I just put the finishing touches on a downloadable/printable journal for SUV RVing, vandwelling, overlanding, road tripping, etc. It’s free and you can download it below.
The idea is that you download the PDF, print the necessary quantities of
the pages you need, punch holes in them, and stick them in a three-ring
binder. Take the binder with you on your trips and jot down the relevant information as desired.
After each page in the journal is an example page with red text that will help you better understand what each field is for. These pages do not need to be printed.
The printable pages in the journal include:
A few different kinds of blank pages for notes
Campsite log
Hiking log
Expense log
Vehicle maintenance log
Vehicle mileage log
Journaling page
Fuel expense log
“Trips at a glance” page
Blank to-do list
Blank shopping list
Location notes page
“Week at a glance” page
“Month at a glance” page
Again, you just need to print out the pages you’re interested in.
In addition to the pages in the journal, I also recommend printing a single-page year-at-a-glance calendar here.
This video (also embedded below) goes into a bit more detail about the journal and shows you how I’ve got mine arranged in a binder along with tabbed dividers, etc.
I always travel solo on my SUV RVing adventures, and I use the REI Camp Bed 3.5 Self-Inflating Sleeping Pad as a mattress. Because I only camp alone, the need for a 2-person mattress to fit into the back of my SUV never came up, but I was recently reminded of them when reading an article on Adventure Journal that introduced me to the Klymit Insulated Double V Sleeping Pad, which retails for $160ish:
Klymit Insulated Double V
It’s 47 inches wide. The narrowest portion of the rear area of my SUV (the spot between the two wheel wells) is 44 inches, but I think the mattress would fit just fine with a little bit of bunching on the sides. Because I have what is probably one of the smallest SUVs out there (a RAV4), my guess is that this and other two-person mattresses would fit in most larger SUVs.
I was vaguely aware that 2-person sleeping pads or camp mattresses existed, but I decided to dive deeper into the realm and see what other offerings I could find on the market for those of you who do travel with a significant other. These pads/mattresses are listed from narrowest to widest.
And then there’s the Wolfwill SUV Air Bed, which can adjust to fit a variety of sizes.
Of course the other option here is to simply get two single camping mattresses and put them next to each other.
One other thing to keep in mind when buying any camping mattress or sleeping pad is the amount of insulation it will provide. A mattress that’s full of air and nothing else will not insulate as well as a foam mattress, for example. Some pads are hybrids that inflate but also have layers of closed cell foam in them. How well a pad can insulate is conveyed in its R-value, which is stated on the pages above for many of the mattresses. If you camp a lot in cooler temperatures, the R-value is definitely something to look at.
Note: Some of these links are Amazon affiliate links.
For a couple of years now I’ve used sewn rectangles of no-see-um netting and individually wrapped magnets to keep bugs out of my SUV when camping with the windows rolled down. Here’s the latest iteration of the setup in action:
Magnetic car window screen setup
I made an entire video about the setup here, and I explain in the video how you can easily make your own set by using small magnets and duct tape.
If you don’t want to make your own, or if you want something that’s more finished and longer-lasting than the duct tape, I have something for you. I recently discovered a much better and more durable way to encase the magnets, and that is to use a heavy duty nylon fabric that seals onto itself. This creates a tough, waterproof sleeve/housing for the magnets. I’d like to offer these magnetic window screen kits for sale, and I have two of these kits currently for sale to gauge interest. EDIT: Both sets have been sold.
Each kit includes the following:
2 no-see-um mesh bug screens (approximately 22 inches high and 40 inches wide). This stuff is much better than traditional mosquito netting; even tiny “no-see-ums” won’t be able to penetrate the screen, but it will still allow plenty of air flow. Make sure this size will fit your window before ordering.
24 easy-grab neodyium magnets (12 for each screen). These are very, very strong little magnets of a very high quality. They’re smaller, stronger, and less brittle than ceramic magnets. Each magnet has a little silver dot on one side. This is to mark the polarity of the magnet to make the magnets easier to stack.
2 heavy duty reusable plastic zipper bags. You can store the screens and magnets in these bags when they’re not being used. Toss the bag into your seat back pockets (where I keep them), your glove compartment, etc.
Instructions
Here’s what you’ll be getting with each kit:
The heavy-duty storage bag and set of instructions.A couple of the screens have minor cosmetic blemishes like the double stitching shown here. No big deal. This is why they’re currently being offered at a discount.Screen and magnets inside the storage bagThe whole shebang. Each kit will come with double what you see here (i.e., enough for two windows).The magnets
And you can view and download the instructions (PDF) by clicking the image below:
Click the image to download the PDF version of the instructions.
I currently have two of these kits for sale. I made just a couple to see if there is enough interest in them to warrant investing in more tools and materials. If so, I’ll make more in the future. I’m selling each set (enough for two windows) for $35, including shipping to anywhere in the lower 48. Final pricing once I make more will be $45 or $50. The reason for the discount? Twofold: 1) I want to quickly gauge if there’s any interest here, and 2) there are some cosmetic blemishes on some of the magnets and the screens (as seen in the images above) that in no way affect their usability.
Interested? Contact me here using the contact form and let me know. I’ll then send you a PayPal request for $35, and you’ll be able to pay with a either a PayPal account or a credit card, but I won’t be able to see or have access to your credit card information (that’s how PayPal works).
Here are a bunch of SUV RVing-related things that readers and viewers shared with me this week. Thanks guys!
Got something else that you think the SUV RVing community might find useful? Shoot me an email and let me know about it.
A Campground Database
One video watcher and book reader (hi Linda!) passed along a website for finding campgrounds. It’s called Hipcamp. It’s along the same lines as Campendium and FreeCampsites.net but doesn’t appear quite as good as either of those for finding free places to camp. I browsed some of the areas that I’m familiar with and found that it only has established paid campgrounds. Sometimes that’s exactly what you want, so this is a good website to know about and to add to your arsenal. Check it out and tell me what you think.
Some Useful Apps
A new email subscriber to the blog (hi Gennaro!) recommended a few apps that he’s found useful on his road trip adventures (all are free except Goodreader, which is $4.99):
MAPS.ME – Offline maps for many places in Europe and the US. (iOS & Android)
GoodReader – A document reader. Gennaro uses this to read PDFs and magazines. (iOS only)
Kindle – For reading ebooks (including mine!). (iOS & Android)
iFirstAid Lite – First aid illustrated and explained. (iOS only; Something similar for Android is First Aid Emergency & Home.)
A Clever Curtain Solution
Video watcher and fellow YouTuber Florida Girl Adventures has an FJ Cruiser and came up with a clever way of hanging up curtains in her SUV. She attached the hook side of a Velcro strip to blackout curtains and found that the Velcro stuck to the headliner on the inside of her vehicle. See the setup in action in this video (the curtain part starts at about 2 minutes and 17 seconds in).
Multi-Use Toilets
And finally, another reader/viewer (hi Richard!) sent me a link to an interesting product on Amazon. It’s the Cleanwaste Go Anywhere Portable Toilet, and Richard pointed out that it could be used as a small table when not being used as a toilet. In a space as small as an SUV, it’s always good when items are multi-use. The Reliance Products Fold-To-Go Portable Toilet is in the same vein.
(Note: This blog post contains Amazon affiliate links.)
One of my SUV RVing fears is getting my vehicle hopelessly stuck in sand, mud, or snow when I’m out in the middle of nowhere. I’ve toyed with the idea of getting a winch for my SUV but haven’t pulled the trigger because frankly, there are other things I’d rather spend that money on. But I recently found a YouTube video titled Poor Man’s Winch – Using ratchet straps for winch duties (it’s also embedded below if you’re reading this on the blog). The guy in the video talks about using ratchet straps as winches and demonstrates several possible uses that include getting a vehicle unstuck, removing a downed tree limb, and moving a large boulder.
He recommends the Quickloader brand of ratcheting strap. The selection on Amazon is OK but a bit confusing (browse them here), but it looks like HomeDepot.com has all of Quickloader’s straps for sale. The yellow one used in the video will hold 10,000 pounds, has a 27-foot strap, and costs $50. The red ones range in price from $20 to $30, depending on the one you get. One of these seems like a great thing to always have in your car for emergency purposes, both for yourself and for any other people you may encounter as you travel.
Here’s the video:
What do you think? Is this a good winch substitute for those of us on a budget?
I just saw via Gear Junkie that Goal Zero, the company that makes “solar generators” (i.e., portable battery banks) and solar panels is making a gas generator. The thing is, it’s not a traditional gas generator. You don’t plug things into it directly but plug your Goal Zero battery bank into it. The generator then charges the battery bank, and you run all of your electronics from the battery bank. According to the Gear Junkie article (go there for pics and more info), this setup is 20 (!) times more fuel efficient than a traditional generator.
The knock against Goal Zero stuff is always that it’s expensive compared to what you could make yourself, but for those of us who don’t have much interest in cobbling together our own battery banks and charging setups, I think they remain a good solution.
While we’re on the subject, I’ve been eyeing this enormous battery bank by Anker. I’ve used Anker battery pack products in the past and had good experiences with them. This particular battery bank can charge a laptop 15 times, and that’s exactly what I’d use it for. It’s also much smaller and lighter than the Goal Zero equivalents.
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In other news, my trip down to the desert has been delayed by a couple of days because of the weather. It’s snowing outside right now as I type this (we’re getting an uncommonly high amount of snow this year in northern Utah), and I want to wait for the snow to stop and the roads to clear a bit before I make a run for it. And if you’re not already doing so, consider following my new @SUVRVing account in Instagram.
I’m leaving in a few days for a month-long road trip, and I’d really like your opinion on what kinds of videos you’d like to see from me. And while I’ve already been to the areas that I’ll be visiting, I’m always open to hearing about lesser-known things to see or do. In the video below, I also talk about a few new pieces of gear I bought for the trip. (Click here if you can’t see the video.)
In addition just started a new Instagram account for SUV RVing, and you can find it here: http://instagram.com/suvrving. I’ll definitely be posting lots of pics from the upcoming road trip.
I live in northern Utah, where it’s currently very cold and very snowy. I’m leaving next week for a monthlong road trip through southern Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California, and I wanted to know how far south I’ll have to drive until I’m out of the snow. I did some searching and found this great website that features an interactive map of snow cover around the United States and southern Canada. Looks like I’ll be snow-free once I hit St. George in the southwestern corner of Utah.
To get a more complete picture of the snow situation, here are two more websites that have snow cover maps:
In my day-to-day life, I use my laptop pretty much all day, every day for work, entertainment, and communication purposes, but I’ve found that it was less than ideal for using on the road. It’s getting longer in the tooth these days, and its battery isn’t what it used to be. On my extended SUV RVing trips, I had to be very selective about what I chose to do once I powered it on, and I had to start up the SUV whenever I wanted to charge the laptop back up. On top of that, it was too big and bulky to use it to watch a movie before bed. Laptops are machines that excel at being used on a desk or on a comfy couch, not in the confines of an SUV. Continue reading Using a Laptop vs. Using a Tablet on Trips→
I cover in the SUV RVing book how I use a small tarp as an awning. It works great in the rain or when the sun is overhead, but it’s less useful early or late in the day when the sun is coming at you from the side. I experienced this for the first couple of evenings that I was in Jackson and decided to do something about it. Continue reading Attaching a Tarp to an Awning to Make a Shade Wall→
