Lorry living - solar power generation and a few other things...

RachelFerd

RachelFerd

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Hoping a few technically minded people here can help with a few queries! I got a new lorry this year and the living has a bit more to it than my old one. We've got gas powered water heater and have a shower/vanity room as well as a horsewash and kitchen sink. We haven't actually stayed away in it yet, and the first stay away trip is actually to a music festival instead (although will be going three day eventing with it at Bicton in October too).

1/ Any idea how big the water tank on a lorry normally is? How many showers do you reckon we can get out of it?!

2/ Any recommendations for a waste water tank. Need to use this at the music festival - as per usual with a horsebox, ours just has a waste pipe that drops out onto the ground otherwise.

3/ We were thinking about getting a portable solar panel and power station (something like these that we saw at Chatsworth - https://www.leisureoutlet.com/off-grid-living-power/goal-zero/power-station-bundles) as quite often there's no plug in (eg. at music festivals, or when camping at Badminton) so we can charge phones, run hair straighteners etc. Has anyone used any of these portable set ups? are they worth the ££?

Any other tips for van/lorry life to help us make best use of it?
 
Get a solar panel on the lorries roof it will charge the batteries all the time and make staying away much more relaxing .
Near you their will be someone doing this to motor homes just search them out and get it done .
I have a wastemaster tank which has wheels so you pull it off to empty it .It was about £35 .
 
Goldenstar said:
Get a solar panel on the lorries roof it will charge the batteries all the time and make staying away much more relaxing .
Near you their will be someone doing this to motor homes just search them out and get it done .
Click to expand...

We're only looking at portables (as also thinking of using for actual camping without the horsebox)
 
We used to have a Wastemaster on wheels. When camping (holidays, showgrounds and bike racing etc) its actually forbidden to discharge waste water directly from vehicle.

Ref on board tank, if you have no documentation about it, the only way to know how many litres it takes is to fill it, then measure exactly what comes out through waste pipe..... and always drain down thoroughly when event finished to prevent issues with water sitting in pipes etc.
Be aware that each litre is a kilo, we never travelled with water tanks filled, but drove to tap on arrival to fill. Not to save money but to reduce weight in transit.
 
I’ll ask OH size of our water tank when he’s home as we fitted it. We just put a plastic container to catch waste water so like a water carrier and the drain hose goes into it as it feeds both from sink and shower/hand basin. We’ve done 5 days at Aintree off our leisure battery with a solar panel charging it. Don’t have TV or microwave or hairdryer though. No idea how anyone has time to watch TV even with one horse ??. We use a power bank to charge phones.
 
The Fuzzy Furry said:
We used to have a Wastemaster on wheels. When camping (holidays, showgrounds and bike racing etc) its actually forbidden to discharge waste water directly from vehicle.

Ref on board tank, if you have no documentation about it, the only way to know how many litres it takes is to fill it, then measure exactly what comes out through waste pipe..... and always drain down thoroughly when event finished to prevent issues with water sitting in pipes etc.
Be aware that each litre is a kilo, we never travelled with water tanks filled, but drove to tap on arrival to fill. Not to save money but to reduce weight in transit.
Click to expand...
turn the shower on leave running for 10 mins( or your usual shower time) measure the amount and divide the tank capacity by that number for how many showers you can have, allowing enough water for hand washing pot washing coffee tea cordial etc. Are there two tanks one for humans one for horse wash or just one tank
 
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