Cargo Trailer Conversion TOUR- Ditch the RV parks | AC and Heat with No Hookups

RV, cargo trailer build, van build, or other? What do you guys have or how would you prefer to travel?

I built mine in 2014. Best thing I've ever done. Still going strong. Many trips to Colorado. Kid's love it. Great video guys.

Love your outlook on why you wanted to do this route versus "falling into place". I have and sometimes I consider my home, pool, and 7 acres as a huge anchor! Kudos to you both!

Excellent build. Thanks for taking us along!

Excellent job I built a 30 ‘ trailer and work out of it and love it

03:55 With a factory RecreateVehicle, you get deluxe staples into particle-board. You get impressive decals. You get innovative flexi-steel frames. . And you get to camp in the repair-shop parking-lot while they fiddle with factory-installed warranty 'issues'.

Smart couple, smart design!

Excellent presentation! Love your work!

Sweet build. That 100-gallon water tank is a practical size. We find we go through about 110 gallons in 2 weeks. It sure looks like you maximized your roof space, as did we. If you ever decide you want more, you could always add some to the side like we did. Five years ago, we took an early retirement, sold everything, bought an older MH and hit the road FT. It was the best decision we ever made. We discovered that we enjoy boondocking and it helps stretch our budget too. We quickly learned the advantages of solar and decided to build our solar/battery system in 2 phases, a 12v system for our basic 12v DC needs and a 48v system for our 110v A/C needs. We started our build 4 years ago with a pair of lead acid golf cart batteries and custom built a 620-watt liftable solar array mounted on the side of our motorhome. We lift the array to the optimal angle to improve their output by 20-30% vs flat mounted panels - even more in the winter, when the sun is lower in the sky. It serves as a nice bedroom window awning too, practically lifting itself to the desired angle with a couple gas struts, and it's easy to clean with a windshield squeegee, standing safely on the ground. This set-up, while far from optimal, allowed us to boondock till we could afford to do better. We just finished the 12v part of our build last January, with the addition of a 560ah LiFePo-4 battery that we built with 8, 280ah "A" grade prismatic cells. We use a Heltec 350amp BMS, and a 5a active balancer to keep the cells synched up. We typically use less than 20% of their capacity daily giving us enough reserve capacity for about a week of bad weather before we have to run our generator for charging. It cost us less than $1,500 to build this 560ah 12v (7.1Kwh) battery, including the high amp BMS and balancer. We chose these cells rather than a pre-built battery because they fit perfectly under the steps of our MH where our old pair of GC-2 golf cart batteries used to reside, saving 35lbs too. We insulated the battery compartment, cut a 1" hole in our step risers and installed a tiny computer CPU fan to keep this space at close to room temperature, so we don't have to worry about the BMS shutting down charging if they get too cold - or their life reduced from getting too hot. We use an 80A Progressive Dynamics LFP converter/charger, a 1,000w Renogy PSW inverter (to run our TV, PC, ice maker, etc.), an Epever 50a MPPT charge controller and a Lnex battery monitor/shunt. This entire 12v system cost us under $3,500 to build and takes care of all of our basic off-grid needs except for air conditioning and microwave use. We have been running our 5,500-watt generator for this till we get our second 48v phase completed. By mounting our solar array on the side of our MH, we left the roof free to rack 8, 550W Sungold Power solar panels (4,400 watts) down the length of our 35ft Class A about 15" off our roof, above our AC, fan shrouds, etc. They will cover the entire roof, providing some nice shade with plenty of cooling air underneath, further increasing solar output and reducing the heat load on the air conditioners too. We bought them for $2,226. That's only 51 cents/watt shipped to our door! We're assembling the components of this build now. We bought our aluminum racking material in Yuma, where we're wintering over this year, for under $400, which is the best price we've found. Our solar panels, wiring breakers, etc. arrived last week, but we're taking our time to get everything in and installed over the winter. At 67 yrs old, we're moving much slower these days. Our Sungold Power all-in-one 48V, 5,000W, 120V PSW Inverter/100A charge controller/battery charger just arrived Saturday. Our 48v battery bank will use 16, 320ah grade A prismatic cells which only cost us $1,726 from EEL batteries. So together with our 560ah (7.1 Kwh)12v bank, we will have a total of 23.5 Kwh of batteries onboard - kept charged over 5,000 watts of solar. We will be replacing our 24 yr old rear 13.5k btu rooftop Dometic AC with an EG4 28.5 seer-2 plug and play 12k btu mini-split heat pump. This second phase will provide 24/7 off-grid air conditioning, supplemental heat from the heat pump and allow occasional usage of our rooftop mounted high-efficiency Furrion AC in the front of our MH to cool things down quickly during peak afternoon hours, as well as give us whole house 120v ac power. We'll soon have total off-grid electrical independence on a budget we can afford, reserving our generator for emergency back-up use only. Take care, we hope to see you down the road!

❤i love your build, great job. I have done about the same thing, i used an 1963 airstream, which was by most peoples opinion was just trash, striped it out completly and started with my on design, love it. Thanks for the info on the composit head, never thought about horse beading, goin to be a game changer for me. Happy travels Stan 😊

Very nice i really enjoyed the update Reminds me of( i ride tiny house adventure ) " We are not camping we are living" What a nice couple Keep on doing what you're doing cause what you doing is a good thang we got your back Motorcity love.👍

Great setup! Thanks for sharing

Once you put the first hole in your build, you're ready to put the second hole... This is so very true. I'm now one year into my build. We are out every Sunday, either planning or working but it's coming along very nice. We've done all of our framing Plumbing, electrical,solar panels, 240v split phase and hope to have the trailers spray foamed within the next month. After which will be adding plywood walls and spending some time to smooth and paint them before moving on to cabinets and appliances. We've taken in a lot of information from this Channel and a few others so our trailer was planned and built in 3D/ Rhino before we purchased our fist screw, most of our appliances were purchased and tested in our rough layout. Thanks for all the great information guys

Glad you guys are living your dream. Great build!

I love your lifestyle and videos, so inspiring!

Here from the FB SOK Channel! We are both boondocking from our SOK batteries. Love what you said, "You don't want to just fall into your life". Well said. Thanks for sharing your home.

Awesome trailer build folks, Happy Trails

Nice build. My tip would be to treat the wood underneath the trailer and install insulation and moisture protection.

Great job.

Great Job! Thanks!