PC Gaming in a Van

People have been doing this sort of shit since they invented portable TVs you could fit inside vans. It's not new. A guy showed-off his TV to myfamily inside his custom van back in the 80s!

LED LCDs just make it way cheaper to power than an old CRT.
 
Remember when living in a van was discouraged?
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This actually looks pretty awesome. If I was single I'd definitely do something like this.
 
Been wondering about how to do this! Solar powered PC, that's pretty cool!!

Only caveat is that in his case, he doesn't really have a "gaming PC", but only a 230W laptop that needs to be powered. He's still able to get 16 hours out of it though. And if he put in LiFePO4 batteries, which unlike his AGM batteries that can't/shouldn't be discharged past 50%, LiFePO4 can be fully discharged. If he can afford to customize a van like that (unless he did everything himself and never used a mechanic or hired a handyman), can't imagine why he didn't go LiFePO4 - they're not *that* much more $ than an AGM battery, and pocket change comparatively speaking for all the money he may have put into the van build itself. [Guess he may not even need more if he can go 16 hours already, huh? I'm a dummy.]
 
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I enjoyed that he wouldn't come out and state the obvious, that he charges his system batteries when there is no sun with his van's engine aka a gas generator.
 
TangledThornz said:
If we didn't have kids my wife and I would probably be living the RV life. Though I doubt I'd be gaming again. RVs are for getting outside, ya know?
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I'm going to do some solo primitive living in US forests in 2 weeks for a while in this:
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It has a solar power inlet but in stock form only holds a single group 24 battery. And no interest in taking my PC with it :) In the future I may buy a van similar to his and then see about doing that set up, or I also plan to get into 18 wheel cargo hauling and was thinking setting up a computer in the cab wouldn't be a bad idea, so this video was very informative for that.
 
Axman said:
So you pre-ordered a Deck, right?
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I actually thought it would've been a perfect replacement, but I don't play enough to justify that, or want it right now. But that really is a perfect solution for a road warrior!
 
I have a 23.5' long fiberglass egg trailer, it has a NCASE m1 rig in it with a 5800x and a 6700xt. It has 800ah of LiFePO4 batteries and a 3kw inverter. This means I can run the air conditioning and the computer at the same time, or run the induction stove if the computer isn't very occupied. On longer trips during the Summer time I bring a 7kw Honda fuel injected generator so I can run more than one computer, the convection microwave, the stove, the air conditioner, a large sound system, and keep the truck's AGM batteries topped off. It has solar too but it's hard to fit more than 480 watts on top of it without having fold up ones that mount to the side during travel or doing ground mount panels. I bring 600w of those sometimes when it's really hot so I can park in the shade and yet still recoup some energy without generator noise.

I bring the generator in the Winter one time so far here in AR it got down to -1 F and stayed freezing for a week, got 6 years of snow in 2 days back in February of this year. The propane furnace uses a fair amount of electricity and it probably would have been fine but it felt good to run the onboard charger like a diesel electric submarine with the generator in the afternoons. Luckily it was very light snow, not heavy snow so it was easy to clean off of solar panels with a long broom and a medium ladder.
 
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Wade88 said:
I have a 23.5' long fiberglass egg trailer, it has a NCASE m1 rig in it with a 5800x and a 6700xt. It has 800ah of LiFePO4 batteries and a 3kw inverter. This means I can run the air conditioning and the computer at the same time, or run the induction stove if the computer isn't very occupied. On longer trips during the Summer time I bring a 7kw Honda fuel injected generator so I can run more than one computer, the convection microwave, the stove, the air conditioner, a large sound system, and keep the truck's AGM batteries topped off. It has solar too but it's hard to fit more than 480 watts on top of it without having fold up ones that mount to the side during travel or doing ground mount panels. I bring 600w of those sometimes when it's really hot so I can park in the shade and yet still recoup some energy without generator noise.

I bring the generator in the Winter one time so far here in AR it got down to -1 F and stayed freezing for a week, got 6 years of snow in 2 days back in February of this year. The propane furnace uses a fair amount of electricity and it probably would have been fine but it felt good to run the onboard charger like a diesel electric submarine with the generator in the afternoons. Luckily it was very light snow, not heavy snow so it was easy to clean off of solar panels with a long broom and a medium ladder.
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Pics? Sounds cool!
 
Not much to it it's an Oliver legacy elite ii with the lagun table. Stock they come with 6v golf cart batteries x4 and a crummier inverter, AGMs optional. No window on my NCASE, it's just black looks like any other ncase. The computer mounts in a cabinet that has a couple of Noctua iPPC-3000 PWM fans in it for intake and exhaust. A 27" 1440p monitor folds down from the ceiling. They sell for 70-90k USD, add a bit more for the lithium and the bigger inverter, the generator, their solar package sucks so beware. It is kind of worth buying though because they drill nice holes for it and provide wire chase areas that are suitable for the modifications.

They make them in a tiny little town called Hohenwald, TN. https://olivertraveltrailers.com/
 
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Furious Nerd said:
I'm going to do some solo primitive living in US forests in 2 weeks for a while in this:
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It has a solar power inlet but in stock form only holds a single group 24 battery. And no interest in taking my PC with it :) In the future I may buy a van similar to his and then see about doing that set up, or I also plan to get into 18 wheel cargo hauling and was thinking setting up a computer in the cab wouldn't be a bad idea, so this video was very informative for that.
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"solo primitive camping" - please

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Meanwhile I'm here's day three of eight on the motorcycle.
 
Furious Nerd said:
Nice, yeah, actively been thinking about this "downgrade" in the future. What do you do about food and water - do you have to head to town like every day? A cooler and a couple NATO jerry cans seem like it'd be impossible to carry on a cycle
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I keep a bunch of waters with me. Always. Food, I'll stop somewhere. After 550 miles in a day, gas station food isn't half bad. I'll take a few apples with me. Granola bars. That sort of thing. I don't stay in one spot. I'll travel multiple states in a week.

Oh, and this is my bad. We're in General Gaming, not General Mayhem. I just noticed that. oops
 
I liked to camp like that when I had only one dog but then I got married and my wife wanted one and eventually now we have two German Shepherds and two Doberman Pinschers. Crew cab truck and RV is the ticket for 330lbs of dogs unless you don't mind being restricted to where motorhomes can roam.
 
I'm subbed to him on YouTube, definitely an awesome thing, but he quit van life :ROFLMAO:

There's a bunch of issues that are hard to solve when you live in a vehicle. You can't have a ton of clothes, and the ones you have need to be washed regulary.
Showering - he actually has that in the back of his van, but it's not a 30 min shower that I would love, haha.
And also he does have a video why it's not cheaper to live in a van compared to renting an appartment.
 
Furious Nerd said:
I'm going to do some solo primitive living in US forests in 2 weeks for a while in this:
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I did enough of this in the US Army, lol. Seriously, no more crapping in the woods for me.

If I was gonna go RV I'd get a Black Series HQ19. They look cool AF!
 
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