We’re Jenn and Elliot, a couple of high school sweethearts who took a year off to travel the world in 2019. After the global pandemic caused us to be stuck in India for 5 months, we decided to come back home to the United States and begin our next adventure: cruising around America's Great Loop! Follow along our journey as we learn how to navigate the US waterways, explore the towns and cities along the loop, and figure out our life on the water.
Cheers,
Jenn and Elliot
Пікірлер
Must be nice to be living on daddies' doe or inheritance.
I must have missed it? Where is Ollie? John in VA
It sure has been a great boat... and the bottom still looks great after all that time in the water ❤
So happy you got to enjoy Maine and sailing with your good friends❤
You did an outstanding job of documenting all the expenses.. Personally, I think staying overnight at a marina is a luxury and hard for me to justify on a fixed income. But hey anyone that can afford it, and by all means go for it
My brother Steve's ashes are of the peoria pier. He bought a boat in Chesapeake bay did the upper loop back here too Peoria. They called him Captain Steve !
Looking forward to following this adventure. Hope you have ordered the VANity licence plates 😉Lots of options ❤
Dang - as a Chattanooga local I'm bummed that you only went to the Leaping Leprachaun! If you wind up back here walk a bit further to Hair of the Dog, Brewhaus, Basecamp, Universal Joint, etc!
Into boats not RV’s but you guys are so good at what you do I’m going to give this pivot a chance…👍👍
Great video. We’re going there in a couple of months. I just wish we could bring your aunt and uncle! They had so much knowledge. Thanks!😊
That’s so sweet, hope you enjoy your trip 😁
I live in lakefield and i also lived in buckhorn. So i have done a lock or 2 in the last 20 years or so. But in my experience i have lock lines and dock lines. My lock lines may be 12ft lines and my dock lines were at least double. I found it saves not only time but a hazard on the deck.
On my first van build, ram Pro 159 extended. I have learned so much. I am 80% done and loving it. You will find you will make a lot of changes during your build. Plan on doing as many hours in research as actually working on the van. With Amazon prime I was able to save a fortune on shipping. I love my propane, stove oven combo. it’s a must if you want to do a lot of Boondocking. oh, I also have alternator charging 800 watts of solar on the roof with 15 kW of lithium battery. I will follow you on your journey through your van built. Good luck.
I have a question about your "Pivot" era. For your solar panels on Pivot, you chose flexible panels. Though hard panels are supposed to be 15% more efficient. Why did you choose flexible panels? I'm deciding what style of panels to put on my trawler.
This is way smaller than Pivot, eh? :)
Have you sold your boat yet? If not, I’d be interested in buying it.
Just curious: Why not carry the bicycles on a lockable external bike rack? Also, I have a folding bicycle that takes 1/3 of the space of a full size bicycle. I carry it in the truck of my car. Just throwing that out there.
The fact you got through great lakes unscathed is awesome
Curious which model compost toilet that it ?
You guys amazing I am with every whewe you can go Good luck Both of you Greting from Fethiye Turkey❤
I highly recommend to look into “Montague” foldable Mountainbikes as they would cut the storage space you would need for it in half.
Glad you have started KZread videos for the build. Looking forward to all the future videos as well. Good luck with this project.
An exciting new adventure! Have fun with the build! Where will Ollie sleep?
@1:49 That's Paris Landing! That's right down the road for me.
Soooo excited to see the van come to life! 🎉🚐 Loving the plans so far!
Check out Trent & Allie van build and life on the road They had an oven in their van They also had a company Mountain Made Vans creating similar vans tp custom order Good ideas
The beginning this video stressed my wife and i out, but overall, what a beautiful journey. I hope to do the loop one day. Beautiful narrating and everything else.
Way to go, Jennifer and Elliot! You're off to a great start and we're excited to follow the process with you. BTW, we saw Pivot as she cruised by us on the Oswego Canal just a few days ago. She looked good and it made us happy to see her in her happy place. 😎 Onward!
That's awesome! We're soo happy she's on the Loop again :)
It was great to see your plans for Pivot II! It looks like it is going to be amazing! Happy building!
Thanks Suzanne!
Why not just buy an RV?
An RV isn't really what we're looking for next for a few reasons. The great thing about the van is its maneuverable to where we can park in a parking spot anywhere! It also gets really great mileage! Plus this way we get to design our home exactly the way we want it!
One thing that many people who convert vans do not figure is the weight that they are adding to the van. It’s definitely worth doing at least a rough calculation of all the weights that you will be adding to your specific van. Check out the actual weight for your specific van and the gross vehicle weight rating, and then add all of your conversion materials, the weights for you guys and your dog, and see where it looks like you will end up. Lightweight construction techniques will contribute to keeping you legal should their ever be an accident. It will reduce your fuel and maintenance costs, and keep the van’s center of gravity and overall weight lower, contributing greatly to overall handling and off-road capabilities. It’s just a suggestion but the weight being added to your van does really add up quickly. Cheers, Rog
Great tips! Yes we have a weight spreadsheet that we are constantly updating when we pick a new component. We are good so far, but with wood and all the little things, it will be tighter than we would like. We plan to weigh the van as soon as we're done to see where we stand. We are trying to be very thoughtful about the construction and not over-engineer or weigh down things unnecessarily! Thanks, Rog!
You are just about to arrive in my home town Kingston, where I will be returning later this year after being away for too many years
Guys no! Not a Mercedes pos
We wrote a blog post about why we got a Mercedes but we're very happy with it so far!
Sad you’re not doing boat life. Seams like a down grade “van life”
It seems like an upgrade to us! We are very excited for this next chapter, where we had the sea now we get the mountains! All great experiences :)
Welcome to the world of RV'ing! Will you have a grey holding tank or are your plans to use portable totes? That's a major difference between RV's and boats...
For sure! We'll be under-mounting our grey holding tank!
Are you keeping or selling Pivot? I’m not completely finished with the Loop series yet but still watching and starting to lightly plan for mine someday. I’ve learned a lot from watching you guys. Thank you!🙏
We sold Pivot and she's back on the Loop around the Thousand Islands! Best of luck on your adventure
How about 2 foldable elec bikes. Also 2 blow up kayaks.
We'd love to be able to fit some kayaks in! We'll see :) We plan to do some bike packing like Ragbrai so we'll probably need fixed bikes instead of foldable ones, although the space saving would be awesome!
Forget the settee area…..Base your work being done from the swivel “helm chairs”…Enlarge head and storage closet…Eliminate propane
We aren't doing propane, all electric in this build out! We will probably have swivel seats but don't want that for our work area because this is our full time home. Living and driving all those hours in car seats is not what we are looking for :) Cheers!
Now that its July, we are having days that with the heat index, the afternoon high temps are 100°+ along wirh some heavy rains. Good luck in dealing with the heat, humidity and the rains. My only question is, what kind of provisions are you making for Ollie? Best of luck with the build.
Yea its soooo hot!! We'll definitely make sure Ollie has her comfortable spots for both driving and lounging. Just like the boat, she'll find and claim the best spot around :)
Definitely a possibility to make the captain and passenger seats Pivot (swivel) 180 so you can use those as interior seating.
Absolutely!
Hi guys. It's your friendly Canadian boater. Who was also a long distance trucker who lived in cramped areas for most of his life. Your plans for the van is awesome. But remember in the boat, You had decks to get outside and relax. If you don't have that, claustrophobia will get to you. In my truck, at truck stops I would go in to socialize just to get out of my truck. Get a roll up awning that is 12' long stays on the van over the side with middle doors. You can get them with screened in sides that attached. When stopped for any length of time, your inside protected living area is over double the size. Plus views all around and bugs that want to enjoy you as their meal can't get at you. You can get stainless or plastic or steel ( stainless is the best that hook on to trailer hitches at your back bumper. A fair sized storage box for outdoor furniture. I say the trailer hitch type because you can remove it if needed to easily. Anyhow, just a couple of suggestions. Good luck with your project
how about "To Pivot"? Sorry to see the boat adventure end, but looks like your next step is shaping up nicely.
Could you store the bikes on the back of the van to free up the space under the bed for other items? Thanks for mentioning the Lagun table system. We will look into that for our boat before embarking on our 2nd loop. Looking forward to watching the van build and your Pivot II land adventures.
Thanks yall! We may end up putting bikes on the back, but if we can fit them inside it’ll be really nice not to worry about moving them in and out of the van for safety!
I hope you've gotten PIVOT2 tags for the van.
Suggestion to put hooks down where your bikes are to hang seasonal wear.
Great idea!
A couple thoughts: you will need some way to handle your gray water from the kitchen and shower. Also what about heat or ac? Maybe an ecoflow wave would be a good solution.
Going to have a gray tank under the van! And good suggestion for Ecoflow. We did a deep dive and looked into it for our build but it just didn’t quite work for us. A great system nonetheless!
The boat is way cooler
👍
My friend did the loop in 2007 in a 50 foot cruisers 500, two 710 hp Volvo penta truck engines, they spent 30,000 on diesel fuel alone!
Wow! Not that surprising, different strokes for different folks 😁
Wow! *Their house is in the outskirts of the outskirts of Tirana 😅
Only a short 30ish min walk to the city center 😁
@@SchoandJo that’ll be a marathon walk if you ask me 😂 Nevertheless, I do appreciate them appreciating everything 👍
I’ve watched you all the way back to Chattanooga Tn. You passed by our home on the Cumberland through Ashland city Tn. I wish we knew you then we would have met you at the river restaurant waving you on your journey. Would have loved to have done this in our younger days. Can’t wait to finish this journey with you on utube! Thanks for sharing ❤ Aaron and Theresa Nelson Charlotte Tn.