16' Series New member New(used) Expanda

[Fraserdal]

Hey all

Just wanted to say G'day and ask a few questions as we have just purchased a new(for us)used 16-49-1OB Cafe Dinnette van. We have yet to use it as we only picked it up Saturday just gone.
Judging by all that I have read so far, I am bound to get lots of excellent advise to help us on our way.

When we picked up our van, I asked the salemen about running an Anderson plug for aux power and battery charging. I was told that only the fridge runs on direct 12V power from the car via Anderson. However, I do have a hot wire(12V+) running through the 7pin trailer plug which I noticed ran the internal/exteral lights. I cannot confirm if the fridge was working. Am I better to switch to the anderson for higher amp rating and can this provide power through the SETEC aux in to run all of the 12V gear fridge included? There is currently no battery in the van and no other power source bar the hot wire was hooked up.

I also would like some thoughts on hot water systems. I can currently get a 15amp 240v 6LPM hot water system through Bunnings but not sure how this would handle pump pressure etc in a van. Wouldn't think it would be over pressured but would there be enough pressure? I'm not sure about spending heaps on a gas/electric unit I can get fitted at my Jayco dealer.

 

[expanda]

Hey all

Just wanted to say G'day and ask a few questions as we have just purchased a new(for us)used 16-49-1OB Cafe Dinnette van. We have yet to use it as we only picked it up Saturday just gone.
Judging by all that I have read so far, I am bound to get lots of excellent advise to help us on our way.

When we picked up our van, I asked the salemen about running an Anderson plug for aux power and battery charging. I was told that only the fridge runs on direct 12V power from the car via Anderson. However, I do have a hot wire(12V+) running through the 7pin trailer plug which I noticed ran the internal/exteral lights. I cannot confirm if the fridge was working. Am I better to switch to the anderson for higher amp rating and can this provide power through the SETEC aux in to run all of the 12V gear fridge included? There is currently no battery in the van and no other power source bar the hot wire was hooked up.

I also would like some thoughts on hot water systems. I can currently get a 15amp 240v 6LPM hot water system through Bunnings but not sure how this would handle pump pressure etc in a van. Wouldn't think it would be over pressured but would there be enough pressure? I'm not sure about spending heaps on a gas/electric unit I can get fitted at my Jayco dealer.

In terms of the plug type there is many schools of though on wether anderson or straight hotwire to the plug is better.

In my personal experience and opion is the trailer plug is fine for both charging the battery / electrics and the fridge but I would opt for a 12 pin plug as it has the ability to run the fridge wires in a thicker gauge.

In general if there was wiring for the fridge then it would have come with a 12 pin plug as Jayco usually gives you a 7 pin for 1 set of electrics and 12 pin for two sets of electrics.

I did a bit of a write up on how I did mine here -

http://www.expandasdownunder.com/th...2-volt-fridge-hotwire-12-volt-hotwire-diy.30/

But it sounds like you will need to run a wire from the fridge to the trailer plug so its really a decision as to wether you go anderson or not and increase your plug to a 12 pin.

Both in my experience are equal in there ability but again there is differeing opions on this !

In terms of the hot water I am not sure on the bunnings route but what are you trying to do with it? Are you wanting to plumb it into your existing lines and have hot water at the sink or do you want it just for external showers etc?

Let us know how you get along!

 

[Burnsy]

G'day Fraserdal and congrats on your purchase!

I used to have that model and only ran the 7 pin for fridge and setec, however later i ran anderson for battery charge only but the fridge (90L) seemed to be fine. Maybe for a bigger fridge the 12 pin may be the go as expanda said, to allow for bigger gauge wire but i'd just see how you go.
If your not sure about what voltage your getting or any at all, you can check the voltage at the fridge with car plugged in and running.

Cheers.

 

[chartrock]

Welcome Fraserdal and family, hope you enjoy the new van. I use 2 anderson plugs on my van, one for the fridge and the other for charging the battery. If you don't have a battery then obviously you don't need the second one but just fitting an anderson plug to upgrade the fridge wiring would be a much simpler (and cheaper) job than fitting a 12 pin plug and socket. Just my opinion.

I have factory fitted HWS with shower so I can't offer any advice on Bunnings HWS but I'm sure one of our knowledgable members will come to your assistance.

 

[Antman]

Hey mate and Welcome to the forum.
I run a 7 pin with an anderson plug. Im not to sure what guage the guys are using on their 12pin plug but my wires on the anderson plug are heavy. Enough to charge my battery and run my fridge. I also use the anderson plug on the car to run other items at the back of the car rather than directly off the batter at the front. Specifically a 12 volt pump to re-inflate my tyres after dropping for dirt roads. Its nice to get these items to the back of the car.
I will find out what guage my wires are and let you know.
Cheers
Ants

 

[Fraserdal]

Hey all

Thanks muchly for the great replies. Am taking it all in as, though not qualified, work for a Toyota dealership managing spare parts in the pre-delivery department, so all of what you are saying makes sense. I get along well with the auto elecy as well so makes for cheap work. When we bought our new vehicle in December, I had a 50amp Anderson fitted for future van purchase as well as the hot wire fitted to the 7 pin small round. My thoughts, at the moment, are to utilise the anderson as it is powered from a D27F yellow top Optima battery seperate of the main vehicle battery. This is charged via a Redarc BCDC charger which is only active via igniton circuit so no worries of draining the start battery. I will be fitting a battery into the panda as everything is there just think previous owner kept for a new van. If I make sense of all this, if I provide power via the anderson plug, then all lighting and the fridge will be powered as I don't have the 12 pin plug. I want to keep the standard SETEK operational to keep things simple for me.

As to the BUNNINGS $99 hot water system, I hope to utilise this to provide kitchen hot water as well as external shower hot water. I assume that this can be plumbed in. Both the sink tap and external shower taps have cold water to both sides (HOT/COLD) of them so would assume that just need to run a line from heater to both hot taps. I'm more worried that there will be sufficient pressure through the system to heat sufficiently. The heater model is a Gleamous DSK-45EP and is supposed to supply 6L/min up to 55deg. These are designed to run on mains pressure but the pressure form the van pump is pretty good.

I am also chasing info / recommendations for a good AGM type deep cell to put int he van. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks all.

 

[Burnsy]

Hi mate,
Sounds like a good set up for your dual battery. I'm pretty sure the water pumps are 10.6L/min so should not be a drama there. I bought my 100amp gel from battery world, can't remember the brand but it was blue and cost around $300. Enjoy mate, and don't forget the pics

Cheers.

 

[Fraserdal]

Hi mate,
Sounds like a good set up for your dual battery. I'm pretty sure the water pumps are 10.6L/min so should not be a drama there. I bought my 100amp gel from battery world, can't remember the brand but it was blue and cost around $300. Enjoy mate, and don't forget the pics

Cheers.

Thanks Burnsy

Will def post some pictures as soon as I can. I will look at Battery World on the net to see what they have.I have some contacts with them anyway through work which I should've remembered but didn't. Pretty happy with the way everything is set up just a few little mods to do.

Cheers
Fraserdal

 

[Fraserdal]

In terms of the plug type there is many schools of though on wether anderson or straight hotwire to the plug is better.

In my personal experience and opion is the trailer plug is fine for both charging the battery / electrics and the fridge but I would opt for a 12 pin plug as it has the ability to run the fridge wires in a thicker gauge.

In general if there was wiring for the fridge then it would have come with a 12 pin plug as Jayco usually gives you a 7 pin for 1 set of electrics and 12 pin for two sets of electrics.

I did a bit of a write up on how I did mine here -

http://www.expandasdownunder.com/th...2-volt-fridge-hotwire-12-volt-hotwire-diy.30/

But it sounds like you will need to run a wire from the fridge to the trailer plug so its really a decision as to wether you go anderson or not and increase your plug to a 12 pin.

Both in my experience are equal in there ability but again there is differeing opions on this !

In terms of the hot water I am not sure on the bunnings route but what are you trying to do with it? Are you wanting to plumb it into your existing lines and have hot water at the sink or do you want it just for external showers etc?

Let us know how you get along!

Thanks Expanda

Will let you know how we travel. Looks like I might go for a Duetto system for simplicity and the fact it is 12V/240V for the hot water. Because I haven't got the 12 pin plug will assume fridge is running with everything else 12V. Will further investigate an post my findings.

Fraserdal

 

[Fraserdal]

G'day Fraserdal and congrats on your purchase!

I used to have that model and only ran the 7 pin for fridge and setec, however later i ran anderson for battery charge only but the fridge (90L) seemed to be fine. Maybe for a bigger fridge the 12 pin may be the go as expanda said, to allow for bigger gauge wire but i'd just see how you go.
If your not sure about what voltage your getting or any at all, you can check the voltage at the fridge with car plugged in and running.

Cheers.

Thanks Burnsy

Will keep you posted on my findings/modifications.

Fraserdal

 

[Xpandafan]

A belated welcome, Fraserdal. Enjoy you new Expanda.
I just love the Suburban HWS in my van. Wouldn't be without it.

 

[BUSH PALACE]

A late welcome guys ENJOY

 

[Fraserdal]

So..have fitted 50A Anderson plug to van wiring it to AUX IN on SETEC. Supplies power to Setec for running lights etc. and have split Anderson line off via a 20A circuit breaker to fridge supply. Now have 12V fridge power and 12 SETEC power from same line. Anderson plug on vehicle has been run from aux Optima yellow top battery being charged via REDARC BCDC1225 battery charger. Don't think I'm going to have any power issues now. By the way, added an Ultimate 100ah battery to the existing battery box as previous owner had taken their battery with them. Took a little time to charge up but seems fine now so really should have no lack of power options. Now to the HWS issue, more investigation needed.

 

[Fraserdal]

Well... our first use on the easter weekend all be it parked up in the back yard of our friends place 2 hours south of Perth. Everything went fine, towed great after fitting airbags to the back of the Prado and a whole lot more room than the old 83 jayco Dove. excellent, looking forward to more weekends away now. Here's a pic of the rig.

 

[Burnsy]

Nice rig mate, those caravaning weekends are very addictive!

 

[Fraserdal]

Nice rig mate, those caravaning weekends are very addictive!

Cheers Burnsy. Rig suits us really well and towed excellent. Helps working for a Toyota dealer to get all the goodies at good prices. Will post some more pics when I gat a chance to take them.

 

[Xpandafan]

Looks very nice, mate. Now you just need to work on getting that smug 'Expanda Owner'look off your face.

 

[Fraserdal]

Looks very nice, mate. Now you just need to work on getting that smug 'Expanda Owner'look off your face.

You obviously know what that's like. Bigger smile than a Cheshire Cat!

 

[Moto Moto]

Looks like a great combo, welcome to the forum

 

[Fraserdal]

Looks like a great combo, welcome to the forum

Thanks Moto Moto.

Finding lots of great help on here.