Tag: electrical
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Victron 12V 20A Battery Charger
Could there be a duller bit of kit in the van? Possibly so, but this one certainly scores badly on the dullness to price ratio. It simply plugs into mains power – either an extension cable run from the house, or a campsite hookup cable, and then charges the leisure batteries. This one has a…
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Mobile Mains Power Cable (Campsite Plug to 3-Pin Sockets)
Our overall philosophy about living in the van is that we want freedom; we want to be able to spend time in wild or remote places; we don’t want to be limited to visiting tourist destinations or places that cater to motorhomes and caravans. So we have big solar panels for electricity, and a large refillable…
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1000W Pure Sine Wave AC Power Inverter
Almost everything in the van runs off 12V DC power, or can be plugged into a 5V USB port, which itself is connected to the 12V DC supply. However, some things need mains AC power. Some of those things will for the foreseeable future (a domestic vacuum cleaner, a charger for the cordless drill batteries,…
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2012-10-26: Make your mind up time
In this build diary, we’re trying to track our progress in converting the van. But sometimes progress is incomplete. And today, we have a pile of incomplete jobs in the van, so I’m just going to write about one of those: the 12V distribution box.
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Vega LED ceiling lights
We’ve got 4 of these mounted along the centreline of the roof, each controlled with its own switch (as well as a master switch for the whole ceiling light circuit). They’re wired up, but hanging loose at the moment, as we don’t have the roof cladding in, but they look simple enough to fit, just…
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Lumo LED spotlights
We’re mounting 4 of these gooseneck 12V LED lamps on the walls of the van, to provide directed task light. I’m not 100% sure about the quality. One of them has a slightly wobbly plate around the LED, that I can’t figure out how to tighten up. But apart from that, them seem solid. £19…
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2017-08-06: Bench bed and cladding test
We’ve been busy on various jobs since I last wrote, mostly trying to get some basic components built in prototype form for we can take the van on a short trip and test some things out. Almost every design/build problem in the van is a chicken and egg problem. And we tie ourselves in knots…
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Crimping tool
These are used to crimp terminals onto wires for the 12V electrical system. The top tool with the yellow handles is the cheap version we bought first. It can be used to cut wire, strip insulation, and crimp terminals – but it does a bad job of all these tasks. So after struggling with this…
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2017-07-02: Starting the electrical install
This weekend, we started running cables and mounting components so we can get the electrical systems hooked up. We already have the solar panels on the roof, and the battery fitted under the passenger seat. We also have a fair amount of conduit routed through the side panels of the van so we can run…
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2017-06-21: Shopping
This shouldn’t warrant an entry in the build diary, but we’ve spent so long researching equipment to fit out the van that I need to get it off my chest. We’ve been focusing on the electrical systems, so we can get all these installed before we do any more insulation, or start on cladding or…
Andrew Sleigh 