2014 Great West Vans Legend SE

Thank you Avanti and Davydd.
I currently have an Airstream Interstate, and really the best thing I can say about it is that it looks very cool from the outside and gets lots of compliments. However, I live in the southwest with lots of sun, heat and abundant dry camping opportunities, and I'd rather make use of evolving technology to provide a more independent-living RV. I know Advanced-RV can build what I want and have been in contact with them for a few months now, but a bespoke-built RV is always going to come at a premium price, hence the query about GWVs, and the insulation used.
Incidentally, I've noticed that on trips to Phoenix when the ambient temperature has been in the 110's, if I deploy my OutsideVan sunshades (which are reflecting and insulated) in all cab windows, and open rear windows on the shady side of the RV (usually the sun is one side and not directly overhead), and turn on the roof fan, then I can get the interior temperature down to about 90 which by comparison feels quite comfortable! I mention this to illustrate the fact that you don't need your AC running all the time even in extreme temperatures.

I put these shelves in and they can easily come out if someone wanted to revert it back into a hanging closet. I left the hanging strip in at the top.



The only thing I would hang today would be a winter coat or a sport coat of which I rarely ever carry. I have bought some lightweight puffy jackets that compress and pack away nicely and they can take me down to 0 degrees F. easily. I fold everything now. I've gotten a good routine down. Our new B will have a very small hanging space in our front amoire because we are cutting it down a bit. It will probably hang a couple of coats as I think it will be about 8" wide. Half will be shelves and a steel safe that should be big enough to hold laptop computers.

Several people have expressed interest in the real-life total weight of our Legend. I finally got around to getting it weighed.

The "as weighed" conditions were as follows:
--Fresh tank full
--Gray and black tanks empty
--Propane tank full
--Fuel tank about half
--Fully loaded with equipment and food for a long trip
--Driver + 1 passenger


The results were:
Front: 3960
Rear: 5500
Total: 9460

This is nicely below the GVWR, which is 11030. We are pleased.

avanti said:

Several people have expressed interest in the real-life total weight of our Legend. I finally got around to getting it weighed.

The "as weighed" conditions were as follows:
--Fresh tank full
--Gray and black tanks empty
--Propane tank full
--Fuel tank about half
--Fully loaded with equipment and food for a long trip
--Driver + 1 passenger


The results were:
Front: 3960
Rear: 5500
Total: 9460

This is nicely below the GVWR, which is 11030. We are pleased.

Click to expand...

Very good.... while ours is much smaller(2010 Roadtrek SS Agile). We had ours loaded with everything basically "full"; persons; equipment; liquids; food; roof rack storage, etc, etc. Totally loaded and it came to:

GVWR:...........................8550
Total measured weigh:.....8536

....................................14# left to play with...



cheers....

Mein Sprinter said:

....................................14# left to play with...

Click to expand...

Hmmm. Did you have it weighed with the same passengers at the END of that "Arctic Circle Foodie" trip of yours?

avanti said:

Hmmm. Did you have it weighed with the same passengers at the END of that "Arctic Circle Foodie" trip of yours?

Click to expand...

He, he... sure did- and lost a few...maybe 2#.

cheers....

I never fully grasped the concept of "golf-ball sized hail" until a few weeks ago when we were driving I-40 near Amarillo. Geez! Imagine what the inside of your Sprinter would sound like with about 10 high-speed ice cubes slamming into the roof every second for around 15 minutes. It was actually kind of terrifying.

We made it to an underpass (which are not that common in this part of Texas), but we were the second ones there, so we were only able to nudge in behind another car with the back half of the vehicle sticking out. We had nightmarish images of what was happening up on the roof.

As it turned out, other than losing a porch-light lens, the only damage was to the Winegard Sensor II TV antenna, which was reduced to a twisted mass of sheet metal. We couldn't believe that the solar panel wasn't smashed to bits, but it came through unscathed, as did the Fantastic Vent and the bathroom skylight.

Rather than replacing the Sensor, I decided to go with the new flat Rayzar Air, which should be far more robust. There is a retrofit kit that uses your existing mast for around $50. Installation was pretty painless, and it seems to work great. It supposedly has slightly less gain than the Sensor, but it is less directional, so there should be less fiddling with the pointing mechanism.

Here it is, sharing the mast with our Ubiquiti Nanostation directional WiFi antenna:



and here is the magnetic sensor from the homemade alarm that reminds us when we try to drive off with the mast up:

Keurig coffeemaker autofill project

So, the Legend comes with a very nice pull-out Keurig coffeemaker:



Hmmm... water and electricity both readily available...

So, I got myself some Pex fittings and a solenoid valve:



and a float valve, some aquarium tubing and a custom bracket:



and a couple of relays, some LEDs and a switch:



[continued...]

Re: Keurig coffeemaker autofill project

The bracket mounts in the reservoir:



The valve mounts on the kitchen plumbing



The tubing and wires go like this:



Rocker switch is in upper left (under the countertop:



Press the bottom of the switch, and the reservoir fills and then stops. Press the top and it stops immediately (in case you don't want to fill completely).

Works great, except that the $2 eBay China float valve is kind of flakey. I have a slightly more expensive metal one on order.

Cool! That's some serious coffee drinking.

I have been all over trying to get a Keurig to work in my rig, without shore power or running the genny. Is your setup, avanti, able to make coffee off the battery via some mystery inverter?

-Randy

We have an Outback VFX2812M inverter/charger (2800W). It runs the Keurig from battery without raising a sweat. It even runs the AC -- not sure for how long.

Built a pull-out shelf under the rear cabinet for use by occupants of the back seat:



Built it out of a piece of MDF, edged with iron-on wood veneer. It is mounted with small drawer slides.



Made a magnetic stop to limit motion and prevent sliding around while under way.



Sanded the top and finished it with clear matte spray sealant. Came out pretty nice:

israndy said:

I have been all over trying to get a Keurig to work in my rig, without shore power or running the genny. Is your setup, avanti, able to make coffee off the battery via some mystery inverter?

-Randy

Click to expand...

Randy, I run a 1 cup Keurig off the inverter. It's an older Keurig model.. No reservoir. Draws about 600W according to inverter panel.

avanti said:

Built a pull-out shelf under the rear cabinet for use by occupants of the back seat:

Click to expand...

Nice work. I couldn't do that with my old 2011 Legend with the slide out bathroom sink under there. The wall trim construction around the windows made it practically impossible to attach any shelves in the back sofa area. I did have overhead wire basket shelves and two types of cup holders. Still, they weren't optimally placed.

avanti said:

We have an Outback VFX2812M inverter/charger (2800W). It runs the Keurig from battery without raising a sweat. It even runs the AC -- not sure for how long.

Click to expand...

What is your battery setup? Are two 6 Volt batteries sufficient for minimal high watt use? i.e. toaster for 4 or 5 minutes, microwave for 3 to 5 minutes, or hair dryer for 5 to 10 minutes - this is the big one! Used one at a time.

Thanks,
Ron

ronjohn said:

What is your battery setup? Are two 6 Volt batteries sufficient for minimal high watt use? i.e. toaster for 4 or 5 minutes, microwave for 3 to 5 minutes, or hair dryer for 5 to 10 minutes - this is the big one! Used one at a time.

Thanks,
Ron

Click to expand...

We have two Group 31 12V batteries in parallel. We don't yet have a huge amount of experience with stressing the system, but I am pretty sure that none of the examples you mention would be any problem at all. We once ran the air conditioner for 10-15 minutes without any apparent difficulty. We certainly routinely use out Keurig coffee maker.

I am going to install a Trimetric meter soon, so I will be able to better explore the limits of the system. Stay tuned...

This is what you'll use:

125 amps x 0.25 hrs (15 min.) = 31 amps - Keurig Coffee Maker
336 amps x 0.08 hrs (5 min.) = 27 amps - 1875 watt hair dryer
75 amps x .08 hrs (5 min.) = 6 amps - Convection/Microwave Oven (900 W)
134 amps x .07 hrs (4 min.) = 9 amps - Toaster

Total: 73 amps if you use all four items. You will also have lights, fans, inverter loss, parasitic, etc. to monitor but you could do all that paying attention to your usage.

That darned hair dryer!!!

Davydd said:

This is what you'll use:

125 amps x 0.25 hrs (15 min.) = 31 amps - Keurig Coffee Maker
336 amps x 0.08 hrs (5 min.) = 27 amps - 1875 watt hair dryer
75 amps x .08 hrs (5 min.) = 6 amps - Convection/Microwave Oven (900 W)
134 amps x .07 hrs (4 min.) = 9 amps - Toaster

Total: 73 amps if you use all four items. You will also have lights, fans, inverter loss, parasitic, etc. to monitor but you could do all that paying attention to your usage.

Click to expand...

Not to be pedantic, but Amps x hrs = Amp-hrs. Sorry, but you are not the only one to make this error on the Forum & it 'grates' whenever I see it.

Also, hair dryers vary a lot in the power used. As little as 300W or as much as 2kW.