Solar Heated Snowmobile Camper Journey - Solo Winter Camping in my "Sled Cabin"

this is my homemade snowmobile camper which i will be taking on a solo overnight journey this time i'll be heating it exclusively with solar energy stay tuned as i traveled to pick up the camper something trailside caught my eye coil wolf tracks in the snow leading to a pile of ruffled turkey feathers well i think it's safe to assume that at least one wild turkey will be sleeping warm tonight within a coy wolf's belly this year i've noticed a rise in the turkey population which has also brought in the pack predators although i've been calling them coy wolves they're more accurately described as eastern coyotes larger than their western counterparts but not as big as a full-blooded wolf i was heading into their territory now [Applause] so so [Music] like i mentioned earlier i will be heating my insulated camper using solar energy stored inside these lithium power stations gathered with these 100 watt panels and used by a small electric heater let the journey begin [Music] it was midday when i stopped for lunch i took advantage of the short break and the sunshine to top up my power station [Music] i'd like to thank jackery for sponsoring this episode as someone who does most of their work off-grid i've been using jackery products for over a year now to light up my pop-up cabin run some of my power tools pump up my trailer tires pump water recharge my batteries and tonight i'll be using the explorer 1000 to heat my camper as you can see it has multiple output ports this means that you can use the explorer 1000 to simultaneously power your computer charge your phone or run your coffee maker using the jackery power station and solar panels has replaced my gasoline generator in most cases why because it's quieter lighter cleaner and cheaper to run gone are the days when i had to buy gas in town and then lug it into the bush to refill the old generator because with the explorer 1000 all i have to do is set up my solar saga panels and the power station recharges itself for free with zero emissions and zero maintenance so you can understand why it was so easy for me to make the switch to jackery products since their lithium power stations don't need to idle like a gas generator they only use power when they need to making them way more efficient the 100 watt portable solar panel was designed to plug directly into the power station and by using this special adapter you can even connect two panels together to double their power input if you'd like to check jackery out for yourself i've linked their products in the video description below anyway after a quick bite to eat and a full recharge i hit the trail once again [Applause] [Laughter] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] this is where i'd be settling in for the night so on tonight's menu bacon make that candy bacon with canadian maple syrup fresh air beautiful scenery and good food what more could i ask for so so [Music] uh for those of you who are wondering the camper is vented in both gables and there is also a fresh air intake above the door with the campers set up for the night and some warm food in my belly i went on a short walk to explore my surroundings [Applause] coy wolf tracks an entry point into their world out of curiosity i followed them in when i was a child my greatest fear was being alone in a dark forest like this one but i soon realized that it wasn't the forest that i was afraid of or the darkness in fact i often found them to be comforting as i do now in actuality i was afraid of the unknown of not knowing not knowing where i was how to find my way or what i might encounter while out there on my own of course these are all healthy fears the forest although beautiful can be unforgiving especially to the fool hardy ill-prepared and ill-educated so i could either try to avoid my fear of the unknown or i could learn to know what i did not several decades have now passed since i was a child and i've had time to grow in my knowledge of the forest it's animals plants trees geography and seasons i've also learned how to utilize my surroundings and to work with my own two hands developing my skill set and understanding my limitations so now as i walk alone in the snowy darkness i feel at peace because i know this forest i know myself and i know my heavenly father by following these tracks i can also know a little more about the animals that made them which i find fascinating [Music] uh [Applause] well i'm all settled in for the night at the foot of the bed you'll see i've got some gear and as well i've got the two jackeries uh the 500 watt power station here or the explorer 500 powers the edison bulb and as well it recharges my camera batteries throughout the day since i'm filming in the cold i have to recharge my batteries continuously because the cold depletes them quickly so this 500 watt power station has been a lifesaver for me and it's allowed me to document what i'm doing which i'm happy about and then i've got the explorer 1000 which powers this 200 watt space heater and since this is a 1 000 watt hour power station that means it can run this space heater for five hours continuously which is great news because i likely won't need to run it that long since this camper does retain the heat quite well as a matter of fact i've had the heat off for a little bit and it's still 22 degrees celsius in here and it's minus five degrees celsius outside so the reason why this camper can retain the heat so well is because we've insulated it well the walls have two and a half inches of foam board insulation the roof is four and a half inches thick with insulation and the floor is insulated as well for each snowmobile camper trip that i go on i always try to experiment with a different heating method so for my first trip i heated rocks over the fire placed them in ammo cans and put them inside the camper for the second trip i heated water over the fire and i filled some military canteens up put them in the camper as well and they were about the same as the the rocks they heated the camper for most of the night but eventually they lost their heat which wasn't too big of a deal because this camper is insulated for my third trip i used a copper coil heating system which worked extremely well but for this trip i wanted to heat the camper strictly with solar energy so i've used my solar panels to replenish my power station which in turn heats the space heater i'd have to say my favorite thing about this heating method is that i don't need to build a fire to generate the heat that i need and that saves me time whenever i do these camper trips i'm traveling all day long it takes me forever to set up the shots to return and get the cameras and just to drive to where i need to go so that takes me all day so by the time i get to where i need to go the sun's usually already going down and it's always been a race to build a fire to get the heat generated to get this camper warmed up for the night time this time it was a lot more leisurely i just pulled in at the end of the day i cooked my food on my little cook stove and i had my space heater running while i was making supper so by the time i was done the camper was all nice and warm hopped in and here i am now so it this has been by far the easiest method which i really appreciate and it's also great that it's it's renewable as long as the sun is shining i'm able to recharge my power station even on a cloudy day it can recharge just not as fast and i can heat the camper so that's really neat so i'm going to turn in for the night and i'll tell you how i did in the morning good morning everyone what i ended up doing last night was turning the heater back on and warming the camper up to 22 degrees celsius then i turned the heater off and went to sleep for the night and as i slept the camper gradually lost his heat of course because i wasn't heating the space but that was fine because i was in my sleeping bag at that point but when i woke up at 7 00 a.m the temperature had dropped to eight degrees celsius inside and it's minus eight degrees celsius outside so when i woke up i turned the heater back on and warmed the space back up so now i'm comfortable enough to get up out of my sleeping bag get ready for the day and get my gear together as well as people have been watching my snowmobile camper series i've gotten several comments from people saying you know you've got this really nice insulated camper why don't you just get a good quality sleeping bag and not worry about heating the camper space because all you need to worry about is heating your sleeping bag and that'll keep you warm and of course that's true but the reason why i want to heat the actual inside of the camper as well is because at five o'clock it gets dark so as soon as i jump in here there's things that i want to do before i actually go to sleep i want to write i want to read or listen to an audio book and get my gear ready for the next day and so as i've warmed the inside of the space it's made it possible for me to be up and moving still and so i only have to get back into my sleeping bag when i want to when it's time to sleep and then i can turn the heat off and have a good night's sleep so the whole idea behind building this camper was that i wanted to make winter camping as comfortable as possible i've put in my time i've done my camping in the snow in quincy's and snow huts i've slept in minus 20 degree and minus 30 degree temperatures and it is possible with the right gear but you have to be inside your sleeping bag for the entire night and i didn't want to be all cooped up like that when i built this camper so that's why i heat the entire inside just to make it comfortable [Music] uh if you have to use an axe to get into your frozen clothing in the morning [Music] you just might be a northerner some trail mix for my fair feathered friends if you're interested in seeing more snowmobile camper videos like this one i've added a link to the playlist in the video description below until next time my friends stay safe be well and god bless to film this episode i think i spent just as much time setting up my shots and running back to retrieve the camera as i did driving the snowmobile gopro start recording [Applause] anyway you get the idea

Channel: The Outsider

Views: 539,087

Keywords: outsider, the outsider, off grid, snowmobile, winter camping, hot tent, snowmobile camper, sled shelter, survival, cabin, diy, tiny cabin, van life

Id: 81PMZvG1VSE

Length: 23min 6sec (1386 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 20 2021