Winter Waterfront Camping on BC's West Coast & Lithium Batteries Chat

Hi everyone, so we're out camping again. It's been a few months. We want to call it winter camping, but can you really call this winter? It doesn't look like it, but it's cold. So yes, we're at Porto Cove once again, one of our, I guess, favorite spots to go just for a couple of nights. Close by. Yeah, so we thought we'd just show you a little bit of, well, some of our amazing sunsets that we've seen, a little bit of the wildlife, visit with some friends, and talk about something we're having to look at in the future with regard to our batteries in our van. Yep, so we hope you enjoy this video. So we came in last night and got in here late in the afternoon, which is good because it's darn cold here until the sun hits, which is probably about two o'clock in the afternoon. Yeah, we just lucked out. We booked the site last week, I think. Yeah, there was a space. Yeah, and the weather just turned out perfect for our camp here, so very lucky. We enjoyed an evening. It got down around freezing, but of course all the sites here, if you watched our previous videos, you know, they all have power, so we were running a little electric heater, so the van stayed nice and toasty. But we got an amazing sunset, we took a few photos, and then it just got better and better, and it's just wonderful. Then today we got up and we had our morning coffee and, you know, had breakfast out here. It's one of the most beautiful views that I think, you know, we can ever have, actually. Gorgeous. And then a little while later, our friends Pete and Alex came by. Yeah, they brought us some vegan treats, actually. Yeah, some. It was a really nice surprise, so I really want to thank them for that. Yeah, there's this great vegan bakery in the Fort Langley area, and yeah, they're really good. I don't think they're actually vegan. Anyway. They're so good that you can't believe that they're vegan, but they are. Yeah, they're wonderful, tasty treats in the bakery. We'll see if we can put the name up. And then, yeah, so they joined us, we did a couple walks, looked at some wonderful views. Gorgeous day. Still cool, but nice and sunny. I kind of feel like going paddleboarding. Yeah. And then we've just been doing a, you know, kind of camp stuff. I've got some firewood put aside. We'll probably have a fire. One thing, too, that I did differently for this trip is that I actually meal prepped all our meals, and particularly dinner meals. I just prepared everything at home, and then I just packaged them up in plastic containers, and all we have to do is come here and heat it up in the microwave. So it was really easy this time. Winter camping, it's tough because you don't have the ability to use any water in the van. So we tried to minimize gray water, and this way it just makes it a lot easier. Yeah, and we actually don't have a water source here. I think there's definitely an issue with the water. I think there's lead in the water, and they ask you to use it for nothing else other than washing. So we've brought water with us, as we do in the winter anyway, because we are winterized, and as Mickey said, we will generally keep our gray water and then dispose of it, usually when we get home. Yeah, they have receptacles here for gray water as well. Oh, there we go. Yeah, it's handy. So we're just going to enjoy what is probably going to be another wonderful sunset that we'll share with you, have a little bit of fire. Yeah, we got some firewood today. We'll have a little small fire, and then we will have an early evening. One thing about camping this time of year is the sunset's about five o'clock, and it's dark probably by 530, and then the stars come out, and they're amazing out here. It's just wonderful, but it'll cool down. I think the temperature when the sun went behind Anvil Island, which is what we're looking at right now, yesterday the temperature fell about five degrees Celsius within about 20 minutes of the sun going behind that mountain. So it cooled down quite quickly. Anyway, campsite's full pretty much. There's a couple of inner sites that aren't taken, and some people hardier than us that are out here in their tents. Yes, good on them. Okay, so dinner tonight is pesto penne. I've got some vegan hot dogs in there for me. Gordon has some shrimp and pesto penne, and I've got veggie dip and hummus. It took me about two hours to catch these shrimp. And to drink, I have a wonderful wild-eye stout from North Vancouver, Nautilus Dry Irish Charcoal Stout. It's really, really good. I tried some yesterday, and it's a stout, but it goes well with the fire. And I'm having some red wine, local red wine. And take a look at our view. Wow, beautiful. So the sun's setting in about four minutes, and then we should start to get some nice colour in the sky. Just gorgeous. Good morning, everyone. It's our last day. Beautiful day. Mickey was already out this morning enjoying our coffee, watching the sunrise. Just gorgeous here. Cold. It's around freezing. So one of the issues we're having to consider with our van right now is actually replacing the batteries. They're working well so far, but our van now is seven years old. Many of the folks that have Roadtrek vans our age have already had to replace their batteries. Challenge is that Roadtrek uses a proprietary system, and the batteries that are designed to work with the system are from a company called KS2. KS2 makes two options. They have 200 amp batteries and 300 amp batteries that will work in our van. We currently have two 200 amps. The challenge is they're expensive. The KS2 200 amp batteries are roughly $2,600 each US. 300 are somewhere a little over $3,000 each US. That's a lot of money. Plus, we're going to have to pay shipping of somewhere between $300 to $500 to get them. Installation will also be a challenge. The Roadtrek dealer that has, that I'm aware of, that has some experience in changing the system is near the Kelowna area, and they certainly can do the work. They've done some in the past. So a little bit of a drive, but we can deal with that. So in looking at other options, and you can't just replace Roadtrek batteries with something like, say, Battleborn. The proprietary system causes a number of challenges, and my understanding is that if you're going to do that, you have to somewhat tear out the whole system and start again, which can be expensive as well. So there is an alternative. There's a battery made by a company called Epoch. They make a 300 amp battery that will fit in our van. So we could have two 300 amps instead of two 200 amps. It's $1,000 US, so significantly less. The challenge in that case for us is, I'm not aware of anyone locally who's actually made that kind of change and made any adjustments needed, although there's not supposed to be many. There is a company down in California called Vantage, and I've talked to the owner there, and he's been very helpful. He has actually swapped out some of the old KS2 batteries and used Epoch. He has found that they work quite well, and it's a fairly simple process to go through. But obviously, driving to California to get the work done adds both cost and time. Right now, our batteries are working fine, but I'm going to have to, probably within a year or so, look at replacing the batteries. They haven't failed, but if they do, I'm going to have to replace them. So if you have any thoughts or comments, if you know of anyone who actually has a van like ours and has swapped the batteries and maybe used the Epoch system, please leave us some comments below. Hello there, friend. Mr. Finch. He's enjoying looking at all the birds. So we enjoyed our stay in Porto Cove. It was relaxing as usual. Yeah, it's very nice here. It's just, and you just can't beat the views. We really enjoyed a couple days, just enough to relax. Nice. So we hope you enjoyed this video, and if you did, please be sure to give us a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel if you haven't done so already, and we will see you next time. See you next time.