Solar Problem Fixed! | Favorite Boondocking Spot | RV Living

Kind of crooked. This place is packed. They call this the original tourist trap. And I think it's almost 100 years old. And I think it's still working. It looks like it's working. It's still going strong. It's interesting. I wonder what, um, I don't know. I think it's just now like a place that you've got to stop by if you're anywhere near here. Well, there's nothing else out here, so it'd be stupid if you didn't. Why would you pass up the one thing that has a point of interest? Yeah. Oh, we failed to mention that South Dakota has the most tourists that we've seen to date since the return of the COVID travel. Like, South Dakota is just where it's at. Yeah, we're now creeping up into late June. I think it's like June 21st. And travel has slowly increased since May 1st, since we got back on the road. It's getting busier and busier and busier. But this is the original Waldrug store since 1931. The ice water store. That's cool. Yeah, we read on Wikipedia that a pharmacist moved here from Nebraska and opened this store. And it wasn't doing so well until the National Monument, Mount Rushmore opened up. And all of a sudden, a lot of tourists start driving by. So the wife gets the ingenious idea to give out free ice water to get them into the store buying stuff. And it worked like a charm. Yeah, apparently almost 100 years later, here we are. Oh, and I have something to say. Go for it. Back when Aaron asked me if I'm excited to go home, and I kind of stumbled and choked, I don't know why I reacted that way. But I want y'all to know that I am so excited to go home and see everybody and see my city. It was just like a nervous reaction. I don't know. Sometimes I say things and then I'm like, why did I say that? Yeah, it's um... I'm really excited. It is. I don't know. Like I said, it can be nerve-wracking coming back home. But this time I'm a little bit more excited and it sounds like you are too. So it's good. I'm super excited. Yeah. We're gonna have a fun time. We are gonna have a fun time. We got all of our weekends booked and we're ready to rock. Yeah. Free car parking. That's us. That is not that minivan and boat though. Right. So there's no campers, no motorhomes. But this is where we grayline it to our advantage. We're just a 22 foot sprinter, man. Nice. Yeah. We're gonna pull over, have breakfast quick and maybe get out and check out the tourist trap. Get some free water. Some free ice water. Well, we apologize in advance for anybody that wanted to see Waldrug up close and personal. But we are going to skip it this time. It's a little too crowded and a little too narrow in there. And we're still pretty heavy up in the COVID-19 2020 summer. So we saw it from the van. I think that's good enough for us. Yeah. It does the trick. And we're gonna head to the BLM land called Steer Pasture Overlook. It's 10 minutes from here. Is that insane or what? It's super close. Are you blown away? I'm so blown away. I mean, I can't believe how close some of these places are. That's true. Yeah, it's like five miles from here. So we're gonna check that out first. It's supposed to be very beautiful and easy access. And we'll see what it looks like when we get there. I hope that Badlands is everything that everybody keeps telling me it is. It is really beautiful here. Surprisingly, I guess I'm amazed at how beautiful it is. I kind of just thought it was, you know... You were brushing it under the rug. Yeah. I was hoping Steer Pasture Overlook was going to be like a metaphor for something other than cows. But we got cows. More cows. These cows are big. Yeah, they are pretty big. They're definitely steers. And we just had that big kind of run-in. Not big run-in, but we had our little run-in with the cows at the last spot in Wyoming. And they're beautiful to look at but not fun to share a campsite with. They poop a lot. They do. But this is cool. This is right off the road. Like we said, 10 minutes from Wall, South Dakota. And it's amazing. Hopefully, the overlook is pretty beautiful. Nice little cows. Keep moving. See, that's that look that I'm telling you. They give you the kind of scary... The little ones are even more devil-looking, aren't they? Yeah. Keep moving. Yep. Thanks, Bessie. Look at that little one wean mugging you. Yeah, that's some... Oops. That's what I'm talking about. They mean mug you. They got some mean mugs. Those white little cows look like sheep from afar. They're just baby cows. Good road in so far. That one's happy. Happy to mean mug. Some of them are happy and some of them are straight ups. So the road going in is pretty much dirt. So this is, I think, what they're talking about when it rains. This turns into like mud, clay mud. And it's really bad. But it looks pretty dry. I don't know if it rained here last night like it did in R.C., but... R.C. We got a hailstorm in R.C. Yeah, we did. Yes, we did. But you can see some RVs off in the distance already. So a few people are staying out here. And I like it so far. It's pretty. It's out in the middle of nowhere. Just like we like it. Yeah. A little bit of an incline up the hill. It's kind of weird. Look at that view over there. It's like just fields and dirt roads. And then all of a sudden there's a little BLM marker up there. And wow, that is pretty, isn't it? Should I go to the left or the right? So I think maybe that's Nomad View over there. Perhaps. Maybe. Wait, no vehicles, Christine. No motor vehicles. Just park it right here. So I guess technically we got to go to the right, which is kind of weird. I don't know. I'm going to get out and walk up there and see what's up there. Up there? Yeah. Wow. Pretty cool. You can see RVs all along the ridge there. That's awesome. So we're going to try to go on top of the hill and go parallel with the ridge. Right on the other side of that ridge is a cliff you don't want to go over. Well, that was kind of a challenging parking job. This is once again a new type of BLM land that we've never really been to on a cliff like this. And we're in a really kind of weird spot that I would imagine a lot of big trailers don't come, but vans work pretty well here. Even if you had like the shorter wheelbase, that would be even better. Even better. But this view is just insane. And we're probably like 8, 10 feet from the edge. So it feels kind of close, but... It feels really close. That's the Badlands out there though, I think. That's the view. It's really pretty. I hope we get some sunsets tonight. Yeah, I don't know where that sun sets. But I think we'll call this home for a little bit. Yeah, I like it. It looks good. Super close to town. The road coming in was nice. I think this is just the area you got to watch out for when it rains, which of course we have like three days of thunderstorms in our future. But let's do it, sweetie. All right, let's shut it down and set it up. And I've been waiting for most of my life To have this love come and bury my strife And carry on She got the soul of a warrior But a tender heart, yeah Had me hooked on a love star Well, I'm waiting out here for the sun to set because I need to work on the solar panels when it's dark out. And I'm a big idiot. And I didn't install a cutoff switch for the solar panels, which means I can't just turn them on. I had chocolate all over me. I can't just turn them off during the daylight. There's always power coming from the solar panel. And I don't have a cutoff switch or breakers with me. So what I'm going to use is an inline fuse. So when there's no power in the dark, I'm going to splice in a fuse. That way, during the day, I can pull the fuse out and there'll be no power going to the end of the wire. So I can hook it up properly. But as I'm sitting out here, this is one of the most beautiful sunsets. It's almost, I don't even know how to describe it. Yeah, I don't even know how to describe it. I was going to say subscribe it. It's like, it's almost comical. Chris is inside, staying away from the bugs. It's insane. Yeah. I'd have to say this is the best sunset I've ever seen. It's nuts. And there's a ton of RVers out here too. In case you didn't know, the cows of South Dakota have a little bit of goat in them. Look at those ones way over there. They're like climbing up and down the mountain. Little guys are crazy. They're way down there. What are they doing? And then they talk to each other across the valley at 5.30 in the morning. Oh, these cows are great. South Dakota, surprises around every corner. Beautiful spot to wake up to though. That's for sure. Cows or no cows. Those guys are crazy. These are the most vocal cows I've ever heard. Happy cows, I guess. Okay, Aaron, enough with the cows. We got some more important things to talk about. If you remember two episodes ago, we talked about the scary incident of our charge controller positive battery wire melting. We had this system hooked up for about 18 months before we had any issues with it. And after a quick phone call to the guys at Battle Born, it was pretty easy to diagnose the wire as the problem. Not the size of the wire, but the loose connection that was on the end. A lot of people in the comments were able to spot that right away. People much smarter than I am. And they could easily see that it was resistance that was building up heat right at the connection of the terminal. And that caused this whole casing to melt. Now, this is a 12 gauge wire. Perfectly fine for the 20 amps that's going through it. But what's different about it is that it's kind of a stiffer wire. And there's only about 20 strands in here. And while it is kind of flexible, it's nothing like an ultra flexible wire. So besides upgrading the charge controller to the next size up, I also decided to upgrade the wire. Some quick research brought me to this, which is an ultra flexible, high temp, silicone jacket, high strand wire. This is a tin coated copper strand wire. And this stuff is absolutely amazing. And it's able to make a much stronger connection at the terminal of the charge controller. While I did a ton of research in the first place to install the solar system, which I did myself, I honestly didn't put much past the sizing of the wire. I made sure I had the right size so it was safe with the 12 gauge, but I did not put any thought into the kind or the quality or anything like that. So we ended up just going to Home Depot and getting this other style of wire, which is just not the perfect kind for the job. So we feel much better having this ultra flexible wire in here. And a lot of people had some great suggestions in the comments. And it's one of those things that you need to make sure that the connections are tight. It might be something that you need to check each month. Somebody commented in the jacket itself, which sometimes could get pinched while the connection was getting connected and not giving it a solid secure connection. So that's something to look out for along with just, like I said, checking it each month and maybe just making sure. Somebody mentioned a heat gun, which would be kind of interesting to gauge that and judge and see if it is getting a buildup of excessive heat going to it. I also want to mention how much I'm impressed with the larger charge controller than the smaller 20 amp charge controller. When I was looking and researching, Victron's website said that the 20 amp would work for my 300 watts, so that's what I went with. Whereas the 30 amp will go up to 450 watts of solar. And at the time, I wasn't really thinking expansion, which of course you always should. I think the price difference between the two is maybe $50 or $60, $70, not much at all. But the size difference is phenomenal. I think the heat sink is bigger on it. The connections are bigger and just overall more robust of a unit. So I'm very pleased with the upgrade. So anyways, back to the video. I just wanted to share this style of wire and what we did to kind of upgrade and hopefully future protect ourselves. Double check all my wires. Battery positive, battery negative, solar positive, solar negative. And then I have this 20 amp fuse in the positive side of the solar, which is what I'm using for a breaker or a switch. So that right now during the daylight, there's power going to it, but not into the controller. So this should be the last step. Okay, let's check the Bluetooth. Success! We are charging again. So now that I have this fuse in there, I can pull that and work on the controller if I ever needed to again. But all this needs to get redone eventually. This is just kind of, I guess, a temporary fix to get back charging because we've been without solar charging for over a week and it's horrible. Otherwise, we're looking good. Goal is set for four miles. We're going to run two and a half miles that way, get some views and then flip around and run back. Guys, this is just something we do not do enough of and that's just enjoy the outdoors a little bit more. Most people say they live outside of the van, not in the van. It gets them out to these places. And I think we fall into the category of sometimes we just work inside the van because it's so comfortable and, you know, this view is right outside your window. You have everything you need, but we don't do this enough. Just take a moment, have breakfast. That run was phenomenal. Four miles on top of the rim. This is like a mini Bryce Canyon. Not quite as beautiful as Bryce Canyon, but very, very, very close. It's a tiny taste of it. It is. And we're now charging with solar. What a great day. What a great feeling that is. It's so frustrating to not have your batteries be charging. So we hear a lot of generators up here. And I just made a kind of mental note in my head as we were running by that I think the majority of people still use generators for boondocking, which is normal and fine. That's just what people are used to doing. Old school, you called it. Yeah, it's what works. It depends on how you were raised. Yeah, it's inexpensive. But man, once you get solar and you don't need to have lithium batteries, but they certainly do help. But solar is a really important thing. So that way your batteries are always charging from sun up to sun down. You're getting a charge. Otherwise, you're just draining always. And then you plug in your phone, then you plug in the laptop. But anyways, enough of me rambling. Allergies are bad. Check out this breakfast though. That smelled really good. I always push protein and vegetables at every meal, including and especially breakfast. If that's weird for you, try to add in some peppers and onions to any breakfast. Automatically, it's like a breakfast veggie. And it helps give you nutrients and bulk up the volume. What's all in that one? Peppers, onions, flank steak, and one egg with some... I put a little bit of tamari in there and everything but the bagel seasoning. And I love runny yolk. I love this breakfast. Did smell really good. So this is gonna be our home for the next about two weeks. This will be our last stop boondocking before we start driving back to Minneapolis and Wisconsin. And then we're gonna head home for a month or two. And then we don't know yet. We're still gonna kind of figure out if we're gonna head out east or head back west. What do you think about boondocking versus the Thousand Trails campsites? Do you think we're gonna still kind of split that 50-50 or... No. Think we're gonna do more boondocking? Yeah. What do you think? Well, it certainly gets easier the more you do it and you get used to it too. You just don't want to go to a cringy prison after you've gone boondocking. I don't know. It's kind of crazy. It's nice to have both options because I think we'll still use the RV parks. If they're conveniently located, yeah. On our road. Yeah, like... Even just using them for day dumps or a quick overnight or laundry or anything like that. Absolutely, for sure. Yeah, but right now you could say we're hooked on boondocking and it's just crazy. You can see why. It's just amazing out here. This rim is pretty cool. You can see all the RVs up there. As you go farther towards Badlands, that gets into what they call the Nomad View. That's a little bit more populated and a little bit closer of sites where we're out at the Steer Pasture BLM and there's a few less people out here. Yeah. Less sites. As we were jogging, you could feel it getting more parked on top of each other. Yeah, but certainly beautiful views. I mean, that's for sure. There's more kind of cliffs and canyons over that way. So, certainly beautiful all around this area and we can't wait to check out Badlands. Right.