Our Big Upgrade for Year 3!

Our new rooftop solar allows us to maximize our times in places like this!

600 watts of rooftop solar, 1000 watt charge controller inverter combo, Victron shunt, and the Queen is more like a home for year 3!

We finally did it!  Broke down and bit the proverbial bullet.  After two years of full timing, it was time to make our Airstream function more like a house than a camper.

The days of living on a combination of a 200-watt portable solar panel and 2 – AGM batteries, supplemented by our generator and an occasional full hook up campground were going to be distant memories.  No more worrying about physically moving the solar panels throughout the day to make sure we were in the right position for the sun. No more wondering if our solar panels would still be there when we returned from adventuring or if maybe a strong Arizona wind had sent them flying!

Our poor solar panels did us great for 2 years.

A strong Arizona wind was the cause of this damage, at Skooliepalooza, 2023

It was time to upgrade to rooftop solar allowing us more flexibility in our travels. Rewind back to Quartzsite, Arizona, last January, when we met a friend of a friend, Scott who just happened to own a solar company, Nomad Solar.  During our time in this RV mecca, we heard nothing but great things about the quality of Scott’s work, his attention to detail, and the relationship he had with his customers.  Equally impressive to us was the quality of the conversations we had with him around the evening campfires, and Scott’s genuine interest in learning about the people in his circle.

Adding solar panels to the roof meant drilling more holes that can potentially mean more leaks.  The inverter and charge controller meant adding more wires to the circuit breaker and drilling holes in the floor of the Queen to run the lines.  With so much invested both financially and personally in living full-time in the Queen we needed a professional we could trust to do the job right.  Calling Scott was just the solution we needed!

However, in the world of full-time travelers where everyone is in motion all the time, coordinating the meet up to complete this kind of project can be as difficult as the work itself.  Thankfully, all of us were spending the summer in Wyoming which made the logistics much more digestible and Naked Acres was a perfect retreat to get the job done.

We spent two and a half days installing 3-600 watts rooftop solar panels, 2 lithium-ion batteries, a 1000-watt inverter charge controller, and many gadgets that quite honestly, I have no idea what they do.  It was a fun project to be part of and made me truly appreciate all the science and math involved in determining volts, amps, and watts.  The new power grid for our home will allow us much more flexibility in how we use our systems, and how long we can stay off the grid in some of our favorite remote camping spots.

To our friends who recommended Scott, thank you!  It was a great experience working with him, and if anyone reading this is interested in adding solar to a home, cabin or RV we cannot recommend him highly enough.

Personally, we liked him so much we decided to feature him on next week’s edition of “The On Purpose Podcast” where we dive deeper in Scott’s story and his journey through life!  Be sure to give it listen on your favorite podcast app or watch it on YouTube and just know it’s all being recorded off grid, from the Airstream, and in large part thanks to Scott’s work!

See you down the road!