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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I had always intended to have a central electrical system but couldn't come up with a satisfactory plan. The van has house power but it was always wired up in a temporary fashion.
You can see from this photo taken while repairing the fuel pump that I had a nice rats nest of wires going to the temporary fuse panel.
It was while doing that repair I had one of my flashes of inspiration and suddenly knew how everything would fit together.
Here are some of the main elements of the electrical system. On the left is the inverter. The yellow box is the battery charger and the white one is the solar controller.
Along with these I'll need a main breaker and fuse panel. So where to mount everything? I decide to make an acrylic breaker panel.
It's constructed it to be mounted on the front of the battery rack. It will be bolted to the frame and screwed to the floor.
Start to populate the panel. This is the main breaker/on-off switch. Next to it is a shunt resister that's used to measure current flow to and from the battery bank.
Next add the first of two fuse holders on the front of the panel and on the back side a terminal strip for grounds.
That's a good start to the panel but I had to order more parts. Now what about the other components. Why not stack them?
Get some 1/8" thick flat steel and take measurements.
Then start cutting and bending.
Looks about right.
Repeat.
Create mounting holes for each box.
Clean them up then paint.
Check how they will fit together.
See how it works in the van.
Screw them into place.
continued.
You can see from this photo taken while repairing the fuel pump that I had a nice rats nest of wires going to the temporary fuse panel.
It was while doing that repair I had one of my flashes of inspiration and suddenly knew how everything would fit together.
Here are some of the main elements of the electrical system. On the left is the inverter. The yellow box is the battery charger and the white one is the solar controller.
Along with these I'll need a main breaker and fuse panel. So where to mount everything? I decide to make an acrylic breaker panel.
It's constructed it to be mounted on the front of the battery rack. It will be bolted to the frame and screwed to the floor.
Start to populate the panel. This is the main breaker/on-off switch. Next to it is a shunt resister that's used to measure current flow to and from the battery bank.
Next add the first of two fuse holders on the front of the panel and on the back side a terminal strip for grounds.
That's a good start to the panel but I had to order more parts. Now what about the other components. Why not stack them?
Get some 1/8" thick flat steel and take measurements.
Then start cutting and bending.
Looks about right.
Repeat.
Create mounting holes for each box.
Clean them up then paint.
Check how they will fit together.
See how it works in the van.
Screw them into place.
continued.
