Building the Escape Pod
If the battery is the heart of the van, then the electrical cables are its circulatory system. They take power from the battery to where it’s needed, either at 12 volts or via the inverter, which converts 12 volts DC to 120 volts AC to run regular household appliances. Continue reading “Running electrical cables”
Without the battery, the van won’t have light, heat, cooking facilities, a water pump, or any of the other things that turn it into a useful place to hang out.
We chose to use a Lithium Ferric Phosphate (LiFePO4) battery. Lithium batteries can take a charge much faster than lead-acid batteries. They also don’t mind being left in a state of partial discharge, and they can be discharged to around 20% capacity without impacting their service life. Continue reading “The battery is the heart of the van”
Your solar panel doesn’t produce a steady voltage or current, so it’s not a good idea to hook it straight to your devices or battery. Our panels, for instance, can produce 38 volts or more. That would fry any regular 12v equipment.
Luckily, solar controllers are designed to take the varying voltage and current and turn it into a steady output. There are two main types of controller – MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) and PWM (Pulse Width Modulating). Victron has a nice technical document explaining the differences between MPPT and PWM (PDF). It boils down to this: MPPT technology will get more power out of your panels, and is useful with more types of panel, but costs a little bit more up front.
Continue reading “Turning sunlight into power – a solar controller”
It might look like a mess, but the cardboard boxes in the picture above helped me to work out the design of the battery box and electrical area in the back of the van.
I cut cardboard boxes to size for each of the main components, and also traced the shape of the smaller components like switches, gauges and connectors. Then, I tried different placements in the van. Continue reading “Will it fit? Will it work? Cardboard boxes to the rescue!”
Most solar panels are designed to sit on the roof of a house, not to be driving down the road at 70 miles per hour. The panels themselves can take much higher wind speeds, but it’s all in how you mount them to the roof.
Continue reading “Mounting solar panels to the roof of a van”
Monocrystalline, Polycrystalline, flexible, rigid, wattages, voltages – there are a lot of variables when you are choosing a solar array.
Continue reading “What to look for in solar panels for a van”
Solar is a great way to recharge a battery and keep equipment like fridges and fans running during the day.
There are many options for solar panels – different sizes, voltages, and types. You can get flexible panels that stick to any surface, or rigid ones mounted in aluminum frames designed for house roofs.
Along with the panels, you also need a controller. That takes the energy from the panels and converts it to a steady 12 volts to power equipment and charge a battery.
The Crew van comes with a three person passenger bench seat behind the driver and co-driver seats. We want to use that room for a living area, so we have to move the seat back.
Luckily, the 2015 crew vans come with captive nuts under the floor in the positions the seats would take in a passenger van. It’s weird — Mercedes puts the nuts in place, but then puts a solid metal floor right over them. Continue reading “Moving the bench seat”
We’re using several layers of insulation on the van walls and floor. Different products have different insulating properties – either heat or sound insulation – and so we need to use a bit of a sandwich.
The main heat insulation is Thinsulate – pretty much the same stuff as in gloves and coats, but 1-1/2″ thick and specially designed for use in vehicles. It stops noise as well as heat loss. We got this through Hein, another person who has converted a Sprinter van. He couldn’t find a supplier who would sell to him, so he became a supplier and now he sells it to other DIY-ers! He also sells it on Amazon. Continue reading “Insulating – beating the heat and noise”
Because the van was late arriving (or rather, our van got sold to someone else and the dealer lied to us about it), the garage started filling up with parts we’d ordered.
It’s really frustrating to have a ton of things to put in the van and no time to work on it.
The Fedex and UPS drivers want to know what our special project is. We really got good value from our Amazon Prime membership this year!