In spite of starting at 4:30 am every day, renowned saddle maker Cary Schwarz has, until now, found it hard to take a break. Order books are full for a couple of years ahead and the work just keeps coming.
He and his wife live in the mountains in Salmon, Idaho, U.S., and for years they’ve struggled to make time for an off-grid cabin they own, three hours drive away, or to visit family and friends.
My wife and I had been discussing spending more time at this ranch property that she grew up on, and so I told her, well, honey, we got a few bills to pay, so we need to figure out how I’m going to keep some workflow.
That all changed when they came up with a really practical solution that provided two solutions in one. They fitted out an ex toy-hauler as a mobile workshop and provided it with enough go-anywhere solar energy to power the lights, run his craft machinery …and use it as a plug in power plant for their mountain cabin.
His wife’s family’s ranch home is a ‘dry’ cabin – no water, no electricity – but they always wanted to get power into it to install a little refrigerator and have lights. So one thing kind of led to another, and I’ve got a mobile saddle shop with a power outlet so the cabin can just plug in to my mobile power system. And now the whole idea is we can maybe head south for a couple of months in the wintertime.
I can see the possibility of having an order from someone on a ranch in Montana, Wyoming or Nevada or California, and loading up the workshop – going to that ranch and building their saddle parked in ‘the orchard over yonder’. They get to check in on progress – which is a big part of what I do with my customers now. How many people – even accomplished horsemen – have seen a saddle made?
The power system was designed and built by Jason Pilkerton and the team at Rocky Mountain Electric & Data.
Cary’s system includes:
- MultiPlus II Inverter/Charger
- SmartSolar MPPT 150/35 solar charge controller
- Ekrano GX data communication device provides system harmonisation and a touch screen UI allows Cary to check up on his power status.
- Lynx Distributor 1000
- Orion XS 12/12 – 50 to allow Carry to charge the system’s batteries from his truck alternator while driving.
- 100W solar panel
- 2 x Pylontech RT 12V batteries which share temperature and voltage data with the rest of the Victron system
Jason’s Victron Energy distributor is Intelligent Controls where Aaron Hanson and the team have really enjoyed being a part of Cary’s build. Aaron says: No saddle is the same, and neither is every power system.
In a world of all-in-ones where everything feels ‘vanilla’—made for everyone and therefore no one—it’s fun to design a power system for someone like Cary that perfectly fits the need and is something he can ride a long, long way. Rather than always looking to cut corners or trying to fit into a mold, we love that Victron cares a lot about backwards compatibility and making serviceable components. People always want to use more power down the line, and with Victron, there’s no throwing things away the second there’s a problem, or you decide you’d like to add capacity or add a new charging source.
Cary’s mobile power system runs large LED light panels and a leather stitching machine in the workshop and has been configured to connect to a generator. It also supplies power to their off-grid ranch cabin, allowing them to power lights and a small refrigerator.
This gave us a tremendous amount of mobility and versatility in our lifestyle, not only in the shop, but living out there at the ranch. It’s got a little pigtail on the outside of the building and you just plug in, so you’ve got lights and a little refrigerator in there and stuff.
And we’ve also got a generator for backup that can be loaded into the trailer so on a cloudy day when we might need a little extra boost, then we fire up the generator and it charges the batteries. And the truck alternator as you’re going down the road – it’s charging the batteries, too.
The workshop is bathed in light for my 65-year-old eyes to be able to do some tedious work. Jason says, you can throw another battery onto the set up, and another panel if you need to. So we could increase capacity by half again by adding another battery …and frankly, that’s probably what we’ll do.
It’s so fascinating because you go onto the power screen and realize, wow, there’s a lot of data on here that’s really not only interesting, but it’s useful. And on a partially cloudy day, what is it you’re doing? What is this system doing for us? And going into the evening, how much battery do I need in order to get the Starlink and the little refrigerator through the night?
I’ve come to realize that even on a cloudy day, it will generate a surprising amount of power. I just thought if the sun wasn’t visible, we’re done …so that was a pleasant surprise for me.
Getting back to that whole thing, if you want a professional job on an important project, you hire a professional like Jason – all I learned in high school electronics class was how to electrocute my friend. Very happy with the decision to go with solar.
Now that he’s experienced the freedom of his new workstation, Cary is interested in taking his workshop to a job site (like a customer’s ranch property) or to drive south with his wife and catch a break from Idaho’s long winter months.
This year, when Cary’s daughter, who lives in Southern Idaho, had a baby, Cary and his wife drove the mobile saddle shop down to her property for 5 weeks, so his wife was able to help out with the baby while Cary finished work on a saddle.
You can meet the man and take a look around his mobile workshop here:
Forty five years in and Cary is still fascinated by his craft …and finding new places to do it.
