GRECELL 200W Portable Solar Panel: 6 Months Later

I’VE HAD THE GRECELL 200W PORTABLE SOLAR PANEL for six months. I’ve set it out a lot. It has been beaten up by the wind and gone through many rainstorms. I’ve given it a really fair shot, and it has held up well. It works just as well today as it did when I...

Bluetti Power Stations: AC2A vs. EB3A

BLUETTI RECENTLY RELEASED the AC2A. It is their smallest portable power station to date. I have it alongside the old Bluetti EB3A today and will compare the two. The new AC2A is kind of a little brother to the EB3A. They’re doing a switch from the EB line to the AC...

5 Van Life Items I Can’t Live Without

OVER THE YEARS, PEOPLE HAVE ASKED ME, “Bob, what’s your favorite thing?” They want to know one or five favorite things I have in my vehicle. This is my criteria for all of them: if I lost it today, would I reorder it right away? So, these are five things that I would...

Is an Instant Pot Practical for Van Life?

A lot of people have asked us about cooking with an Instant Pot. Brad is a vandweller and does quite a bit of cooking in the Instant Pot, so I decided to interview him and see what he says. Is it practical? What kind of foods can you cook? What kind of power needs...

SwingAway Hitch and DIY Cargo Carrier

HOW CAN YOU FIT EVERYTHING YOU OWN IN A VAN? Well, often you can’t. Then the next question is, why don’t you get your stuff down far enough so everything goes inside? It’s reasonable to think that most people can do that. Some of us can’t....

Portable Diesel Heater (All-In-One) Unit

STAYING WARM IN THE COLD is hard to do for some people in your car, SUV, or even your van. In my ambulance, it’s much easier because it’s pretty darn well insulated. It stays warm pretty nicely. Of course, the more insulation you have, whatever your vehicle, the...

12-Volt Ovens: RoadPro vs HotLogic

PEOPLE WANT TO use electric cooking. They don’t want propane in their rig because of the smell, safety risks, and so on. So, generally, the answer is no electric cooking. I am running a microwave, and you can, but it’s much more specialized and more expensive. An...

I Tested Portable Pressurized Showers for Van Life

SHOWERING WHILE ON THE ROAD can be a significant expense. Depending on the location, individual showers cost between five and fifteen dollars. I’m testing compressed air pressure shower devices you may want to consider while traveling. If you ever had a water rocket...