Meet HaarV our RV
Our last name is Haar (rhymes with car). So it was dubbed by a friend that we should name our rv, HaarV.
Transitioning into an RV is defiantly a lifestyle change compared to a home or an apartment. We have many of the same amenities of a regular sticks and bricks house but understanding the systems is important before heading out on your first trip.
In this blog, we will go over the following:
Electric
Plumbing
Internet
Motorhome Engine
Electric
How do you power things?
Electrical Specs
50 amp shore plug
Onan 7500 Diesel Generator
Ecoflow Delta Pro
House Batteries: 2-100 Amp hour LiFePo4 batteries (200 amp/hr total)
200 Watts of portable solar panels
Freedom 458: 2000 Watt Inverter/Charger
In an RV you have 2 different types of power. AC (120 Volt) and DC (12 Volt).
This stands for Alternating Current and Direct Current.
AC Power
In a regular home you have electrical outlets that you plug your appliances into. That provides AC power. We have this option in our RV but we just have to generate this or hook up to it.
It powers our residential refrigerator, charges laptops, coffee maker, toaster, microwave...etc
3 AC Options
Shore power:
When at a campground we hook our RV electrical cord to the campground utilities. This is called hooking to "shore power" and you have 15, 20, 30 or 50 amp options.
Generator
Onan 7500 Diesel Generator. This thing is very quiet, and the fuel comes from the same tank as the motorhome, so no need to store and haul around messy fuel cans.
Battery Bank plus Inverter
Store it and invert it.
We have a portable power station (Ecoflow Delta Pro). This provides our AC power for appliances when we are not hooked up to shore power or not running the generator.
It stores power in batteries and inverts it from battery DC power to AC power. We have the added bonus with the Ecoflow to hook up solar panels which provides free silent energy.
DC Power
House Batteries
This is a battery bank separate from the ecoflow that is used for all of our 12 volt equipment. It is the same type of power you get from a cigarette lighter plug. This system powers things like our lights, water pump, furnace igniter, vent fans, peplink router (internet). When the batteries become drained, we recharge them with the generator or shore power.
Plumbing
Where does it go?
Plumbing Specs (click to expand)
We are "self contained". Which means we carry all fresh water and waste water with us until we dump at a dump station or campground.
Fresh water is our drinking, shower and sink water.
Grey water is the waste water that comes from sinks and the shower.
Black water is the storage tank for anything that goes down the toilet.
Appliances, Heat and AC
Equipment Spec (Click to expand)
A great feature about this RV is the redundancy in functional appliances. If we are hooked up at a campground we can use the heat pump for heat and electric water heater. If we are not hooked up to electric it is cheaper to use the propane furnaces and propane option on the water heater rather than starting the generator. The other great benefit is if something breaks, you have a backup and you don't need to rush to a repair shop to fix it. It gives you time to diagnose and troubleshoot the issue without diverting your travel plans. Being that we are full timers, we do our best to only go to a repair shop if necessary.
Internet
How do we get internet?
Cost | Data | Affiliate Link | |
Starlink | $150 per month | Unlimited (We get 40-110 mbps) | |
Visible | $25 per month | Unlimited Hotspot capped at 5 mbps. | |
Mint Mobile | $360 per year | Jon's Phone, 10 GB hotspot per month | |
Verizon | $90 per month | Carolyn's Phone, 50 GB hotspot per month | |
Campground Wifi | Free | Typically unlimited but not reliable and slow. It varies between campgrounds. | |
Why do we have all those options?
The answer is redundancy and data limits. Since we work remotely, we need to make sure we have internet wherever we are. Some places don't have cell phone service. That is where starlink thrives. Some places we stay have obstacles like trees or buildings that block the starlink satellite. That is where cellular is helpful. There are also data limits on the different ISP's . If you reach that data limit your internet stops or really slows down.
Peplink MAX Transit Duo Pro Mobile Router
Firstly what is a peplink router and why did we get it?
A peplink router can bond multiple internet sources, that way if one fails it automatically switches between them to keep us connected.
We have cell phones, computers, smart tv's and wifi equipment that all connects to the internet. With the peplink, we just connect to its wifi and if we have to change between campground wifi and cellular when we travel and change spots, we don't have to change the wifi on the individual devices. Also it becomes really helpful if starlink is partially obstructed. If just surfing the internet, you won't really notice an issue but if Carolyn is on a video call, starlink could cut out for a couple seconds and the video feed stops. Terrible if you're in the middle of a presentation. We have it set up that peplink will use starlink as the main internet source and if it drops, cellular will fill in the gaps in service. This also helps reduce our data usage on cellular so we can save it when we need it.
-Tip: Some campgrounds only give you a wifi code that is good for 1 connected device. We connect our pepwave device which then gives all our devices wifi connection.
Motorhome Engine
Chassis Specs (Click to expand)
Being that we live full time in the RV, we opted for a diesel rather than gas. Why?
They have more torque. We have a lot of stuff and tow our jeep. The torque is what is needed to push all that weight up a hill.
We can fuel up at truck stops. This is a big one because it is easy to maneuver around the pumps at a truck stop versus a regular gas station. The pump nozzle is also bigger at truck stops which allows faster refueling. We use a fuel program with Openroads. This gives us fuel discounts and access to these truck stops with a fuel card. If you sign up, we would love it if you would write " Jonathan Haar" in the referral section so that we could get a credit. Click here to learn more.
Can you guess what our MPG is?
15-18
10-12
6-7
3-4
Hey there! Thanks for checking out our blog post. We'd love to know what you thought about it so we can keep improving. Leave a comment below to share your thoughts?
Want to know more about a specific topic discussed?
Commentaires