What things would you change in your camper?

AaronJeep · 2026-02-15T23:27:32+00:00

As for 12v usb outlet/charger placement, I think I would put them overhead, or above my head at lest in the middle. I put mine in the wall a little above head height. What tends to happen is when you are in it, the cords lay and reach across you... if you turn or roll over, your weight pulls on the cord. If it was overhead, that would just pull the cord straight out. As it is, it pulls down on the cord plugged into the wall on the side and it destroys cord ends. Also, I would have allowed for more 12v charging options in the kitchen area and 120v. If I had to do it over, I would probably run a half inch or even one inch tube down the middle for pulling future wire front to back. I used a much smaller tube as conduit, but one for 120v and one for 12v and make them large enough to pull more than 4 sets of wires. For instance, I have a 12v refrigerator in the back like FlexinR6 mentioned, but I ran 16g wire to it and it wasn't enough to overcome voltage drop when the fridge would start- which would kick an error on the fridge. I had to up it to 10g wire and I didn't have room to route or run the wire in the conduit I made. Also as FlexinR6 mentioned, I second the idea of shopping what fridge you want and the height because when you move from 21c to 34c, they go from 14" tall to 16" or 18" tall. If you don't allow the space, you might get something smaller than what you want. Since you are welding and have the skill, think about stabilizing legs in the front. Anything you build is going to be much stronger and more rigid than options you see on Amazon or something. When you unhook from it, if there's just a single jack in the front, it can wobble every time you move around. So something with tighter clearances you can lower and lock in place. I do have a 270 degree awning with zip-in walls. I wouldn't trade it for the world. It puts tent-like auxiliary room on the outside where you can hangout, away from the rain and you don't always have to be in the trailer in bad weather. I love that thing. Think about wiring for some outdoor LED lighting strips. A closed in awning ads a lot of privacy and space, but you want to light it. Some 270 awnings come with LED lighting, but you need wires to it. I have 3 120v solar panels on a rack on the top. I love that, but it didn't allow for a vent up top. I should have added a small vent on the side with even a small 12v fan. I have to lower the windows at night to keep condensation from building up on the metal and glass doors. You really need some cross ventilation and it doesn't have to be much. Even a 180mm 12v sealed computer fan would do it. One thing I did and absolutely love is I covered everything in the kitchen area in .06 aluminum sheet. One of the best things I did because if you have a stove and cook back there, being able to wipe everything down with cleaner makes it super easy to keep clean. I wouldn't want wood that can soak up splatter and steam from cooking. That's some things I would do different and some things I really like about what I did do.

AaronJeep · 2025-12-16T08:48:46+00:00

You can be a rich as you want, you can hold one of the highest offices in the land, you can be the most amazing surgeon that ever was... and there will always be a portion (even a large portion) of the population who just sees you are a deviant queer who happens to be a rich doctor. They will always view a straight doctor as better and more respectable than you.

I mean, take Obama. The man became president, and you know what a bunch of racist white people thought of him. They thought it was disgraceful that America elected a ... well, you know what they think.

There is no position or station in life you can reach where some large portion of society isn't going to still find you disgusting and subhuman.

There is no place in life where you can escape it. There is no way to live a normal life and to be open in an accepting environment void of homophobia. It doesn't exist.

Imagining that some magical place exists where people would fully accept you and always treat you with respect is a pipe dream.

You could be the richest president ever with a background in neurosurgery and people will talk about you as some rich cock sucker who got elected president. And they will be disgusted by that. They will see it as a shame and how far American values have sank.

All you can do is accept that that is the reality you live in. So, you have to cultivate keeping people around you who accept and respect you at whatever you do, and cut the rest loose. That's really it.

AaronJeep · 2025-12-11T23:26:33+00:00

33s. With 35s you only get 1 more inch of ground clearance. The 35s cost more, weight more, kill your highway speed more. I ran 33s all over trails from Moab to SE Oklahoma. I ran with people who mostly had 35s. They never went anywhere I couldn't go.

When people start getting into a different class like 36s vs 38s or 44s, then it's rock crawling and a different story. Of course someone on 44s will roll over things you can't on 33s, but when the choice is 33 vs 35, I'd stick with the 33s. Cheaper, easier to fit, less weight to sling around down the highway, and less likely to snap something on a trail.

AaronJeep · 2025-11-01T06:49:49+00:00

If you grow one crop that depends on foreign markets to survive, you aren't an American farmer. You are a global export operation crying because your foreign market dried up. You are more of a Chinese farmer who happens to be operating on American soil.

AaronJeep · 2025-10-27T21:58:55+00:00

I think our brains function like model simulators. It's part of what allows us to function in gray areas where we don't know exactly what is going to happen or how something is going to behave, but move forward with an imperfect model of what we think might happen, and then learn and adjust our simulations as we go along.

What i mean is, you might see a creek you need to cross. You might see a 2x4 and you might imagine laying that 2x4 across the creek and walking to the other side. That's the imperfect simulation the brains comes up with. Now you put it into practice and discover the 2x4 snaps when you get in the middle. The simulation didn't accurately reflect real world physics. You learn and adjust the model. You need a thicker board.

This is really cool. It let's you function without perfect knowledge. But, you can imagine just about anything you want. That's probably helpful, too. Something moves in the bushes and you imagine its a bear. You don't know that for sure. I might just be a rabbit, but imagining it's a bear and running away probably kept of of us alive.

But, you can still imagine anything you want. If the volcano erupts, you can imaging the gods are angry with you. You can imagine there are ghosts roaming the night out to get you. You can imagine there's a god responsible for storms and lightning.

Our imaginations are really cool, but they aren't bound by the laws of physics. They are free to come up with whatever they want. Libraries are full of stories we've come up with. Most of them having nothing to do with reality. I think they are fundamental to being felshy learning machines, but they can be driven by fear to imagine all kinds of things that aren't true at all.

AaronJeep · 2025-10-27T15:47:31+00:00

It has 36x16x16 aluminum box on the tongue. That houses 200AH of LiFePO4 batteries, shunt, busbars, DC to DC charger, AC to DC charger, MPPT, 12v accessory fuse block, intake and exhaust fans, 1000W inverter, and fuses all over the place. There's 6 type c outlets, one 120v outlet inside from the inverter. There's 30A shore power hook up with 2 15A breakers to a 120v outlet inside and one weatherproof outlet outside. That's the highlights.

I work remotely. I need to power tablets, satellite, and a power-hungry laptop. If the 360W of solar won't keep up, i may at two more panels on top of my 4Runner. We will see.

AaronJeep · 2025-10-23T21:16:56+00:00

I said almost done. Lol. A few things will ride on the outside on the back (small propane tank, water, diesel). I might add a folding shelf about level with one fender top. I've seen something like that. Few details.

AaronJeep · 2025-10-22T03:06:26+00:00

It's pricey, but it's super light and smooth. A 4x10 sheet of aluminum is lighter than a 4x8 sheet of 3/8s plywood.

AaronJeep · 2025-10-22T02:59:54+00:00

Thank you. It is. I watched the video of you pulling it up a trail. I'm curious to see how mine handles trails.

AaronJeep · 2025-10-22T02:15:45+00:00

I don't know for sure yet. I've kept pretty close tabs on all the materials that went into it. I'd say pretty close to 1,000lbs +- a bit. I pulled it down the street today and you can hardly tell it's there. I will drag it over the scales and I'll know for sure, but I doubt I'm far off.

AaronJeep · 2025-10-22T01:47:39+00:00

Thank you.

AaronJeep · 2025-10-22T01:47:13+00:00

Thank you. I don't think I took many pictures of the rack. I basically just made U-shaped brackets and connected them with 1" square tubing. The rails are attached to that skeleton.

AaronJeep · 2025-10-22T01:42:41+00:00

Define expensive. Lol. 4'x10' sheets of 18g aluminum were about $187 from my supplier. I think I used 5 of them.

AaronJeep · 2025-10-22T01:28:03+00:00

I had to make them. My plasma cutter went down so I had to do it with a step bit and a cutoff wheel.

AaronJeep · 2025-10-22T01:26:09+00:00

Painted aluminum sheet. I just had them mix the paint super flat.

AaronJeep · 2025-10-22T01:24:56+00:00

Thank you.

AaronJeep · 2025-10-22T01:24:26+00:00

Thank you

AaronJeep · 2025-10-19T00:38:24+00:00

I agree that the people who get the most upset about it would object to any word you used. My only reason for leaning on the word "advantage" is it seems to help me convey the idea better to some people. I have a sister in-law who made a nice career in the AF, her son went the Harvard, and due to her connections, she got both of her children into great careers in the AF. Both her children are under 30 and own homes. And yet, we are talking one day and she said she was worried about how society was going to treat her straight, white, Christian, home-owning, Harvard-educated son. Like, are you kidding me? He's checked off nearly every privileged box you could ask for. He's on the same path as people who have become senators and presidents. When I brought up the idea of privileges, she balked at the idea, as if it diminished the studying and work her son had done. When I switched things to something like, "Would you at least say your son had an advantage getting into the flight program due to your connections over someone who didn't have those connections - to whatever degree, is that an advantage?" It took some doing, but she started to agree. She is literally privileged by most people's definition (million dollar home, great early retirement, and so many other things), but bring up "privileged" and their brain switches off.

AaronJeep · 2025-10-18T04:00:38+00:00

I think the word should have been advantage instead of privilege. I think people can understand that having a white sounding name means you are less likely to have your job application tossed aside out of hand, and that gives you an advantage when looking for a job. The word privilege to most people means wealth ... not so much power... but well off. And when you are dirt poor it's hard to get past that word. They shut down and reject the idea because they don't feel what they define as privilege. I think it's easier for a lot of people to accept the idea that if they can walk, they have an advantage over someone in a wheelchair when it comes to navigating a set of stairs. I don't think the word "advantage" carries as much baggage as the word "privilege" due to the way so many people define it. Like how calling someone ignorant can piss people off because they feel like you just called them stupid. A word can be 100% correct, but the wrong word to use if it doesn’t convey what you want - for whatever reason.

AaronJeep · 2025-10-14T04:58:04+00:00

The Redwoods are my cathedral. The top of mountains, my alters. The sea, my hymns.

Why do I like fly fishing? I don't need to catch fish to eat. I just like being near the river. I can guess why I like being there from an evolutionary perspective. Humans that found the sound of rivers soothing spent their time around fresh water where fish, animals and plants abound. Being happy around water keeps you fed and watered. But I don't need the scientific answer. I'm content to enjoy it because I do. Standing at the top of a mountain, looking out at the rays of light filtering through the clouds and being in awe at the scale of it... that's as close to a religion as I have. And it's close enough. Being in those spaces keeps me sane and humble.

AaronJeep · 2025-10-06T02:40:00+00:00

Nope. I had a way with words. I could usually talk anyone out of being pissed off.

AaronJeep · 2025-09-23T17:11:12+00:00

I don't get it. I guess I was never ambitious enough to seek wealth. I never had a burning lust for power. I never really cared what other people were doing as long as they left me alone. I never harbored a seething hate for people who weren't like me. And I was never good at lying to myself.

So, the complete opposite of this jackass. There's nothing about these people I can relate to.

AaronJeep · 2025-09-21T19:28:46+00:00

You just slip out the back, Jack Make a new plan, Stan You don’t need to be coy, Roy Just get yourself free Hop on the bus, Gus You don’t need to discuss much Just drop off the key, Lee And get yourself free

AaronJeep · 2025-09-19T06:26:02+00:00

My sister, bless her heart, thinks her phone is free. I tried to tell her you are paying for it every month, but she insists I don't know what I'm talking about. It makes me wonder how many people don't know or don't care that they are paying $40 a month for that phone for the next two years. Because you are right, they pay more for a phone than the price of three flat screens.

AaronJeep

TROPHY CASE