After having the van for a few months I have at last started the mods. Work and house renovations were in the way and the pile of "caravan stuff" in the lounge room grew to such a proportion I had to start installing them to reclaim part of the room back.
First up was the wardrobe shelves because my boardies, T-shirts and tracky dacks do not need hanging space. The Rubbermaid Slide and Stacks idea is @Lara's I believe, so thank you.
We wanted to set up the van for a lot of free camping so the electrical situation needed attention. The van is a new 2013 model sitting in Caravanland's yard( as mentioned in an earlier post I was looking at bathroom tiles and fittings and bought a van without knowing about this forum, "oops" )with no battery installed, just the wiring. I had trawled all over this forum since copying pics and a lot of "how to" from peoples experiences to come up with what I believe suits my family's requirements. I came up with the following:
130W Fixed solar panel (no reg, solar diodes to drop voltage below 22V on order)on the roof, not installed yet due to Perth's rain(hard to believe) last week, wiring connected to Ctek.
220W Folding solar panel to be connected to the Red anderson plug (@jvp and @ROnEM ideas) fitted to the side of the van when the regulator is bypassed. I am leaving the reg on the panel and fitting it with a blue anderson plug as eventually I will install another battery in the back of the Pathfinder to power the future fridge so I want to be able to use the fold up panel when I do not have the van attached.
2500W Inverter to be wired to three coloured GPO's for ease of identification for the family to understand which GPO's can and can not be used when free camping. GPO's not installed yet, ran out of time.
Two 120AH AGM batteries. I had to modify the large box that covered the Setec to fit them in. A lot of wasted space and I followed the advice from @daznmel, not very enjoyable upside down with a torch and a drill in the small vent cover space. Glad I was home alone as the odd bit of colorful language was expressed. The cat learnt some new words and was probably wondering who I was talking to.
A Cetek 250S Dual
A Cetek Smartpass, hoping this could back charge the future second battery in the Pathy and to give a greater charge rate to the house batteries when required. A lot of the wiring ideas I 'borrowed' from @ROnEM so thank you for posting your wiring diagrams.
I can not understand what Jayco were thinking bringing in the water from outside into the electrical area and then out again to the sink next to it. I have fitted the inverter and Cteks onto pieces of 25x18 wood to raise them off the floor in case of a water leak. Future mod is to put some kind of splash guard between pipe fittings and the inverter and electrical items and a small drain hole in the area so at least it would leak into the van and I would notice it if I did had a leak. Hose clamps and John Guest fittings lock rings to go onto any fitting that does not have these fitted to be done.
An LCD water tank gauge and sendor probe for two tanks, only one installed at this stage.
A BM-1 battery monitor, love this gadget
A 6B&S twin core cable from the anderson plug on the Pathy to the Ctek in the van.
Unfortunately as my van was purchased from the yard it has the standard payload limit of 300kgs and I have used a portion of that with the mods. I am in the preliminary stages of investigating what I have to do to increase the payload limit. Possibly higher rated axle, brakes, tyres and shocks but that is in the future as we are not planning any extended trips away for a while.
Hopefully I have acknowledged all the people whose ideas I blatantly stole and apologies to any one else I have not mentioned.
Cheers
Larry
First up was the wardrobe shelves because my boardies, T-shirts and tracky dacks do not need hanging space. The Rubbermaid Slide and Stacks idea is @Lara's I believe, so thank you.
We wanted to set up the van for a lot of free camping so the electrical situation needed attention. The van is a new 2013 model sitting in Caravanland's yard( as mentioned in an earlier post I was looking at bathroom tiles and fittings and bought a van without knowing about this forum, "oops" )with no battery installed, just the wiring. I had trawled all over this forum since copying pics and a lot of "how to" from peoples experiences to come up with what I believe suits my family's requirements. I came up with the following:
130W Fixed solar panel (no reg, solar diodes to drop voltage below 22V on order)on the roof, not installed yet due to Perth's rain(hard to believe) last week, wiring connected to Ctek.
220W Folding solar panel to be connected to the Red anderson plug (@jvp and @ROnEM ideas) fitted to the side of the van when the regulator is bypassed. I am leaving the reg on the panel and fitting it with a blue anderson plug as eventually I will install another battery in the back of the Pathfinder to power the future fridge so I want to be able to use the fold up panel when I do not have the van attached.
2500W Inverter to be wired to three coloured GPO's for ease of identification for the family to understand which GPO's can and can not be used when free camping. GPO's not installed yet, ran out of time.
Two 120AH AGM batteries. I had to modify the large box that covered the Setec to fit them in. A lot of wasted space and I followed the advice from @daznmel, not very enjoyable upside down with a torch and a drill in the small vent cover space. Glad I was home alone as the odd bit of colorful language was expressed. The cat learnt some new words and was probably wondering who I was talking to.
A Cetek 250S Dual
A Cetek Smartpass, hoping this could back charge the future second battery in the Pathy and to give a greater charge rate to the house batteries when required. A lot of the wiring ideas I 'borrowed' from @ROnEM so thank you for posting your wiring diagrams.
I can not understand what Jayco were thinking bringing in the water from outside into the electrical area and then out again to the sink next to it. I have fitted the inverter and Cteks onto pieces of 25x18 wood to raise them off the floor in case of a water leak. Future mod is to put some kind of splash guard between pipe fittings and the inverter and electrical items and a small drain hole in the area so at least it would leak into the van and I would notice it if I did had a leak. Hose clamps and John Guest fittings lock rings to go onto any fitting that does not have these fitted to be done.
An LCD water tank gauge and sendor probe for two tanks, only one installed at this stage.
A BM-1 battery monitor, love this gadget
A 6B&S twin core cable from the anderson plug on the Pathy to the Ctek in the van.
Unfortunately as my van was purchased from the yard it has the standard payload limit of 300kgs and I have used a portion of that with the mods. I am in the preliminary stages of investigating what I have to do to increase the payload limit. Possibly higher rated axle, brakes, tyres and shocks but that is in the future as we are not planning any extended trips away for a while.
Hopefully I have acknowledged all the people whose ideas I blatantly stole and apologies to any one else I have not mentioned.
Cheers
Larry
