this.