RV Miles Podcast Introduction
ABC Upfitters was honored to be featured on the RV Miles Podcast—a must-listen weekly show covering expert interviews, campground reviews, and the latest industry news for RV enthusiasts! Join hosts Jason and Abby as they chat with ABC Upfitters’ own Scott Herman about power upgrades for off-grid boondocking. Don’t miss this insightful conversation!
Jason and Abby Introduction
Jason: What do you really need when it comes to an off-grid power system upgrade for your RV? Is it worth spending all the money to get all the solar and the batteries? Who are you as a camper, and when and why should you do these upgrades? Today, we’re going to talk to ABC Upfitters about the system they installed into our rig, which is awesome! We’ll discuss when you might want to consider upgrading and some of the common misconceptions people have about off-grid solar and battery power systems. This is RV Miles! Welcome to episode number 353 of RV Miles. I’m Jason.
Abby: And I’m Abby! We are two RVers who, along with our three boys, Jack, Ethan, and Henry, have been crisscrossing North America on one epic road trip since 2016. Here at RV Miles, we talk about all things RV and outdoors, from industry news to travel destinations, solar, and so much more.
Jason: I’m very excited about this show because we get to talk to Scott Herman from ABC Upfitters about the system they installed in our rig. We took a week off because we’ve been moving.
Abby: It was an unplanned, but much-needed break because you all did not want to hear Jason and me try to get through a podcast after 24 hours of non-stop moving. It would not have been good.
Jason: Before that, we went up to Elkhart to pick up the new Saber 37 RV Miles. The day we picked it up, we took it to ABC Upfitters, who did the upfit. A lot of people don’t know that if you go up to Elkhart, there are many options for upgrades. You can do a solar and battery system upgrade, have jacks upgraded, put a new roof on—there’s all sorts of stuff you can do in that area. Some people make a trip out of it, staying in a hotel while their rig gets upgraded.
Abby: We highly recommend working with professionals who specialize in the specific upgrade you need. It makes a huge difference. Have professionals who know what they’re doing at this particular thing that you want to have upfitted – have them do it. It is unbelievable what the experience is for you when you are not the one, (no shade to the dealers) but when you are working with people who actually do this, only this, for a living. It is a night and day experience for you, the RVer.
Jason: This is something we’ll talk about in the interview as well. I spoke with Scott Herman from ABC Upfitters about the system they installed and the things people need to consider. We covered misconceptions, my own experience with upgrades on our previous two RVs, and when and why someone might choose to DIY, let a RV dealer handle it, or go to a specialized company. When you’re investing in a significant upgrade, it might be worth considering a company like this. This isn’t for everybody, but for serious RVers, it’s something to consider. I really enjoyed my time at ABC and interviewing Scott.
Abby: Let’s rewind a bit and talk about our week. You left on a Monday with Jack because I couldn’t go pick up the rig and be part of the interview due to other commitments with our other two kids. Jack went to help you film and be extra hands. You left on a Monday, you arrived at ABC Upfitters on Tuesday, picked up the rig, did the interview, and spent time with the team. They’re fantastic people, it’s a joy to be around them
Jason: They also provide a very detailed tutorial on the system. While we were there, they also installed a DC-to-DC charger in our truck, which we’ll talk about in the interview. The installation took about two hours.
Abby: On Tuesday, after the install, you and Jack hitched up the 37 RV Miles and drove back to the Quad Cities. You had to go through South Chicago suburbs during rush hour – what a joy. The construction there is never ending. They’ve been working on that stretch of I-80 for 20 years.
Jason: Once they finish, they’ll probably have to start over again. The worst part about that is, they put the big concrete K-rails right at the edge of the line. It should be one lane, but it’s two lanes. It’s so stressful. So you’re with all of these semi-trucks and you’re all very close.
Abby: You just hope it’s not a windy day.
So they get back. We time it so that I can go and meet him at our storage unit to help him back it into the garage, because we have a covered spot for it. We’re trying to time it so that I can help him do this before I have to go pick up Ethan from rehearsal. He arrives with about 15 minutes for me to help him do this. So, we frantically, thankfully, get it in there, trying to figure out the perfect position inside this covered area because we want to be able to get into it and open slides and none of that is going to be possible.
Jason: We rented a 50ft x 14ft wide garage, and we thought 14ft would be just enough for us to get the slides out.
Abby: Silly, silly Jason and Abby.
Jason: It’s not. Maybe if we figured out how to get it in there perfectly. We went through the whole thing of like, “oh we can’t get the stairs down,” which if you don’t know, if you’ve got the solid steps, the ones that actually touch the ground that fold down, they come off. They come off for exactly this purpose – for when you put them in storage. So, you just take them off, because often in storage, you’re too tight to something else to put a little step ladder there, so we had to do that.
Abby: So, that is Tuesday at 7 o’clock. I rush to get Ethan from rehearsal, we go back to the apartment in Milin and now we have Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, where we’re packing the final bits of packing.
Jason: We were probably 50% packed at that.
Abby: Yeah, we were at the place where, if anyone has moved, you all know you’re at the place now where the essentials can start being packed up. Like there’s a whole level of stuff you just can’t pack yet because you’re still living in your space. So, we’re at that stage of the packing, and then in all of that, you produced three videos last week.
Jason: We had a certain number of content we had to do for the month, and it was a short month, so that week had an extra video in it.
Abby: America’s national parks has come back, we’re getting ready to kick off a new season, there’s going to be a new name associated with this, there’s a lot of really exciting things happening with America’s national parks. And, it kicked off with the news from the parks episode which is that monthly that we do, not only on the RV Miles YouTube channel, but also for the America’s National Parks Podcast. So, if you haven’t subscribed to that yet, you should, because news from the parks is leaving the RV miles Channel and we’ll talk more about that on the next episode. But, it’s leaving that channel and it’s going to go to its new home.
You produce the news video on Monday, you do the Thursday video, and then Friday morning, movers show up at 9 a.m. and for the next seven to eight hours we have movers who are moving us out and then moving us into the new place. So, we were going to go on Saturday morning and come down to the office. We were going to record the podcast and then you were going to edit that and it was going to get out on Sunday mornings like it normally does. It became very clear, Friday, that there was no way in heck we were doing that. Our brains had shut down. We had a living situation that we needed to deal with, we needed to take the weekend. So, we made the decision. We couldn’t even form sentences to one another. It was just like – “hey, you look for thing, “there now.”
Jason: We thought we already had an interview recorded, so, it’s a lighter episode. I also got an oil change in the middle that week.
Abby: So there was a lot going on. You know, we don’t like putting things out that feel subpar to us, personally. We could have, but we were like, “this isn’t something we would be proud to produce,” so, we decided to hold it and come back this week a little bit fresher. We’re like 70-80% unpacked in the house now. It’s starting to feel comfortable and like a home, and we’re able to kind of form sentences and think through things a little bit more now. And, we’re excited to be back here and to be able to share this interview and get back into the swing of things.
We’re only in the office for a few more weeks and then we’re out of here. We’re back on the road.
Jason: We hit the road one month from today.
Abby: Yeah, so we’ve got to get the house unpacked and settled because we have the 37 RV miles sitting in storage waiting for us to come over there and get it prepped.
Jason: We’ve got a lot to do on that. We haven’t touched a thing on that, so we’re thinking about getting a campsite for a week and just parking it there.
Abby: Well, I want to for sure. I mean, take age-old advice that not only we have shared, but many have shared as well. We need a shakedown trip before we start traveling thousands and thousands of miles. That just has to happen.
Jason: But we were hoping we could get everything ready in the storage unit and then and then move it and do a weekend shakedown trip. Not happening.
Abby: I think we’re going to not stay in the storage unit though. It’s not what we need it to be.
Jason: It’s too expensive. If we’re going to spend that kind of money we needed the access, and we don’t have the access that we need.
Abby: We were also under the impression too, that it was going to be climate controlled and it’s not. It’s really nice, it’s beautiful, but it’s not climate controlled.
Jason: But the problem I’m having though, is in terms of affordability, and what we would like protection for it, we would like to at least have a covered storage here. I have not. I’ve only been able to find outdoor storage completely uncovered or I’m getting a garage which is very expensive and not just a regular covered storage.
Abby: We’ve been doing this for 9 years now, we’ve been RVers. But in nine years, this is really the first time we have ever had to deal with the logistics of storage like this. So yes, we’ve had the 37 FLL and we have the IBACs in a storage unit, but that’s just like on some family property that you know, it’s just parked there.
This is like a level of, “look we need something that’s longterm.” We need something that’s a little bit closer to us. It’s a lot of things that a lot of people have to deal with if they can’t keep the rig at home in their driveway or in a space that they’ve created for it.
This is so new to us and it’s wild to me that you can still be nine years into this lifestyle and still be experiencing things that are brand new. Whereas some people have been, you know, this is an active part of their RVing life. It has not been a part of our active RV life for the first nine years.
Jason: So now there is one benefit to the fact that we may have to end up putting this rig outdoors, uncovered. And that is that we have a really awesome solar and battery setup now that will just run the fridge and everything, and ABC Upfitters of course, put all that in for us. We’ll get to essentially let this rig run as it wants to sit outdoors so it’s just got a life of its own.
Abby: What a wonderful way to segue into an interview that you did all about the solar system and so much more. So, here’s that interview.
RV Miles Podcast Interview | Scott Herman from ABC Upfitters
Jason: I’m here with Scott Herman from ABC Upfitters. Scott, thanks so much for coming on the show.
Scott: Thanks for having me.
Jason: We’re just about ready to take our rig from you. You’ve been working on it for the past week, installing this wonderful system. I’d like to talk about what we’ve put in this unit in a little bit, but first, let’s talk about off-grid electrical system upgrades—solar, batteries, and inverters. Can we start by talking about what’s possible these days? There has been a lot of advancement in technology over the past 10 or 20 years. The biggest question people always have is, “Can I run an air conditioner?” Not only is that possible now, but so much more.
Scott: Absolutely. One of the things we pride ourselves on here is making it possible to run your entire RV, whether you’re plugged into shore power or not. We do that through solar as one of the charging sources, but you also need a place to store your energy. Big lithium battery banks and large, high-capacity inverters convert 12V power from the battery and convert it into 110V to run things like air conditioning and anything else you’d plug into an outlet.
Yes, we hear “solar system” all the time—people ask if we “do solar.” Yes, it’s one of the charging sources we do. However, a solar panel isn’t running an air conditioner. It’s simply a good charging source to get energy into a battery bank. So, it is a part of the system, but it is not the system as a whole. It’s simply a nice, passive charging source.
Jason: So it’s really become a resource management game. You can do a lot of whatever you want to do, but it’s “how long can you do it,” and how quickly can you refill that battery capacity, whether through solar panels, or a DC-to-DC charger from your truck, or you’re plugged in – whatever it might be.
Scott: Solar is one of those things where you see “solar” on the side or “solar-prepped.” There’s a number of different things that different manufacturers are doing that people have this idea that, “well it’s solar-prepped, I can do whatever I want.” And ultimately, that’s usually not the case. It’s solar, in addition to the other parts of the system. A single 200W panel, what we say is “at noon in June,” in ideal conditions, you’ll probably see about 10amps coming in from that panel. If you consider what 10 amps can do in an RV, it’s not a lot.
Jason: If something is coming with solar from the factory, that’s pretty standard. It’s going to be a 200-watt panel, maybe a couple of them if you’re lucky right now.
Scott: That’s a good rule of thumb—a 200 watt panel at noon in June under ideal conditions brings in 10 amps. If you double it, it’s simply 20 amps coming in under ideal conditions.
Jason: Now that most RVs are coming with DC refrigerators and you don’t have the ability to run your refrigerator off of propane anymore, I feel like that’s almost a necessity now. It’s not quite enough to even keep you going if you’re not doing any sort of upgrade whatsoever.
Scott: The idea of that single panel kind of being more of a battery tender rather than a single panel that’s going to fully charge your battery is important. We’re going to offset the 10-amp draw from the tiny refrigerator. If you have a bigger refrigerator, like the one you have in here, two panels might be more realistic. But, the sun goes down.
Jason: On the RV manufacturer side, we’re seeing more of these “checking off a box” situations. It’s “solar-prepped,” or it has solar on it, and that’s what the customer sees on the lot. They think, “Oh, it has solar, I’m interested in that,” but those systems can generally be expanded—but not by much.
Scott: It’s really limited to what the solar controller can handle. A small B-van might come with a 10-amp solar controller, which means a 200-watt panel is maxing that solar controller out. If you have a 30-amp solar controller, you might be able to get 600 watts on there, which would be three 200-watt panels. But if you want to go bigger, you’ll need to upgrade your solar controller or add additional solar controllers.
Jason: You might not even be able to upgrade the controller if the wiring isn’t big enough.
Scott: Correct. Everything we do is parallel panels. The reason we do that is to keep away from high voltage. Some people wire panels in series, but that significantly increases voltage, and RVI isn’t a huge fan of that. Best practice for us is to parallel those panels and keep the voltage the same.
Jason: If I bought an RV and came to you, you could add a lithium battery, a couple of panels, and upgrade the system to the max it could be from the factory install. But that’s not really what you all do here. You do serious upgrades from the ground up, installing an entire charging system. So, talk to me about the system we’ve installed on our rig and the equipment you use. Because you’ve got an interesting setup where you’re using the same brand and it all works together. Walk me through this system and why you’ve gone that route.
Scott: Yeah, ultimately, we’re partners with Mastervolt, and it’s been a great relationship for us. The beauty of it is that Mastervolt manufactures everything—the battery, the solar controller, the inverter, the DC-to-DC charger. Every component in the system is made by Mastervolt and is physically connected with Cat 5 or Cat 6 data cables.
Ultimately, the system is constantly communicating with itself. The neat thing about it is that if the battery management system (BMS) detects a voltage outside of the set parameters, there are safety measures put in place to essentially take the battery offline and protect it. One of the keys for us is that you have one number to call. If you have an issue with anything in the system, you only have one number to call—us.
There are a lot of folks who have my respect, the DIY crowd. There are people who can do amazing things, but if your battery is from one brand, your inverter is from another, and your solar controller is from somewhere else, who gets the first phone call when there’s an issue? And when you call, the first question they’ll ask you is, “What is it communicating with?” followed by, “What other brands are involved, and who did the install?”
We’re offering a turnkey upgrade. You come here, you drop your rig off, and prior to that, we have a conversation to understand exactly what you’re looking for. If you just want to keep your refrigerator cold for the weekend, this isn’t the route for you—we have simpler solutions for that, like drop-in lithium batteries. But if you want to run your air conditioner overnight, that requires an entirely different system.
Jason: That process usually starts some weeks prior to getting to know the customer through emails and phone calls. If you say, “I don’t like to camp in the desert, I prefer to camp in the trees,” then a roof full of solar panels isn’t the best option. In that case, we’d explore something like a DC-to-DC charger instead. You choose where to put your money based on your ideal camping situation —whether you’re completely off-grid or doing a hybrid of different camping scenarios.
Scott: And we get to work with end users, which is kind of unique in the RV industry. It’s something we really cherish. Our install tech is an artist—he does beautiful work—but you get to talk to him at the end. We’re going to sit down with you and go through everything we installed, and then we’re going to run through and train you on how to use it in different scenarios. You can do beautiful work and install high-quality systems, but the system is only as good as the customer’s understanding of it.
The system we installed for you is beautiful. You have two 460 amp-hour batteries, so your total battery bank is 920 amp-hours. We’re running one of your 50-amp legs through our inverter, a 3,500-watt inverter and it is also a 200-amp charger. So when you plug into shore power, you can charge your battery bank at 200 amps per hour, ultimately you’re able to fill up your battery bank very quickly.
Jason: So, talk to me about that because if I have a 30-amp RV, all the power is running straight through one 30-amp circuit. But on a 50-amp RV, and correct me if I’m wrong, we’ve actually got two 50-amp circuits. So the system is from the factory split, with some stuff on one of those 50-amp breakers and the vast majority of stuff on the other one, right?
So, what you can do here—you could set us up for more money with the ability to run absolutely everything. But there are just a couple of things on that second breaker, like our electric fireplace, that we wouldn’t really want to run off the batteries anyway, unless we were crazy and really wanted to heat the RV off battery power, which I understand is fairly difficult to do.
Scott: Yeah, can be done—inefficient. I mean, ultimately, it’s the customer’s preference.
Jason: You can change what’s on what and move things around, right?
Scott: Yep, and you and I had an email conversation about—what your preference was. Would you rather have that fireplace or run a second air conditioner on that leg? And so, again, that is the beauty of being able to custom-tailor to what the individual wants.
Jason: Right, so for me, I chose the second air conditioner because not that I’m going to run both air conditioners at the same time off the batteries, but I want to have the ability to choose one or the other depending on our situation.
Scott: Yeah, and that is probably the most common. And ultimately, what it all boils down to is logic. Okay, well, we’re going to hang out in the living room and kitchen during the day, but when we’re going to bed, we don’t need to cool that. Let’s just have the bedroom AC on—
Jason: which is the same decision I would make if we’re plugged into 30-amp power at a campground without any upgrades. I’m not usually running both air conditioners on that. So again, it’s all resource management.
I’m sure you have people who come in and say, “I want to be able to run everything.” What does that mean? I see people in Facebook groups all the time asking, “What generator do I need to buy to be able to run my 50-amp fifth wheel?” It’s just not that simple as that. Or, it is, but you’re towing around a giant generator with you.
Scott: Speaking of generators, that is another great feature that this system has. You can dial the AC limit down to only take in what you’ve told it to. For example, we have a similar system in our show trailer, and I bring a Honda 2200 generator to show people. I show people that it’s charging the battery bank, running off a little Honda 2200, and it’s the only thing it’s plugged into. Then I turn on the microwave and I’ll turn on the air conditioner so the compressor kicks on, and it’s running both of those at the same time. A lot of people are dumbfounded that I’m plugged into a Honda 2200.
Jason: Because it can balance the load and pull from both.
Scott: Ultimately, the power share feature says, “I’m pulling from this generator, but only so much. Now I need more power, so I’m going to take what I need from the 12-volt battery and keep everything running seamlessly.”
Jason: The same applies if I want to plug into a household 15-amp outlet in a garage. You still have the ability to power more than you normally could.
Scott: Yeah, the mooch-docking crowd is very popular around here. The ability to just plug into your 15-amp standard garage outlet to keep the batteries charged up and make sure everything is ready before a big trip—it’s a breeze with this system. I don’t have a dedicated 50-amp at my house, and it’s never been an issue.
Jason: What are some of the misconceptions people have when they come to you about these systems? I’m thinking about the cost of batteries and the influx in the market with some of the cheap Chinese batteries available. People wonder why they should spend this much when they can buy something with the same capacity for $500.
There are so many options out there, and the choices can be overwhelming. How do you guide a customer to understand what they should actually be getting for their money?
Scott: Ultimately, it comes down to the BMS—the battery management system- and what it’s telling you. The BMS tells the cells in the battery what to do, what to charge at, what to draw. There’s a lot of options out there that are dirt-cheap, which are very popular among the DIY crowd. Again, for me, it comes back to: what are you connecting it to?
The BMS is really the limiting factor. You could have a 460-amp-hour battery that’s the same size as ours but only have a 100- or 150-amp BMS. Meaning you won’t be able to charge or discharge at what this system can do. Our batteries can charge and discharge at 500 amps continuously. They’re premium system batteries, designed to work with everything else within the system, versus drop-in batteries you can get on Amazon for a few hundred bucks. You need to do your homework. What is the BMS allowing you to do? Is my wire sizing correct? What are the limitations of my inverter? There are a lot of calculations to happen to determine whether or not it’s a good fit.
Jason: I’ve gone the DIY route myself, and even with electrical experience, it was still a lot of difficulties. I learned a lot through the process, and it’s about knowing how much power you have. Sometimes you just don’t have that vision of —when am I going to run out of battery power, how much solar am I bringing in, how much time is it going to take to charge. Having an integrated system where everything talks to each other really makes sense now that I’ve gone through that process. It smooths things out and relieves some of the anxiety, especially if you don’t want to haul a generator around with you – which we’re not going to do. Then you don’t need to figure out what you’re going to do if you run out of power.
Scott: Yeah, we hear about battery anxiety often. We’ve had a lot of DIYers like yourself who say, “I’ve learned my lesson, and I don’t want to do it again.” I’ve taken out a lot of DIY systems and replaced them with ours. The lack of battery anxiety with this system is huge because you can see everything in real time—what your draws are.
For example, I’ve got my AC on, my refrigerator running, my lights on, and it tells me I have eight and a half hours of runtime left. Maybe I’ve made dinner, cleaned up—it recalculates every 5-10 seconds based on the loads you’re using. The beauty of this system is that it is also going to take into consideration what you’re bringing in.
You guys have 1,200 watts of solar on the roof. If you’re headed out skiing out west on a sunny day, that’s going to bring in 55 to 60 amps. So when you come back from an afternoon skiing, you see that not only did you keep the rig warm, but you’ve also charged your battery. Being able to see everything visually in front of you and not have to go “how much runtime is left” or “how long is it going to be until we fill-up?” We want it to be really easy to manage and interpret what is going on.
Jason: One of the things we’ve been talking a bit about here is the focus on solar and off-grid systems in the RV industry over the last, um, however long, which has driven some innovation in the efficiency of some units. We talked about the DC fridges, but also, air conditioners are all over the place in terms of how much power they draw, right?
Scott: Yeah, absolutely. We’ve seen an influx of AC manufacturers that are going, “hey, we’ve gotta make this more efficient, we’ve gotta make it lower profile.” I love that the boondocking crowd is driving manufacturers to look at this and go, “well, it does make sense.”
You know, for years, you RV’d where you could plug in, or you weren’t using an air conditioner, period. That’s changed, and a large part of that has to do with this off-grid community. We’re seeing now 15K ACs and larger pulling under 1,000 watts.
Jason: The 15K AC is generally the larger AC that’s put on most RVs. There’s usually like the 13.5K and then the 15K.
Scott: Yeah, yeah. So, a 20-foot trailer might have a 15K, but probably a 13.5K would fit. We do a lot of B vans that have 11K. But yeah, a big fifth wheel, you’re seeing usually 215Ks or sometimes more. We’ve had rigs come in here that are older, mid-2015, and those are pulling sometimes over 2,000 watts.
You have got to explain to a customer that this beautiful system is still limited to the efficiency of what you have on there. Yeah. And a lot of times, we’ll have folks say, “Hey, let’s just upgrade the air conditioner to a more efficient one because we want to make good use of our upgrade.”
Jason: Those efficiency gains are great for all of us, whether we’re plugging in or not—saving us money and all that. I think that there’s always this conversation of like, “Well, my generator can run my air conditioner.” “Mine can’t.” And maybe that has a lot more to do with the air conditioner that’s up there than anything else.
Scott: Yeah. So, a lot of folks are kind of focused on having a soft start. And again, it’s good technology. Instead of getting the initial spike and then kind of lowering down, they’re more building up to that fully ramped-up compressor. Ultimately, when you put in a big inverter, like a 3500-watt inverter, you don’t necessarily need the soft start.
Jason: It’s really about, from my understanding, not tripping a circuit in that initial draw.
Scott: Exactly. And again, yes, you’ve got the big inverter, so it’s not as much of a concern. When it’s fully cycled on, and it’s been on for 10 minutes or whatever, at that point, that soft start isn’t doing anything to make the AC run more efficiently—it’s just during the initial surge.
Jason: So, we’re in Elkhart, Indiana, the RV capital of the world. Eighty percent of RVs are manufactured here. You guys are here, and you have this shop where you can come in, do upfitting, and you can add these systems on. You’ve done some other cool stuff for us, like you’ve added some underglow lighting, and right now, you’re installing the DC-to-DC charger on our truck.
So, coming up here, it’s an experience where, unfortunately, you’d probably have to stay at a hotel for a few nights. But you could come, drop off your rig, and have some work done on it—to really do a system like this, done by professionals that are focused on this. Why wouldn’t you do that at your dealership?
Scott: Our installer does RV electric—that’s what he does. He’s a master. And he’s an artist. I think for me, you have access to him. So, we’re done with the upfit, it’s been a couple of days, and then you come back. You drop in at 1:30 in the afternoon, and you have our attention until you leave. It’s all the same manufacturer.
Jason: They’re very experienced with the equipment, using the same stuff every single day.
Scott: Yes. You have a question? You call and talk to me. If I can’t answer it, you’re going to talk to Mike, our install tech, or our engineer, Josh. You have that personal touch—not always the experience that you would get at a dealership. You may have multiple people on the team that are working on it, multiple techs. Whereas if you come here, the same person is going to do the job. We know our customers. We take extensive photos during the install, so afterwards, when there is a question, one of the things I didn’t mention about the system prior is that there’s a USB interface that you can plug into your laptop wherever you are. If you have internet access, that allows us to remote into the system. Whether we use a Zoom call or a Teams call to share your screen, we can remote into Master Volt’s proprietary software. We can see everything that’s going on in your system and help troubleshoot. If something needed to be reprogrammed, that wouldn’t be an issue for us. I want the customer to be educated because I expect phone calls. I expect to hear from my customers, but if I don’t train them well enough to have a good grasp of the system, then I need to do that. I don’t know if that’s the same level of customer service that you might get at a dealership.
Jason: Yeah, I mean, I think the industry has done a better job of, as we talked about earlier, making these systems a little bit more upgradeable from the factory. They’re trying to do stuff where they’re training dealerships to be like, “Okay, your converter is lithium-ready, and you can throw in a couple of lithium batteries. You can expand the solar panels to be whatever the limit is on the wiring and the controller.”
For me, if I want to go to somebody that’s an expert in the field but, say, I live 1,000 miles from here, I might be comfortable going to my RV dealer to throw in a couple of lithium batteries and upgrade the system to whatever the basic setup is that’s possible. But if I want a serious install, it’s kind of like, do you want to go to McDonald’s to cater your wedding?
So, it makes a lot of sense to me to come up here and have this sort of experience where you can get this done. For serious RVers, there are always a lot of upgrades that we want to do. You could come up here and get a lifetime roof installed. You could get your jacks upgraded or something like that. There are several different upfitters in the area, and you could spend a good week or two up here, get a lot of work done, and get your rig to be that boondocking beast that you want it to be.
Scott: Yeah, I mean, we’ve had a number of customers who say, “Hey, I kind of know the quality that I’m getting from the factory—it’s good. But what I’m after is excellent.” So, they buy this rig, and they want us to do the electrical. They’re also having a new suspension put on, upgrading this, that, or the other thing, and trying to line all of those things up.
We’ve been known to reach out to other folks who specialize in different areas and say, “Hey, we’ve got a customer coming in on this date. Would you be able to work this in? Here’s their contact information.” Having everything in this area is really beneficial to our customers and to anyone looking for upgrades.
Jason: This is a specialty thing, right? This isn’t something that should be on every RV because that’s just a waste of money. Not even a large percentage of people are using a system to this level. This is for that power user that really wants to be off-grid, to save a lot of money by not going to campgrounds, perhaps. But this is a specialty service that you provide here, right?
Scott: Yeah, for sure. And that’s a good point. There are misconceptions about boondocking. People think, “Well, boondocking is for the people who get way out there where they can’t see anyone.” We absolutely love that crowd—we have a lot of those folks. But we also have a lot of people who are like, “You know what? I’m a snowbird. I’ve got a place in Florida, but I’m in Minnesota in the summer. I need to be able to run my stuff because I only like to do 200 to 300 miles a day. So, it’s a week-long trip to get down and a week-long trip to get back. I’d like to be able to run my AC, use my microwave, make a pot of coffee in the morning. Maybe I’m staying overnight at a Cracker Barrel or somewhere where I don’t have power.”
In all of those cases, we have a system that we can put in a rig that makes sense for that person. The hardcore boondockers—we love them. We get a lot of folks coming through here, and we put big power banks in their rigs. We love keeping up with those customers because they do some cool stuff.
We had a rig through here recently that went to, what I consider to be the end of the world—they went up the Dempster Highway. We’ve also had a number of folks say, “I’ve always wanted to go to Alaska. I just knew the limitations of getting there and getting back would be a challenge, but with your system, it was a breeze.” That crowd is a lot of fun to work with.
Jason: Yeah, I think a lot of people camp in different ways, and even the same people camp in different ways at different times of the year. It just depends on what you want to do and how long you want to keep your RV. If you’re going to trade it in two years, I probably wouldn’t recommend spending 20 grand upgrading your electrical system. But if you want to have something for a while, and you want something that’s going to give you real freedom to go wherever you want to go, this is going to be a great setup. I’m very excited about getting it out of here and putting it to work. Scott Herman, thanks so much for joining us.
Scott: Yeah, thank you, appreciate it.
Final Thoughts From Abby and Jason
Jason: Thanks so much again to Scott and the entire team at ABC Upfitters (for joining us on the RV Miles Podcast).
I can’t tell you all how much of a fantastic experience this is. It’s not just, “Hey, we’re going to install a system.” It’s, “We’re going to talk to you and figure out exactly what you need.” What kind of camper are you? Are you under trees a lot? Are you out in the desert a lot? They help you figure out how much to put in, where to put your money responsibly, and figure out a good system for you.
They do a phenomenal job. As somebody who has just enough experience with electrics to be dangerous, the quality of their install and the quality of the components that they’re using is just beyond compare.
Abby: Can I just give a shoutout? As someone who has no electrical experience and does not do anything like this for a living, the cleanliness and organizational environment in which their warehouse is structured and set up is phenomenal. It is so nice, clean, and organized. I feel like that speaks volumes to you as the consumer, as the RVer. When you come into that space, when you pull your rig in there, and you see how nice, clean, and organized it is—how they’ve got everything laid out and ready to show you what’s going to be installed—you just feel good about leaving your rig there.
What do they say? A nice, tidy space means a nice, tidy, organized mind, right? You know they’re going to be able to go in and do it properly. I really, really loved that. I would really like them to come and do that for this studio—because that is not what it looks like in here!
Jason: They can do more than just your solar and battery systems. They can add additional lighting if you want. They did some additional lighting for us—we’ll do a whole video that goes into everything—but they put a light over our tank handles so we can turn them on at night. Just the little things.
So, ABCUpfitters.com. If you’re interested, if you’re anywhere near within a day’s drive—or even more—heading to Elkhart and want to find a partner to do a solid upgrade to your solar and battery system, even if it’s already upgradeable from the factory, they are above and beyond compare. Check them out: ABCUpfitters.com.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading (or listening) to the RV Miles podcast! We also want to give a huge thank you to Abby and Jason for hosting us and for the opportunity to speak on their channel!
If you have any questions about the podcast, please contact us! You can listen to the full podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fN1dGrqpbY
You May Also Enjoy:
- Running an Air Conditioner for RV Off-Grid
- Requirements for Off-Grid Camping and How to Be Prepared
- The Best Way to Make Coffee Off-Grid
- Traveling in a Pet Friendly RV
About ABC Upfitters:
ABC Upfitters provides premium, customer-focused, upfitting services to RV clientele who are looking for the ultimate off-grid experience. The close-knit company originated from the rising demand for aftermarket Li-Ion battery upgrades for recreational vehicles. By using Mastervolt components, ABC can meet this need and provide an unmatched level of integration and quality for their customers. Contact one of the ABC team members today to learn about their services!
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