Step one. Bought the van.
Hello Everybody, First post. I camp a lot in tents but after spending three days straight in a tent in the rain at Dolly Sods I swore I'd make a change. Here it is. Bought it Wednesday. Dro...
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House battery frame and venting, Post 4
With the frame for the batteries done, cut a couple rectangles from a block of nylon.
Drill a hole in the nylon blocks and use them as hold downs for the batteries. I used nylon since it is nonconducting.
Upgrade the battery caps to Water Miser Vent Caps. $3.77 each. The caps are supposed to reduce the frequency of adding water to the cells along with some other features. One advantage is they have a flip top so don't have to worry about taking the caps on and off to check fluid levels.
Install the batteries and sofa-bed then take the van out for a late fall camping trip.
The wiring in this photo is of a temporary nature. I had the inverter and furnace running off the batteries without any charging wiring hooked up. Since I wasn't charging the batteries I didn't have to worry about venting.
The advantage of four batteries is that they still read 12+ volts at the end of the weekend without charging.
Back at the garage workshop build a wooden safety block for the top of the empty frame.
With those two bolts extending upward from the battery frame it would be just like me to stumble while working in the van and impale myself on them. The wooden top should prevent that. The impaling not the stumbling.
Next up build a plexiglass lid for the top of the batteries.
I built this using the same methods as when I made the lid for the previous wooden battery box.
The lid will collect for venting the hydrogen gas produced when the batteries are charging.
continued-
With the frame for the batteries done, cut a couple rectangles from a block of nylon.
Drill a hole in the nylon blocks and use them as hold downs for the batteries. I used nylon since it is nonconducting.
Upgrade the battery caps to Water Miser Vent Caps. $3.77 each. The caps are supposed to reduce the frequency of adding water to the cells along with some other features. One advantage is they have a flip top so don't have to worry about taking the caps on and off to check fluid levels.
Install the batteries and sofa-bed then take the van out for a late fall camping trip.
The wiring in this photo is of a temporary nature. I had the inverter and furnace running off the batteries without any charging wiring hooked up. Since I wasn't charging the batteries I didn't have to worry about venting.
The advantage of four batteries is that they still read 12+ volts at the end of the weekend without charging.
Back at the garage workshop build a wooden safety block for the top of the empty frame.
With those two bolts extending upward from the battery frame it would be just like me to stumble while working in the van and impale myself on them. The wooden top should prevent that. The impaling not the stumbling.
Next up build a plexiglass lid for the top of the batteries.
I built this using the same methods as when I made the lid for the previous wooden battery box.
The lid will collect for venting the hydrogen gas produced when the batteries are charging.
continued-
