Must Haves
Solar fridge
Induction cooktop
Water kettle
Three Must Haves For Van Camping
I absolutely love to go van camping off-grid. It is my favorite way to see the great United States of America. The four of us (and Stella too) pile into our built out Sprinter Van and hit the open road. This if course does not go without a little planning ahead. Besides all of our personal stuff we take with us, like clothes, pillows, toiletries, etc, there are a few essentials. To me, these are the 3 things that make traveling in our van feel more like home.
The solar fridge
The first, absolute MOST important thing is our Solar Fridge. Having cold drinks, eggs and cheese is such an amazing comfort. I’m smiling right now just at the thought of having what I need in the fridge to make a nice meal for my family while enjoying the most beautiful scenery our country has to offer. We use an Engle chest refrigerator/freezer. It runs solely off of our Go Power solar system.
Induction cooktop
The second item is our induction cooktop. I use this almost every single day while we are camping. My family enjoys having a nice hot meal so we do a lot of cooking. This kind of goes hand in hand with having the fridge. The induction cooktop using a lot of power. Anything that needs to use a heating element will pull a large amount of electricity. We don’t usually have any issue with running out of battery power as our solar system is quite balanced, but there has been a time or two when we had to find a spot in the sun to recharge our system. It’s important to plan for those not so sunny days.
The last must have on my list is the water kettle. I know you are probably thinking “why does she need a kettle when she can just boil water on the stovetop?” The reason I like the kettle is because it is easier to pour in my
Bodum pour over coffee maker. I’m a simple person and I like easy things. To me, the day doesn’t start until I have my nice hot cup (or two) of coffee.
Electric water kettle
Having a properly sized solar system and battery bank has really made life of the road awesome. I never think about our solar panels. Once we installed all of the electronics that power our off grid set up, we never had to mess with it again. It truly is a worry free system and having a worry free system makes for a stress free vacation.