Hi! I haven't ever posted here before. In fact, this is my first time ever reading this forum. I am glad that I found it though!
I am glad that I stumbled across this thread, because this is the very same thing that I am in the process of doing this right now. I just got my 1979 33' Foretravel in May, and I have only been remodeling her for 2 weeks now. I am preparing her to be lived in full-time off the grid in a stationary location. I am not going to use her as a "motorhome." I am going to use her as a "micro-mobile home," one that I can move by myself without having to hire a trucking company to do it for me. I am keeping a blog as a journal of my progress. It is at
www.1979Foretravel.blogspot.com. You can see the before pictures of her there.
I am happy that we are doing the very same thing. Perhaps we can bounce ideas off of each other through this thread? There is A LOT that I am still working out in my head!
Here are some of the things that I am using or have planned:
1) Insulation - Practically impossible to retrofit anything in that will be measured in an R-value. Big Bertha (the RV) is buit of square steel pipe with rigid foam board tightly placed in between the steel framing members. Talk about a heat bridge! I like the silver reflective sheets with or without the bubbles, but that isn?t practical unless you are going to pull all of your paneling down or remove the siding outside.
I am using a product that you add to paint. Here is the product:
http://www.hytechsales.com/insulating_paint_additives.html . I have talked to several people who have used this over the past few years, and they are all happy with it. I don?t believe I will ever be able to quantify the effectiveness of it, however. I am adding this too all of my interior paint, except walls that aren?t on the exterior of the RV (bathroom and closet.) I am also coating the roof with a white acrylic elastomeric coating, and I am adding the ceramics to this as well.
I am going to seal up all openings under the RV wherever they may be with spray foam, and I am planning on attaching skirting of rigid insulation panels around the exterior perimeter of the body during the winter.
2) Storm Windows ? I am going to have sheets of Plexiglas cut that will match the RV windows. Using the kind of clips that hold mirrors on the wall and adhesive foam weather stripping, I am going to cover the windows on the interior and create a mostly airtight window covering.
3) Urine diverting composting toilet. I am purchasing this (
http://www.separett.eu/default.asp?id=2473&ptid=2052) from Ecovita.com . The urine diverting apparatus will flow the urine to the holding tank, to be used as fertilizer and the feces will be composted for two years before being returned to the earth as compost. I am going to build a box with an access door in the front of it to remove the bucket as needed. Overall cost for the project will be about $200-250, with the Privy 501 being the largest portion of the expense.
4) Solar Power, still unsure of size of system needed.
5) ?Passive solar heating? ? This one is easy. Open all of the curtains during the day, especially the ones across the windshield. Any vehicle will get relatively warm inside during the winter on a sunny day. There are awnings on almost all of the windows, so this can be easily kept from happening during the summer. Also, I am going to use Reflectix to make a custom sunshade for the front window, and I might just permanently close the rear window off since it doesn?t open anyway.
6) Wood Stove for heating ? This one is a little more difficult. It is a very risky thing to do, and I have full respect for the potential of disaster that doing this can present. I do not want to cause nearby combustion of wood, nor do I want to cause the gasoline to get warm enough to self-combust. However, I also think that it can be safely done. Regarding the danger of fire if there is a fuel leak somewhere, I feel that a much larger risk of ignition is caused by using a spark to light the gas stove.
I am going to install an extremely small marine stove, taking every precaution listed in the manual except for the first one which says not to install in a ?boat? that is gasoline operated. Here is the manual:
http://www.marinestove.com/manual.htm. Here is the stove that I am going to install.
http://www.marinestove.com/sardineinfo.htm
7) Rainwater collection ? I want to devise a plan to use PVC pipe cut in half lengthwise. I will probably have to end up putting a few holes in her fiberglass shell, but I certainly want to minimize how many.
I am very intrigued by the idea of a wind turbine. I found this article about building your own that I thought was pretty interesting:
http://www.rvtravel.com/blog/lowtech/2007/09/inexpensive-do-it-yourself-wind-turbine.html
I appreciate all input regarding my thoughts, and I am looking forward to getting other ideas as well. Good luck!
Jen
