Step one. Bought the van.

I think Hal has you under its spell!

Bill I think you might be on to something. Last thing I clearly remember was Hal saying "Look deep into my EYE".



Electrical System continued

The parts I ordered came in. Here is the second fuse holder installed on the breaker panel.


This is a 50 amp circuit breaker for the output of the solar controller. Since the automotive style fuses I'm using have an upper limit of 30 amps this separate breaker was needed.


The breaker panel installed. Ignore the rats nest of wires on the right.Haven't attached them yet.


Close up of the panel. At the top a 1/0 gauge wire runs from the positive battery terminal to the shunt resistor. On the load side of the 150 amp circuit breaker is another 1/0 gauge wire that runs to the positive terminal on the inverter. This heavy duty wire gauge is what was recommended in the inverter manual. It will be by far the biggest electrical draw on the house batteries.


Also attached to the load side of the main breaker are wires to the two fuse holders and the output from the solar controller. The battery separator isn't yet wired up.

This is the view looking down on the back of the battery charger (top) and the inverter under it. You can see the other end of the 1/0 gauge wire (red) that runs to the main breaker. Next to it is a black 1/0 gauge wire that runs to the negative terminal on the house batteries. I've wired the battery charger output to the inverter terminals with a inline 20 amp fuse. Since the inverter and battery charger shouldn't be in service at the same time I thought it was OK for them to share terminals.


I don't much like how close the opposing terminals are on the back of the inverter so after taking the picture I completely covered the positive terminal with electrical tape.

Inverter powered up.


This is the main grounding bolt. It's a copper bolt with a copper washer and you can see I removed the paint below the washer so to get a good contact with the van body. The black wire is a 4 gauge that runs to a negative terminal on the house battery.


Underneath the van this bolt is attached to a copper grounding strap that runs to the van frame.




The red wire on the grounding bolt runs to this terminal strip on the back of the breaker panel. I trimmed a copper sheet to make common connections across one side of this terminal strip. This is my grounding terminal block.


The 1/0 gauge wires are very stiff. I've set up the breaker panel so that after unbolting the two 1/0 gauge wires it can be freed up.


So it's easier to work on.




Here I've started sorting and hooking up the rats nest.


Lesson learned the hard way. Label each wire. Now just have to remember to not lose the notebook I've written them in.


On to the shore power. I'd previously installed an outside plug that ran to a temporary inside socket. Now for something a little more permanent.


GFI output.


Next up the van's main 110 AC distribution panel. You can see it at the bottom of this picture.


Yeah, It's a power strip. I did spend extra to get a name brand. It's a Tripp Lite with a 15 amp breaker and it comes with a $1000 equipment replacement guarantee. Still made in China though.

Here's how my AC power is set up. The AC outlets in the van are wired to plugs. They will all be plugged into this power strip. When I'm camping and away from shore power, which is most of the time, the power strip is plugged into the inverter which provides my 110 AC.


If I'm using shore power then I just unplug the power strip from the inverter and plug it into the GFI output that's wired to the outside. Very simple.


Notice that the second GFI outlet is taken up by the plug for the battery charger. This way the battery charger is only energized when the van is hooked to shore power.

As usual I had to have the supervisor sign off on my work before I could quit for the day.


Next up. Solar Panels.