How Much Power Do Van Lights Use? Six LEDs, 13 Watts Measured
Six dimmable 12V LEDs measured in our own van: 13W on full, under 5W dimmed low. The numbers, and why the dimmer matters more than …
Archive
Every post, all 42 of them
Sorted newest first. Eight years of van life, no fluff.
42
posts
320
minutes of reading
Sep 2026
most recent
Ram ProMaster Reliability by Model Year: What Changed
I have owned one model year, not twelve. Here is what changed between them, the one boundary that matters, and why I will not hand …
ProMaster in Snow: What Front-Wheel Drive Costs You
Front-wheel drive is the ProMaster's real limitation, and it is not the one people expect. What it handled, what it did not, and …
ProMaster Engine Failure at 98,000 Miles: The Pentastar Tick
A clicking noise that got louder, a warranty about to expire, and a video scope down our 2017 ProMaster's engine. What the rollers …
Is an Extended Warranty Worth It on a Van? Ours Returned Double
We paid about $2,300 for a 100,000-mile policy on our ProMaster. It came back roughly double when the engine went. Here is the …
Where Everything Lives in Our Van After Eight Years
A walkthrough of where everything lives in our ProMaster after eight years, including the one spot we built, used for a few …
Clothes for Two People in One Van
What two people keep in a van after eight years, where it all lives, and the clothes we stopped carrying because they never earned …
The Van Roof Math: More Solar Means One Less Fan
Panels barely got denser in eight years, so more solar means more panels. On a van roof those panels compete with your vent fans. …
Why We Carry a Backup Power Station (Not More Batteries)
When our main power station melted on the road, extra batteries wouldn't have saved us. A second unit did. Why redundancy beats …
Our BLUETTI Melted on the Road. Here's Exactly How the Warranty Went.
The input cord on our BLUETTI Elite 200 V2 melted while driving. What failed, why I think it happened, and how the warranty claim …
Why I Never Used a Generator in 8 Years of Van Life
Eight years full-time in a van, no gas generator. How we get through bad weeks, and what I'd recommend if you're ready to ditch …
Black Van, Extreme Heat: Dry and Humid Are Different Power Problems
The heat that wrecks your battery isn't the hottest heat. It's the heat that arrives with no sun. Dry desert vs. humid Gulf coast, …
We Almost Went Off a Cliff: Van Life's Hidden Risk
Icy hill, hidden slope, no traction. We stopped just in time. What happened, what we learned, and what we do differently in the …
The Alternator Charger That Changed How We Power Our Van
Seven years on solar alone. The alternator charger we added in 2025 changed our recovery math in winter and cloudy stretches. …
The Van Life Upgrade We Thought Was Overpriced
We put off buying a cell signal booster for a year or two thinking it was a luxury. Eight years in, it's one of the best purchases …
The Power Upgrade That Changed How We Cook
Going from a Goal Zero Yeti 1400 to a Bluetti Elite 200V2 meant more than extra watt-hours. It put appliances on the menu the Yeti …
Staying Cool in a Van Without AC
Managing summer heat in a van with no rooftop AC: roof fans, window covers, parking strategy, evaporative cooling, and lifestyle …
Which Power Stations Can Expand Later?
Which van power stations actually expand (Apex 300, DELTA 3 Ultra Plus), which are fixed (Elite 300, Elite 200 V2), and when a …
Solar Input Explained for Portable Power Stations
What a solar input rating delivers on a van roof. Panel matching, the flat-mount tax, and our harvest numbers from eight years on …
How Many Watt-Hours Do I Need in a Van?
Sizing your van's portable power station around real daily loads: fridge, fans, work laptop, and the reserve you need for cloudy …
Cold Weather Killed My Power Station Charging
The Yeti 1400 wouldn't charge below freezing. Solar, wall, nothing. What actually happens to power stations in the cold, and what …
Alternator Charging for Portable Power Stations
Alternator charging strategy for portable power stations: speed limits, when it beats solar, and why recharge speed beats raw …
When Our Power Station Died in the Mountains: What We Did
The Goal Zero battery crash hit us deep in the mountains with no replacement option. What survival-mode power management actually …
Eight Years on 300W of Solar: What I'd Change
300W worked most of the time. A Florida summer and a Colorado winter showed the gap. Why more panels was never the answer on a van …
12V Upright vs Chest Fridge: Eight Years On the Chest, I'd Switch
Jesse picked the chest fridge on the spec sheet. I'm the one who opens it every day in our van, and after eight years I'd buy an …
Why Your Power Station Battery Percentage Lies
Our station read 40% and died at 3am. It happened on both units. Here's the arithmetic that proves the number is lying, and the …
Ventilation Mistakes New Van Lifers Make
Airflow mistakes that cause condensation and bad sleep in a van, what two fans running opposite directions fix, and why chasing a …
Van Life Power, 2018 vs Now: More Choice Made Buying Harder
In 2018 the portable power market was simple: good products or bad, not much between. Here's how much has changed, and why that …
How Much Power a Van Fridge Really Uses (8-Year Data)
Real measured power draw from a Dometic CFX65DZ running 24/7 across climates: Florida summer, Colorado winter, and everything in …
Seven Years on the Yeti 1400: Why We Switched
Seven years on a Yeti 1400. What finally pushed us to the Bluetti Elite 200 V2, and what we'd tell anyone making the same decision …
The Truth About MaxxAir Fans After 8 Years
Eight years and four MaxxAir fans in one ProMaster: why the 4500 is the one to buy first for most vans, the two different squeaks, …
How Many Miles Does a Ram ProMaster Last? Ours Is at 130,000
Our 2017 ProMaster 2500 reads 130,000 miles after eight years full-time. The lifters failed at 98,000. Every repair, what it cost, …
Stop Obsessing Over Watt-Hours: What Actually Matters
Everyone looks at storage capacity. Almost nobody checks input wattage. After eight years of full-time van life, here's why that's …
Power Station Charging Speed Explained
The last 20% of a charge takes twice as long as the arithmetic predicts. Why every brand quotes 0-80%, and the three specs that …
Why I Chose Portable Power Over a Fixed Battery System
Eight years full-time in a van with a portable power station. Three situations where a hardwired system would have left me stuck.
How Much Solar Do You Need in a Van?
Our 300W array has never once made 300W. Sizing van solar off real harvest instead of the number printed on the panel, and why the …
Budget Van Electrical: Simple vs DIY (Most People End Up Hybrid)
Plug-and-play power station vs full DIY electrical for a van build: cost, complexity, headroom, and how to choose without …
What I Wish I'd Known Before My First Power Station
Eight years of full-time van life condensed into the three things that matter most when buying your first portable power station.
Van Build Mistakes After 8 Years on the Road
Eight years of full-time van life reveals the build decisions that cause long-term problems, and the ones that were worth every …
Remote Work From Your Van: Inexpensive Setup
An affordable van remote-work station: hotspot routing, dual-carrier failover, power sizing with the fridge counted, and the …
Van Conversion Tools: Why I Bought the Cheap Drill
Six years in construction before we built our van out, and I still bought Ryobi. The rule that decides it, and the one tool on …
Solar Power for Van Life Beginners
Beginner solar for budget van lifers: panel sizing, MPPT vs PWM, what starter kits get wrong, and the upgrade path that doesn't …